The characteristics of mathematical reasoning and proof test on indonesian high school students

Abstract

Both reasoning and proof ability have been considered as two sides of the coin on which cannot be separated. The reasoning ability is developed by solving proof tasks on which the students’ abilities in argumentation and justification are needed. However, the test items provided by the teachers tend to be routine problems by which the students’ reasoning ability is limited. This study aims to test the instrument of mathematical reasoning and proof evaluation at the high school level. The instrument had been carried out on 61 high school students in East Java. QUEST was used for analyzing the students’ answers. The result provides a value of INFIT MNSQ as 1,21 (around 1) and standard deviation 0,02 (around 0,0), which imply that the whole test fit with the PCM 1 PL model. The degree of difficulties of the developed high school reasoning and proof assessment instrument varies between −2.0 and +2,0, which imply that the instrument is categorized as good because the required criteria have been satisfied.