The ability of prospective teachers to pose contextual word problem about fractions addition

Abstract

The low understanding of students on fractional topic has hampered the development of mathematics learning in Indonesia. This study was conducted to investigate in depth the ability of prospective teachers in developing the problem. Thirty four mathematics prospective teachers were asked to ask about contextual word problem whose solution could be obtained from counting 54 and 23. Data consists of a verbal protocol together with written notes made by the subjects. Qualitative analysis of the obtained data is focused on identifying the resulting problem structure and the type of context commonly used. The results showed that the most widely used contexts in the proposed story problem were the distribution of the cake, the weight of the object, the lots of the object, and the length of measurement. The structure of contextual problem produced by mathematicis prospective teacher has weaknesses in two components, namely: 1) in proposing appropriate contexts; and 2) in providing sufficient information so that the solution of the proposed problem can be obtained by applying the arithmetic concept of 54 plus 23, These results suggest new findings about prospective teacher difficulties in conceptualizing fractions.