Mentoring model based on the levelling of probabilistic thinking to develop problem solving ability

Abstract

This study aims to describe the probabilistic thinking level of mathematics education students in the topics of sample space, event, and the probability of the event. Many studies have produced different levels of probabilistic thinking, allowing for another new leveling structure of the probabilistic thinking.This study used a qualitative descriptive method involving 112 mathematics education students of Universitas Ahmad Dahlan who took elementary statistics subject in the second semester of 2017/2018 academic year as its subjects. The data analysis was conducted by describing the answers based on the probabilistic thinking leveling indicator.The results of the first stage of this study found a new leveling structure in probabilistic thinking, namely six levels of probabilistic thinking: (1) Level 0 (pre-subjective), with 23 students (20.54%); (2) Level 1 (subjective), with 18 students (16.07%); (3) Level 2 (transition), with 16 students (14.29%); (4) Level 3 (informal quantitative), with 17 students (15.18%); (5) Level 4 (formal quantitative), with 14 students (12.50%); and (6) Level 5 (numerical), with 24 students (21.43%). The second phase of the research will focus on the appropriate mentoring model based on the findings of this first stage research, improve the students' ability to solve problems, and raise their level of probabilistic thinking to the next levels.