Contextual Learning on the Basis of Coastal Culture to Enhance Students' Competency in Mathematical Problems Solving

Abstract

Problem solving is one of the competencies in learning mathematics. It is expected that students have this competency to be able to solve problems in their life by using math. The aim of this research is to improve problem solving competence through contextual learning based on coastal culture. The research design used was pretest-posttest control group design. The population is junior high school students in East Flores District, East Nusa Tenggara Province. 119 students were chosen by random purposive sampling technique. Four classes from grade 8 from a Junior High School at Larantuka were randomly selected as experimental and control class. The experimental class students employ contextual learning based on coastal culture, whereas students in the control class use conventional learning. The instrument of this research is test of mathematical problem solving competence. The results showed that there was an enhancement in mathematical problem solving competence in students who received contextual learning based on coastal culture (CLBCC) and conventional learning approach (CLA). Improvement competence of mathematical problem solving on CLBCC group is higher than CLA group. This also happened to the achievement of mathematical problem-solving competency. There are differences in the improvement and achievement of mathematical problem-solving competency between CLCBB and CLA students.