Problem solving is about making connections

Abstract

One of the aims of mathematics education in Indonesia is that students have good problem solving abilities. Therefore it is not surprising that many educational studies focus on students' problem solving abilities. Various studies mentioned there are several effective learning methods to improve students' problem solving abilities. This article abstracts and synthesizes these methods to get the same or the core of each method so as to improve problem solving abilities. The results of the discussion obtained that the core of the method that can improve problem-solving ability is in the planning section that must be able to make students connect their knowledge with other concepts, other disciplines, and with real world.