Mathematical abstraction ability of prospective math teacher students

Abstract

This paper discusses mathematical abstraction ability of prospective Math teacher students. There are two processes as the requirement of mathematical abstraction process, they are generalize and synthesize Math teacher ideally can integrate mathematical thinking skill in their every learning process. The importance of abstraction ability development are in line with the importance of mathematical competence mastery for the students' life. The use of developing mathematical representation ability are (1) students can find the close correlation between the branches of Math, (2) students can find the results of one branch that could trigger the conjecture on related branches. This research is a qualitative study that explores mathematical abstraction ability of prospective math teacher students'. The subject in this study was a six-student prospective math teacher with different mathematical ability. In the case of mathematical abstraction ability, it was known that students had understood the concept well but had not been able to give structured and systematic reason. For the mathematical abstraction ability, it was known that the lack of two skills is caused by (1) students had not used to give reason correspond to the structured and systematic concept; they tend to answer it directly by giving direct illustration with numbers. (2) Students forgot the argument stages in explaining a mathematical concept.