Students' Mathematical Communication in Solving Combination Problems

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe students' mathematical communication ability in solving combination problems. This study involved 27 students majoring in mathematics, Mathematics and natural science faculty who took discrete mathematics subject. Students were asked to solve combination problems. Based on students' works results, the ability of students were categorized into three categories, namely high ability, medium ability, and low ability. From each ability group, one student was chosen to describe their mathematical communication ability. The research results showed that the student with high ability was able to do written text well, do mathematical expressions well, and gave the correct final answer. while the student with medium ability was only able to do mathematical expressions. The student with low ability was not able to do written text, was unable to do mathematical expressions, and was unable to provide the correct final answer.