Teacher's strategies to promote student's mathematical competencies in algebra: A case study

Abstract

Mathematical competence is knowledge, skill, and ability to use mathematics for solving problems of both mathematical and non-mathematical context. The PISA and TIMSS reports indicate the low quality of mathematical competence of students in Indonesia. One of the most influential factors in the quality of learning is teachers. The paper aims to describe the teacher's strategies to promote students' mathematical competence in algebra. The case study method was used to investigate the strategies used by mathematics teacher in conducting teaching activity on 7th grade. The data was collected through observation and interview. The observation was conducted three times. Field notes, observation guideline, and video recorder were used to collect the data of teacher's strategies in the classroom. Interview was conducted at the end of the observation activity. A semi-structured interview was done to collect further information regarding the teacher's strategies. The results show that the teacher used various strategies to promote students mathematical competence in understanding the mathematical concept and using reasoning. However, a lack of strategies to promote students in using the pattern as a conjecture to solve the problem and communicating the idea is identified.