Functional thinking profile of mathematics problems based on gender in senior high school

Abstract

In learning mathematics, the functional thinking of students is very important so that they are expected to be able to understand mathematics material in depth and be able to overcome difficulties experienced gradually. Functional thinking is very necessary for mathematics because it is one of the main keys in algebraic thinking which includes generalization of functions. This study aims to describe the functional thinking of high school students in solving mathematical problems in terms of gender differences. This study used the descriptive qualitative method. The research subjects consisted four students of nasional senior high school students of class eleven grade which included excellent schools in Boyolali. The results show that the related activities determine the equation of the circle from two points. The subjects of this study were four students with two male students and two female students. Subjects of male and female students tend to have similarities in how to determine the circle equation from two points, namely by trial and error using existing mathematical operations. It can be concluded that the functional thinking of both subjects is relatively the same. It is just that the female subject is more specific in finding the equation of the circle if two points are known.