The role of agricultural contextual knowledge on the mathematical understanding of vocational students

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the role of agricultural contextual knowledge on the mathematical understanding of vocational students. This study used a qualitative approach with a case study method. The participant were food crop and horticultural agribusiness specialization students of vocational school in Ciamis, Indonesia. Students solve the mathematical tasks in agricultural situations that are integrated with three-dimensional topics to explore contextual knowledge and mathematical understanding. The results obtained are: (1) students' contextual knowledge of agriculture affects the understanding of the task context, and vice versa; (2) there are students who have agricultural contextual knowledge who tend not to be able to integrate it with mathematical concepts; (3) students who are able to solve the task have contextual knowledge, construct all information, and connections with mathematical concepts. These results indicate that contextual knowledge of agriculture can provide a role in mathematical understanding or not depends on the problem of the task and the ability of students in the coherence and correspondence of information, as well as mathematical connections.