Characteristics of students in comparative problem solving

Abstract

Often teachers provided examples and exercised to students with regard to comparative problems consisting of one quantity. In this study, the researchers gave the problem of comparison with the two quantities mixed. It was necessary to have a good understanding to solve this problem. This study aimed to determine whether students understand the comparison in depth and be able to solve the problem of non-routine comparison. This study used qualitative explorative methods, with researchers conducting in-depth interviews on subjects to explore the thinking process when solving comparative problems. The subject of this study was three students selected by purposive sampling of 120 students. From this research, researchers found there were three subjects with different characteristics, namely: subject 1, he did the first and second questions with methods of elimination and substitution (non-comparison); subject 2, he did the first question with the concept of comparison although the answer was wrong, and did the second question with the method of elimination and substitution (non-comparison); and subject 3, he did both questions with the concept of comparison. In the first question, he did wrong because he was unable to understand the problem, while on the second he did correctly. From the characteristics of the answers, the researchers divided into 3 groups based on thinking process, namely: blind-proportion, partial-proportion, and proportion thinking.