Collaboration in mathematics problem-solving by child-friendly elementary school students

Abstract

There were two purposes of this research. 1) Which were to explore student collaboration in planning to solve a mathematical problem in a child-friendly elementary school. 2) To describe student collaboration in solving a mathematical problem in a child-friendly elementary school. The type of this research was ethnographic qualitative. This research was conducted in a child-friendly elementary school of Muhammadiyah 1 Surakarta in the school year 2022/2023 for 6 months. The research subjects were a school principal, a class teacher, and class IV students with a total of 34 students. Data collection techniques included interviews, observation, and documentation. Data validity was conducted using triangulation of source and technique. Data analysis was conducted using an inductive technique. The process of data analysis included data collection, data reduction, data presentation, verification, and drawing conclusions. The results of this research showed that child-friendly collaboration in solving a mathematical problem can be grouped into two indicators which were 1) at the planning stage, some student characteristics were rewriting questions, giving scribbles, and writing down known data. 2) At the problem-solving stage, the math problem can be solved through two ways which were through cross-checking the answer by all members because there were many members in each group, and through more than two calculations using the same method to produce the same answer. Therefore, the existence of collaboration can result in a big effect on learning, especially in mathematics. Through collaboration, students will help each other in solving problems and foster student creativity in solving problems.