Identification and Exploration of Elementary School Teacher Misconception in Mathematical Learning

Abstract

Mathematics is one of the compulsory subjects that must be taught to students at all levels of education. It creates students not only to have the ability to think logically, critically, analytically, creatively, and meticulously, but also carefully develop the ability to use mathematics in problem solving. Therefore, mathematics teachers are required to convey mathematical concepts correctly. Unfortunately, there are some elementary school teachers whose understanding of the concepts in mathematics learning is incorrect. The aim of this study was to identify the misconception of elementary school teachers in mathematics learning. This type of research was descriptive-qualitative research, where data had been analysed qualitatively. The research data were in the form of interviews and observations of the subjects, namely elementary school teachers in Sidoarjo district. Regarding to the data, there were several misconceptions in elementary school teachers, consisting of 1) Defining the apex point of the cone as the angle formed by the curved side; 2) Defining a cone surface as a side; 3) Defining a cylinder surface as a side, and 4) Defining the cone as a pyramid.