Anxiety of students in visualization, analysis, and informal deduction levels to solve geometry problems

Abstract

This research aims to describe the anxiety of grade 9 students to solve geometry problems based on the IDEAL stages, that is, identify, define, explore, act, and look back. The subjects were three students who each had one student at each level, namely, visualization, analysis, and informal deduction. The data were collected through tests and interviews. To guarantee the validity and reliability of the research, the triangulation technique was used. The findings and conclusions were as follows: students’ visualization anxiety could be observed in the explore stage, which was caused by their confusion to use the Pythagorean theorem in which only one side was known, and in the act stage, which was caused by the thinking barrier as they were unable to write the solution and add the explanation; students’ analysis anxiety could be observed in the act stage, which was caused by their confusion to ponder over the working time and the use of a wrong method, and in the look-back stage, which was caused by their uncertainty and worry for giving incorrect answers; and students’ informal deduction anxiety appeared in the act stage, which was caused by the thinking barrier as they were unable to describe the use of proportion of base and perpendicular of a right triangle.