Concrete-pictorial-abstract approach on student's motivation and problem solving performance in Algebra

Abstract

This study aims to: 1) find out whether problem-solving performance in students who are subjected to the CPA approach is better than problem-solving performance in students who are subjected to conventional approaches, 2) find out whether learning motivation in students who are subjected to the CPA approach is better than learning motivation in students who are subjected to conventional approaches. The study was conducted on 7th-grade junior high school students in Purworejo Regency. This study was an experimental study involving 91 students in the experimental class and 96 students in the control class. The research instrument used observation sheets of student learning motivation and tests consisting of 20 multiple choice test items and 5 essay test items. The data analysis technique uses a paired sample T-test to see the improvement of problem-solving performance and independent sample T-test to see the difference in the influence of the CPA Approach with the conventional approach. The results showed that: 1) problem-solving performance in students who are subjected to the CPA approach is better than problem-solving performance in students who are subjected to conventional approaches, 2) motivation to learn in students who are subjected to the CPA approach is better than learning motivation in students who are subjected to conventional approaches. The results also show that the CPA Approach can encourage students to solve problems with nonstandard procedures.