Students’ and Teacher’s Difficulties in Dealing with Real-context Problem: a Case Study
Keywords:
Problem Solving, mathematical literacy, difficulties, case-studyAbstract
One of the goals of students studying mathematics is so that students have the ability to solve everyday problems. This ability leads to what is known as mathematical literacy. This article aims to describe the difficulties of teachers in activating mathematical literacy in the classroom and the difficulties of students in solving real-world context problems. This is a case study in a private school in Bandung, Indonesia. Eighteen students and their mathematics teachers were selected as subjects in this study. The results showed that students had difficulty understanding problems, especially non-routine problems that related to real-world contexts, even though they claimed to be familiar with the context given. In addition, students also had difficulty with the prerequisite material to solve the contextual problems given. Facing problems that they were unfamiliar with caused their confidence in solving problems to decrease when compared to their initial level of confidence. Meanwhile, for teachers, students' low reading interest, low reading comprehension, and low reasoning ability were problems for them. Designing a series of activities brought from real-world contexts in open-ended problem types that require reasoning and higher-order thinking skills can be a tool for students to develop mathematical literacy and can help teachers to implement it in their classrooms.
References
Abadi, & Fardah, D. K. (2018). Students’ activities for understanding function shifting by using GeoGebra. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1108(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1108/1/012014
Aisyah, A., & Juandi, D. (2022). The description of Indonesian student mathematics literacy in the last decade. International Journal of Trends in Mathematics Education Research, 5(1), 105–110. https://doi.org/10.33122/ijtmer.v5i1.114
Anggraini, D., Suryadi, D., & Albania, I. N. (2023). The analysis of students’ difficulties in solving non-routine mathematical problems. 090035. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0175692
Biggs, J. B., & Collis, K. F. (1982). Evaluating the Quality of Learning. Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2013-0-10375-3
De Lange, J. (2003). Mathematics for Literacy. In B. L. Madison & L. A. Steen (Eds.), Quantitative literacy: Why Numeracy Matters for Schools and Colleges (pp. 75–89). Princeton.
Hendrayanto, D. N., Riyadi, R., & Indriati, D. (2022). Dominant Factor were Caused Eight Grade Students Errors in Solving on Cartesian Coordinate Multistep Routine and Non-Routine Modification Story Problems. JTAM (Jurnal Teori Dan Aplikasi Matematika), 6(2), 354. https://doi.org/10.31764/jtam.v6i2.7313
Hiller, S. E., Kitsantas, A., Cheema, J. E., & Poulou, M. (2022). Mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy as predictors of mathematics literacy. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 53(8), 2133–2151. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2020.1868589
Isoda, M., & Katagiri, S. (2012). Mathematical Thinking: How to Develop it in the Classroom (Vol. 1). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Kolar, V. M., & Hodnik, T. (2021). Mathematical literacy from the perspective of solving contextual problems. In European Journal of Educational Research (Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 467–483). Eurasian Society of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.12973/EU-JER.10.1.467
Mason, J., Burton, L., & Stacey, K. (2010). Thinking_Mathematically (2nd ed.). Pearson.
Mhakure, D. (2020). Using Mathematical Modelling in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Literacy: Perspectives on the South African Context. In International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling (pp. 467–477). Springer Science and Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37673-4_40
OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 Results (Volume I) (PISA). OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/53f23881-en
Ojose, B. (2011). Mathematics Literacy: Are We Able To Put The Mathematics We Learn Into Everyday Use? In Journal of Mathematics Education © Education for All (Vol. 4, Issue 1).
Ormrod, J. E., Anderman, E. M., & Anderman, L. H. (2019). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (10th ed.). Pearson.
Ozkale, A., & Ozdemir Erdogan, E. (2022). An analysis of the interaction between mathematical literacy and financial literacy in PISA*. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 53(8), 1983–2003. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2020.1842526
Ozrecberoglu, N., Aydın, S., & Aydın, O. (2022). Students’ Skills In Solving Non-Routine Mathematical Problems. Education Quarterly Reviews, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.31014/aior.1993.05.02.504
Polya, G. (2004). How to Solve it: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method. Princeton University Press.
Pulungan, D. A., Mila, Y. H., & Harahap, I. H. (2024). Kesulitan Guru Menerapkan Pembelajaran Literasi Matematika di Madrasah Ibtidaiyyah Kota Medan. Journal of Education Research, 5(1), 651–659.
Rizki, L. N., & Priatna, N. (2019). Mathematical literacy as the 21st century skill. IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series, 1157. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1157/4/042088
Runtu, P. V. J., Pulukadang, R. J., Mangelep, N. O., Sulistyaningsih, M., & Sambuaga, O. T. (2023). Student’s Mathematical Literacy: A Study from The Perspective of Ethnomathematics Context in North Sulawesi Indonesia. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 23(3), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v23i3.5840
Schleicher, A. (2023). Programme for International Student Assessment Insights and Interpretations PISA 2022.
Schleicher, A. (OECD). (2019). PISA 2018: Insight & Interpretations.
Scott, C. L. (2015). THE FUTURES of LEARNING 3: What kind of pedagogies for the 21st century? (15; ERF Working Papers Series).
Yansen, D., Ilma Indra Putri, R., & Fatimah, S. (2019). DEVELOPING PISA-LIKE MATHEMATICS PROBLEMS ON UNCERTAINTY AND DATA USING ASIAN GAMES FOOTBALL CONTEXT. Journal on Mathematics Education, 10(1), 37–46.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Dini Kinati Fardah, Yaya Sukjaya Kusumah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
License and Copyright Agreement
In submitting the manuscript to the journal, the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal. Please also carefully read Journal of Honai Math Posting Your Article Policy at http://journalfkipunipa.org/index.php/jhm/about
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- That its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.
Copyright
Authors who publish with Journal of Honai Math agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
