Problem Solving Ability of Prospective Elementary School

Teacher

I F Apriani1, Turmudi2, E Nur’aeni3

1,2
Departement of Primary Education, Schools of Postgraduate Studies, Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudi No. 229, Bandung 40154, Indonesia
1,3
Studi Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
CampussTasikmalaya, Jl. Dadaha No. 18 Tasikmalaya City 46115, Indonesia

*
apriani25@upi.edu

Abstract. Mathematical problem solving ability is one of the five process standards in
NCTM. This article aims to study the ability of prospective elementary school teacher
students to solve mathematical problems. The research method used is qualitative
descriptive method. The researcher gave the problem solving ability questions to
semester 8 students. The students completed five problem solving abilities about the
concept of fractions. The results showed that: 1) the students had difficulty
understanding the meaning of the questions; 2) students rarely solve non-routine math
problems; 3) students solve problems procedurally; 4) students rarely use
mathematical modeling in solving problems.

1. Introduction
Up to the twentieth century, the most important reason behind the problem solving integrated in
teaching mathematics, it completely improved one's thinking. Problem solving ability is one of the
abilities expected from students after learning Mathematics. It is one of the important cognitive
activities that a person can use in various contexts related to everyday human life. Mathematical
problem solving, on the other hand, is the most important aspect of mathematics [1]. Problem solving
ability is a part of learning Mathematics, so it cannot be separated from Mathematics learning NCTM
[2]. In addition, problem solving ability can also be interpreted as a means which enable a person to
use understanding previous acquired knowledge and skills to solve problems in an extraordinary way
[3]. Therefore, if students’ problem-solving ability is low, it results on the low quality of human
resources [4]. Problem solving ability is the main concern in Mathematics learning today at primary,
secondary and higher education levels. Problem solving ability is a part of higher order thinking skills
which needs to be instructed in higher education. It is considered as an ability that can be trained on
students. Besides its importance of being a skill that needs to be developed, problem solving is also an
important teaching tool. Many of the important mathematical concepts and operations can be
taught in the best possible way by problem solving [5].
Problem solving in mathematics, and all other fields, as attempting to reach certain outcomes with an
unclear method one may follow to do so; thus, one must exert a large amount of efforts and attempts to
reach these desired outcomes [6]. Problem solving can be done in four stages as Polya had developed.
It consist of understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and looking back.
Elementary School Teacher Education students are elementary school teacher candidates who are
expected to have pedagogical, personal, social, and professional [7]. Therefore, based on that
regulation, the students are directed by the qualification level 6 of Indonesian National Qualification
Framework (KKNI) which has four generic parameters (Indonesian Government Regulation No.8 Year
2012). The four parameters expect students to have; 1) profound theoretical mastery and problem
solving formulation ability, 2) an ability to determine and apply skills and science and technology as a
form of adaptation and problem solving, 3) an ability to make decision and decided instruction based
on information analysis to provide alternative solutions independently and in a group, and 4)
responsibility to their work and the achievements independently and in a group.
Referring to the target output of the elementary school prospective teachers, the lecturers in
Elementary School Teacher Education program are expected to provide appropriate learning facilities
to make qualified prospective teachers. The learning target of these prospective teachers is related to
the process and the learning outcomes in the elementary school where they teach. The process and the
learning outcomes of elementary school students are the things that these prospective teachers need to
know as a material to achieve the targeted outcomes of elementary school prospective teachers.
According to Piaget's learning theory, the characteristics of elementary school students (7-11 years
old) are included in the concrete operational stage development. Generally, children are not able to
think something abstract but they are able to understand logical operations with the assistance of
concrete objects. This is in line with the theory of children's cognitive development proposed by
Bruner that children's cognitive development is divided into three stages, namely: 1) enactive, 2)
iconic, and 3) symbolic. From this explanation, the prospective elementary school teachers
(Elementary School Education students) were required to understand how to solve Mathematics
problems better so that they can teach Mathematics to students relevant to their development level. In
this context, teachers are the people who are one of the most important dynamo stones
expected to improve problem solving skills of students.
Several studies indicated that Mathematics ability affected the problem-solving process. Some of these
studies revealed that prospective teachers with high Mathematics abilities tended to have quite good
problem-solving abilities and prospective teachers with low Mathematics abilities tended to have poor
problem-solving ability [8]. In addition, other studies also found that students with high Mathematics
abilities solved problems according to the plans, solved the problem correctly and re-explained the
material correctly. On the other hand, students with moderate mathematical ability could solve
problems according to the plan constructed, solved the problem correctly but could not re-explain and
did not re-examine the result of their work. Three students as prospective elementary school teachers
needed to be equipped with an adequate competence and ability on the way to solve mathematical
problems for elementary school students.
Researchers have shown students have difficulty solving word problems [9, 10]. Reasons offered for
this difficulty include: lack of motivation to solve the word problems [9] and irrelevance of word
problems to students’ lives [10]. The need for techniques to enhance student interest in traditional
educational materials may actually increase with age [10]. The terms story problems and word
problems can invoke uncomfortable memories for many people [11].
The process of solving mathematical problems is not an easy thing, they require a lot of energy and
time to find the right solution [12]. In addition, low problem-solving abilities in other fields are an
important factor that causes students to fail and give up [3]. Therefore, students need to learn how to
think when solving problems, and need to analyze steps to solve a problem.
2. Research Method
The purpose of this study was to see the responses of prospective elementary school teacher when they
solving mathematical problems on fraction material and determine their learning difficulties in solving
mathematical problems. This study used a descriptive model with a qualitative approach. The
qualitative research approach requires from researchers to be flexible, restructure the research process
according to collected data and follow an approach which is based on induction in both research
design and also in the analysis of the collected data [14]. The problem-solving indicators measured in
this study were understanding the problem, linking the known and asked, doing calculations, and
rechecking the answers.
The students involved in this study were 10 students in their eighth semester. Based on the test result
and the interviews, the researchers then could analyze and draw conclusions about the students'
problem-solving abilities in answering word problems about fractions. Thus, the data collection
technique used was the fraction material test questions in the form of descriptions.

3. Result and Discussion

This study was intended to know how the prospective teachers’ problem-solving ability to solve word
problems. The following paragraph shows the prospective elementary school student teachers’ ability
in solving Mathematics problems.

Figure 1. The example of students’ answer on fraction problem

The questions that had been solved by students as presented in Figure 1 revealed that students still did
not understand the problem of the question. Based on the result of the interview, students felt confused
about the way to solve Mathematics problem number 1. The result of the interviews between a
researcher and a student:
Researcher : when you solve problem number 1, please explain the process in solving the problems
that you can get 3.75 as the result!
Student : Ma’am, Mathematics is known by its operations such as addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. When I did this problem, I directly remembered several

formulas. Therefore, I added to and then I multiplied the result by 5.

Researcher : Why did you add to first?

Student : Because both of them are proper fraction, so I added them first and then the result was
multiplied by a whole number.
Researcher : did you understand the problem?
Student : I did not really understand it ma’am. I only saw the numbers because solving math
problem usually deals with formulas. So, I directly answered by adding and multiplying
 Figure 2. The example of student’s difficulty in solving open Mathematics problem

When the students worked on the question number 2, the students looked confused. This confusion
can be seen in the result of the student’s work which was answered with a question "how many friends
are there?". In addition, the researcher also asked the student “have you ever found this kind of
problem before?” The student answered "Yes, I have encountered this kind of problem in a class with
Mr. A, but it was not like this. I was so confused about how many people will be given the chocolate.”
From the other response in the preliminary study, a finding could be acquired from students’ response
on contextual problem-solving questions which are related to real world context in the form of word
problems. An example of a Mathematics problem related to numbers can be seen below.

“Ani keeps some rice in a bowl until the weight of the rice and the bowl
are 200 grams. Dani also keeps some rice in a similar kind of bowl with
Ani but he keeps three times more than her. If the total weight of Dani’s
bowl and rice is 500 grams, how many grams is Dani’s rice?

Researchers tried out the question to the eight semester prospective elementary school teacher. Based
on the result of their responses, it was found that all students, who were respondents in the preliminary
study, found it difficult to solve that problem. This is because it was a non-routine problem. They
argued that they rarely solve that kind of Mathematics problem. Most of them usually did guess and
check strategy although they faced difficulty and needed much time. There were some students who
used algebraic modeling strategy. The results were the same, they were confused about that problem.
If the question was analyzed based on the result of the interview with several students, it could be
concluded that students were not used to find open word problem. They needed to get some practices
on problem-solving so that they will be accustomed to various problems in their complex life, not only
in Mathematics but also in other fields of study and in everyday life. Problem solving ability is a
student’s ability to use mathematical activities to solve problems in Mathematics, other sciences and
everyday life [15].
Some of the data from the preliminary study which had been stated before indicated that there were
some prospective elementary school teachers who faced difficulty in solving the given Mathematics
problems, especially the non-routine questions. Moreover, there were some students who were not
used to apply mathematical modelling in solving mathematical problems while it is useful to simplify
mathematical problems to find the solutions.
Teacher candidates should be encouraged to encounter different types of problems both in their
courses and out-of-school activities through mathematics clubs and competetions arranged in the
faculty or university. In this context, it is recommended to examine the problem solving knowledge
and pedagogical content knowledge of the teacher candidates.

4. Conclusion

Based on the result acquired, it can be concluded that students with low abilities experienced obstacles
in solving word problems, because they did not understand the content of the questions, rarely used
modelling in solving problems, and performed mathematical procedures incorrectly. There are three
main potential sources of error when solving word problems: lack of understanding of the
mathematical structure of the problem, which leads students to select an inappropriate procedure,
executing the procedure incorrectly, and failing to interpret or assess the result of the procedure in
terms of common sense or everyday-life knowledge [16]. According to the barriers of learning
Mathematics consisted of ontogenetic, epistemological barriers, and didactic barriers. Furthermore,
this study had a limitation such as no sample with cognitive categories. The result of this study can be
used for further research, namely designing learning procedure relevant with prospective elementary
school teachers’ characteristics to foster problem-solving ability. A further study can be conducted
to examine the reasons for prospective elementary teachers’ difficulties which were determined in
this study. A similar study can be conducted with prospective elementary mathematics teachers to see
if these findings are specific to the pre-service elementary teachers or not.

5. Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Campuss Tasikmalaya for
providing research permission, along with the research team who always support this research.

6. References
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