ERROR ANALYSIS OF THE 8TH GRADE STUDENTS IN SOLVING STORY PROBLEMS ON LINEAR EQUATION IN TWO VARIABLES
Aat Juatiningsih Lestari Utami(a*) and Yaya S. Kusumah(b)

(a), (b) Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi 229 Bandung 40154

Abstract

Students still find difficulties in solving story problems, indicated from their ability in determining important elements in story problems and their difficulties in representing a story problem into the form of mathematical models. This study aims to describe the types of errors conducted by the 8th grade students in solving story problems arise in linear equation in two variables. The research method used is a case study and the research subject is the 8th grade students in a public junior high school in Subang Regency (30 students). The technique for analyzing students^ answers using Newman^s analysis includes errors types: reading, comprehension, transformation, process skill, dan encoding. The results of the study indicated that: reading errors as much as 1.5%, comprehension errors as much as 17.5%- transformation error as much as 6.6%, process skill errors as much as 37.2%, and encoding errors as much as 37.2%. The majority of students show process skill errors due to their weak algorithmic reasoning skills in manipulating mathematics. In addition, most of the students indicate encoding errors due to their unfamiliarity with evaluating answers.

Keywords: case study, reading error, reading comprehension error, transformation error, weakness process skill, and encoding

Topic: Mathematics Education