Creativity in Mathematics: Mathematical Reasoning Ability of Indonesian Students and Solution Recommendation

Resumo

Background: Developments in the 21st century affect rapid changes in industry and people's lifestyles. Some experts have concluded that creativity is one of the competencies needed today. However, several studies show problems in the development of students' creative abilities in schools, one of which is from teacher competencies and students' low mathematical reasoning abilities. Objectives: This paper contributes to an overview of actual problems related to the quality of students' mathematical reasoning abilities and solution recommendations. Design: The method used in this study is a qualitative approach to analysing the quality of reasoning abilities using the Lithner framework with three categories of quality mathematical reasoning abilities and using teacher interviews to confirm student reasoning test results. Setting and participants: The sample used in this study was 27 junior high school students in Cianjur Regency, Indonesia, and one of the mathematics teachers in the same school. Data collection and analysis: The instrument used in this study was a reasoning ability test and an interview transcript.  Results: The study indicates that most students have very low mathematical reasoning abilities. In addition, the results of interviews with mathematics teachers illustrate that the main problem is students' low basic mathematical abilities, especially in arithmetic operations. Conclusion: The author's analysis shows that there are three main problems with students' low reasoning abilities, namely, low students' cognitive abilities, lack of mathematical challenges, and students’ low motivation to learn mathematics. Based on study results, this paper also presents recommendations for solutions related to low reasoning ability.