MATHEMATICAL CONNECTION ABILITY AND SELF-CONFIDENCE (AN EXPERIMENT ON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING WITH MATHEMATICAL MANIPULATIVE)
ABSTRACT: This sudy was
intended to examine the role ofprior mathematics ability (PMA) andcontextual
teaching approach withmathematical manipulative(CTL-MM) tothe achievement of
mathematical connection ability (MCA) and self-confidence(SC) of junior high
school students. This study was part ofa masterthesis andit was a sub-study ofa
Postgraduate Research Grant from DGHE in 2013 as well.The study was
quasi-experimental with pre-testpost-test control group design involving 67
ninth-grade students from a junior high school in Bandung. The instruments of
this study werean essaytest on mathematical connection, a self-confidence
scale, and a scale onstudents’ perception toward CTL-MM.The result of the study
revealed that CTL-MM was better in on improving students’ MCA, N-Gain of MCA,
and SC. This was shown by students’grades of MCA and SC which were better in
the group taught by CTL-MM than students’ grades in the group taught by
conventional teaching.While their grades of SC were better, the grades of MCTA
were at low level. However, therewas a moderate correlation between
mathematical connection and self-confidence though students demonstrated
positive perception toward the implementation of CTL-MM.
KEYWORDS: Mathematical problem
solving, self-confidence,Contextual Teaching, Mathematical Manipulative,
perception toward contextual teaching
Author: Heris Hendriana, Ujang
Rahmat Slamet, Utari Sumarmo
Journal Code: jppendidikangg140141
