Students' Numeracy Skills Relating to Algebra Topic Using COVID-19 Context

Abstract

The Minimum Competency Assessment (MCA) is a basic competency assessment that will be carried out by the ministry of education and culture in Indonesia in 2021, one of the assessments is numeracy. Algebraic material is one of the important materials for students to learn related to everyday problems. The use of context is important in learning algebra. In this regard, the discussion which is now a topic of discussion for all groups not only from Indonesia but the world, namely Covid-19, can be an interesting context to raise. This study, describes the numeracy skills of students in working on algebraic questions, research subjects are students with heterogeneous abilities (medium, high, low) using a descriptive qualitative approach, with collection techniques in the form of tests, and interviews. The research subjects were grade VII students. Wherefrom the research, it was found that there were still unfulfilled numerical indicators, namely indicators of interpreting it to conclude. While indicators that often appear are using numbers and mathematical symbols in solving problems in life.

Numeracy of Eighth Grade Students in Solving AKM-Like Problems Based on Mathematical Ability

“…Meanwhile, students with low mathematical ability cannot use formulas; apply procedures; and give proper reasons for the results obtained. In the results of research by Sari, et al (2021), students are accustomed to calculating rather than analyzing and drawing conclusions. Some students did not write down the answers completely.…”

“…Errors that occur, namely errors in understanding the problem given, errors in analyzing the information presented, errors in calculating, and errors in interpreting the results of the analysis obtained. Sari, et al (2021) examined numeracy with the subdomain of ratio and proportion in questions using the PISA framework. Dewi (2022) also examined numeracy with ratio and proportion subdomain using the development of AKM questions, while Baharuddin, et al (2021) also examined the same topic using questions that were equivalent to AKM problems on fractional operations.…”

Prospective teachers’ design of numeracy tasks using a physical distancing context

“…In the context of education, physical distancing is not only used as a recommendation for the rule of organizing school learning and teaching activity (Murray, 2020) but also can be used in the context of learning mathematics Nusantara et al, 2021;Sari et al, 2021;Zulkardi et al, 2020). Nusantara et al (2021), for instance, used the context of the regulation of personal transportation restrictions during large-scale social distancing (LSSR) as a special case of physical distancing context to develop PISA-like tasks, while this context is also used to foster students' numeracy on the task with the content of change and relationship .…”

“…Nusantara et al (2021), for instance, used the context of the regulation of personal transportation restrictions during large-scale social distancing (LSSR) as a special case of physical distancing context to develop PISA-like tasks, while this context is also used to foster students' numeracy on the task with the content of change and relationship . Also, this context was employed by Sari et al (2021) in a qualitative study to encourage students' numeracy through a task dealing with isolation rooms for COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, the mathematical thoughts emerging from this context can also be investigated from issues such as mathematical modeling on COVID-19 spread patterns, graph interpretation related to the current trend of COVID-19 spread over a particular population, and geometrical shape of area implied by the 2-m distance rule (Murray, 2020;Park et al, 2021).…”