Students’ Understanding of the Equal Sign: A Case in Suburban School

Reni Wahyuni, Tatang Herman

2019

Abstract

Mathematics has an essential role in education and to get employment opportunities then algebraic topics are one of the fundamental topics of efforts to reform mathematics education. Understanding algebra is related to understanding the basic concepts of equality. There are not many students understand the meaning of the equal sign. Therefore, this article is aimed to examine students’ understanding of the meaning of the equal sign in solving an equation. Knowing the students’ understanding deeply, we used this research by choosing the qualitative method. The research carried out the 22 students, the second-semester secondary school, who have learned the material of algebraic form and its operations, the seventh grade of SMP in Pekanbaru, Riau. The data provided in this study shows that many students do not have a sophisticated understanding of the meaning of the equal sign. Most students understand the equal sign as a result of a problem, such as solving a problem likely a count from the left side to the right side. The view of the students’ misunderstanding about the equal sign causes that the students perceive the meaning of the equal sign as the result of operations, not a symbol of mathematical equality.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Wahyuni R. and Herman T. (2019). Students’ Understanding of the Equal Sign: A Case in Suburban School.In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity - Volume 1: ICoSEEH, ISBN 978-989-758-464-0, pages 24-28. DOI: 10.5220/0009057100240028

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icoseeh19,
author={Reni Wahyuni and Tatang Herman},
title={Students’ Understanding of the Equal Sign: A Case in Suburban School},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity - Volume 1: ICoSEEH,},
year={2019},
pages={24-28},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009057100240028},
isbn={978-989-758-464-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity - Volume 1: ICoSEEH,
TI - Students’ Understanding of the Equal Sign: A Case in Suburban School
SN - 978-989-758-464-0
AU - Wahyuni R.
AU - Herman T.
PY - 2019
SP - 24
EP - 28
DO - 10.5220/0009057100240028