PROBLEM IN DEVELOPING INTERNATIONAL LEVEL OF TEACHING LEARNING OF MATHEMATICS

In the era of globalization and the increasingly sophisticated technologies require an individual to have different abilities and skills more than other. Not only in economic or cultural course, but also education is very important. Creativity and problem solving skills are very necessary in the face of this globalization era. One means to improve the creative and problem-solving abilities in the field of education is through the learning of mathematics. However, the learning of mathematics were frequently encountered problems. Some problems in developing an international level of teaching learning of mathematics are as follows:

-          Low competitiveness at the international level, for example in the Olympics

-          The low average value of UNAS (National Final Exam)

-          The low interest in learning and achievement among students learn mathematics

-          Submission of material that is less attractive from teacher to student

-          Low quality studies supporting books

Some of the above are examples of common problems in developing an international level of teaching learning of mathematics.

Problems of low achievement and student interest in learning math because Mathematics learning in Indonesia is still dominated by the exercises are basic. It is not go into mathematics as a whole. Most teachers only explain a mathematical concept which only emphasized the importance of numeracy skills, algorithmic steps, and the memorization of formulas. This is why the students only get the basics mathematical skill.

If we linked to the internationalization of mathematics education, the achievement of basic skills is not enough. Mathematics learning, now and in the future, can not rest only on achieving basic skills, but instead should be designed to achieve a high level of mathematical competence (Parwati: 2008). If the teacher is still at the stage of explaining mathematical basics skills course, students most likely will just remain there.

In this globalization era as much as possible the teacher should be able to answer a variety of challenges at the international level. If the teacher remains at its foundation, traditional in nature, how they can develop and compete internationally. How could they make competent students in mathematics?

The next problem is the lack of teachers’ creativity in teaching. Most teachers are still fixated on the available curriculum. They only teach what is written in the syllabus. Most of them seldom add material that is actually very important but not listed in the syllabus.

Lack of teachers’ creativity in teaching demonstrated in the number of teachers who are still fixated on the material in the textbook for teaching materials. It also resulted in the ability of teachers to provide a question in the test. They are still hooked to the textbook. As a result, they give a question for test similar to the examples problem in the textbook. Furthermore, in providing a mathematical problem, teachers often assign only one correct answer. In addition students are also required to answer the questions given in accordance with what has been previously demonstrated by the teacher.

The above shows the teaching-learning process is still teacher centered. Teachers still dominate the teaching and learning activities. Also according to Marpaung (in repository.upi.edu) students are almost never given a chance to try out their own strategies to solve problems and the teacher did not dare to take decisions that are in the interest of the class curriculum. It can be concluded that the learning of mathematics in schools still require innovations that demands creativity of teachers in improving learning strategies.

Learning process in schools should be used students centered system. Here the teacher is not as central to the learning process, the teacher only as a facilitator and dynamic factor. All processes should be centered to student learning. Students are faced with a problem and they are required to complete it in accordance with their own creativity. Many ways and methods that can be develop creative skills in learning mathematics. One way is to apply the learning model based on creative problem solving. This learning model is expected to be able to nurture creative skills and problem solving skills through the habit of thinking and being creative in understanding and solving mathematical problems. In the end the habit of thinking and being creative will have a positive effect on student behavior in the face of their daily lives (repository.upi.edu : 2009). One way to improve the creativity of students in the study is to provide an open-ended problem. The presentation of open-ended problems will be able to train students to think of creativity as a problem presented requires students to think about the possibility of correct answers (Shimada, S., 1997).

The next problem is the lack of books for math investigations. Most of the books in circulation has a very low quality, because many books were written by people that do not involve a skilled person in mathematics education or mathematics teacher. As a result of the outstanding books do not meet the qualifications specified by the school. So,  a teacher  needs to develop students worksheets or LKS. LKS contains a summary of the material and practice questions that are routinely made ​​by the teachers themselves. By making the exercises by their own, teachers can determine the levels of difficulty of the questions that correspond to the ability of students. By using LKS,  a teacher could develop questions that are open-ended problem that not only to measured students' ability to calculate, but  also hone their creativity.  The books such as those described above can be used as a complement to learning (Parwati, 2008).

Developing competencies in creative thinking among students is very important in this era of global competition, because  the complexity of the problems in all aspects of modern life is increasing. Ability to think creatively considered a high order competencies  and can be viewed as a continuation of basic competence (commonly referred to as learning basic skills in mathematics) (Sudiarta: 2010).

REFERENCES:

Parwati, Ni Nyoman. 2008. Analisis Kebutuhan Pengembangan Model Pembelajaran Matematika Berpendekatan Tematik Berorientasi Pemecahan Masalah Terbuka pada Sekolah Dasar  di Provinsi Bali, Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pengajaran UNDIKSHA, Oktober 2008

repository.upi.edu

Shimada, S. & Becker, P., 1997. The Open-Ended Approach: A New Proposal for Teaching Mathematics. NY: NCTM.

Sudiarta, I G. P.  2010. Pengembangan Pembelajaran Berpendekatan Tematik Berorientasi  Pemecahan Masalah Matematika Terbuka untuk Mengembangkan  Kompetensi Berpikir Divergen, Kritis dan Kreatif, Jurnal Pendidikan dan Pengajaran UNDIKSHA.