Understanding concept of students in solving derivative problems based on school origins

Abstract

This research is based on students’ problems in understanding the concept of derivatives in the differential calculus. Learning derivatives always become a difficulty for students, even for they are in the high school. Learning derivatives is the same as studying something abstract, therefore, if students do not understand the concept well, they will continue to experience learning difficulties when solving the problems. However, conceptual understanding is a basic ability that students must have in order to be able to learn and to solve these mathematics problems. This research was conducted to describe the understanding of the students’ concept in solving derivative problems in the differential calculus topic in terms of their school origins. This research is a qualitative descriptive. The subjects of this study were the fourth semester students in Mathematics Education Program of State Islamic Institute of Curup Academic year 2019/2020 selected by purposive sampling based on school origins. The data collection techniques used were tests and interviews. Furthermore, the data is analysed by reducing data, presenting data, and drawing conclusions. The results showed that based on the school origins, the students have concepts understanding in solving derivative problems, but it had various thinking. It can be seen from the concepts of students in a variety representation. In solving derivative problems, there were still found variety of conceptual understanding and concept errors such as factoring of quadratic equations and grouping the terms in solving derivative algebraic functions.