Comparative Analysis of Non-Routine Problems in Mathematics Textbooks of Indonesia and Singapore

Abstract

Textbooks used in schools affect the quality of mathematics learning in the country. Indonesian Ministry of Education (Kemendikbud) already launched students and teachers textbooks that are distributed nationally in 2013; however, improvements are needed to revise the textbooks since there are concerns such as the difficulty level of problems contained in the textbooks. The main objective of this study is to compare nonroutine problems contained in mathematics textbooks used in Indonesia and Singapore. This is qualitative research with a content analysis design. Researchers compare Singaporean and Indonesian mathematics textbooks since Singapore got a higher rank in mathematics based on PISA results in 2018. The topic in this study is limited to the Pythagorean Theorem. The result of the research shows that Indonesia and Singapore has consecutively 22,1% and 11,3% non-routine problem. Another finding of this study was Singaporean mathematics textbooks focused more on developing students fluency in solving problems, meanwhile Indonesian mathematics textbooks focused more on students reasoning ability. The results and findings in this paper are expected to provide input in developing future mathematics textbooks.