Students’ misconception and errors in solving relations and functions problems

Abstract

The objectives of this present research are as follows: 1) to analyze students' errors in solving the relations and functions problems, and 2) to describe students' misconceptions of the relations and functions materials. A descriptive qualitative approach was adopted. The data source was 23 students of the grade VIII-A MTs Muhammadiyah Malang Indonesia. The data investigated were the students’ errors and misconceptions of the Relations and Functions materials.   In this research, the subjects were determined using a purposive technique where 6 students were chosen. They were divided into three categories, namely students with high, low, and low abilities, where each category consists of two students. Two techniques of data collection were employed:  1) administration of written tests to students; and 2) interviews. The technique used in the data analysis was Miles and Huberman’s model analysis. The research results showed that: 1) the subjects with high ability less properly stated a relation or a function in the form of an arrow diagram and demonstrated some misconceptions in giving examples of functions and non-function; 2) the subjects with low ability less accurately proved a relation and a function in the form of an arrow diagram, did not state the form of a sequential pair and showed technical and principal errors. And 3) subjects with low ability had all types of errors.