DESIGNING A DIDACTICAL SITUATION ON SYMBOL SENSE OF MINUS SIGN IN LEARNING ARITHMETIC OPERATION OF INTEGER

Abstract

Mathematics textbooks are usually a reference for teachers to convey the material in
class. The existence of textbooks help teachers to facilitate the learning process
because their contain some descriptions of concepts, example problems, and
evaluations so that the concepts and flow of thought contained in the textbook can
guide teachers in the learning process. The study on mathematics textbooks of
primary and junior high school on the material negative numbers less meaning the
symbol of minus sign (symbol sense of minus sign) beforehand as the initial concept
of negative numbers so that students do not understand the meaning of negative
numbers at the next level. The learning process is more likely to emphasize the
procedure only that resulting in a leap of information and thinking experienced by
students. Finally, character of student’s thinking forced to jump from the concrete
into abstract thinking. Based on the results of a study conducted by researcher on the
students of seventh grade, the concept of negative numbers became an obstacle in
performing arithmetic operations of numbers. In integers which there are negative
integers in shows that most of them do not understand the meaning of the symbol
minus sign as a prerequisite to understanding arithmetic operations involving
negative integers. Therefore, teachers need to design a learning through a didactical
situation on symbol sense of minus sign which appropriate to the character of the
student's thinking.