Supriyono Koes-H, M. Muhardjito, Charisma P. Wijaya
Problem solving is one of the basic abilities that should be developed from learning physics. However, students still face difficulties in the process of non-routine problem-solving. Efforts are necessary to be taken in order to identify such difficulties and the solutions to solve them. An effort in the form of a diagnosis of students' performance in problem solving can be taken to identify their difficulties, and various instructional scaffolding supports can be utilized to eliminate the difficulties. This case study aimed to describe the students' difficulties in solving static fluid problems and the effort to overcome such difficulties through different scaffolding supports. The research subjects consisted of four 10-grade students of (Public Senior High School) SMAN 4 Malang selected by purposive sampling technique. The data of students' difficulties were collected via think-aloud protocol implemented on students' performance in solving non-routine static fluid problems. Subsequently, combined scaffolding supports were given to the students based on their particular difficulties. The research findings pointed out that there were several conceptual difficulties discovered from the students when solving static fluid problems, i.e. The use of buoyancy force formula, determination of all forces acting on a plane in a fluid, the resultant force on a plane in a fluid, and determination of a plane depth in a fluid. An effort that can be taken to overcome such conceptual difficulties is providing a combination of some appropriate scaffolding supports, namely question prompts with specific domains, simulation, and parallel modeling. The combination can solve students' lack of knowledge and improve their conceptual understanding, as well as help them to find solutions by linking the problems with their prior knowledge. According to the findings, teachers are suggested to diagnose the students' difficulties so that they can provide an appropriate combination of scaffolding to support their students in finding the solutions. © 2018 Author(s).
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, State University of Malang, Jl. Semarang 5, Malang, 65145, Indonesia
