Anita Dewi Utami, Cholis Sa'Dijah, Imam Rofiki
Metaphorical thinking is an ability to represent mathematical situations using metaphors from a semantic perspective. It can be used as a means of assessing students' higher-order thinking skills. The present study aimed to examine students' HOTS in a statistical methods course using metaphorical thinking. A qualitative approach was employed in this study, with the researchers as the primary instrument, and mathematical problems and interview guidelines as additional instruments. The mathematical problems were designed to elicit information on how students tackled statistical problems, while the interviews aimed to clarify the problem-solving process and identify factors that contributed to errors. The results revealed that students lacked a thorough understanding of the concept of homogeneity of variance at the grounding metaphor stage. At the linking metaphor stage, students erroneously described normally distributed data as "all students in the class having the same ability to be at the intermediate level,"which contradicts the definition of normally distributed data. At the redefinitional metaphor stage, most students merely provided examples or scenarios that corresponded to the given concept, indicating a low level of HOTS. In conclusion, metaphorical thinking can serve as a useful tool for assessing students' higher-order thinking skills in a statistical methods course. However, this study highlights the need for students to develop a more profound understanding of certain statistical concepts to avoid errors in the application of metaphors. Further research is necessary to explore effective methods for improving students' comprehension and use of metaphorical thinking in statistical methods. © 2024 Author(s).
Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia