The Use of Quantitative Method in Education

I want to tell you the results of a poll conducted by Retjobuntung FM (then called by RB). This poll was conducted during the Sapa Pemiarsa on Friday, December 12th 2008, exactly by the announcer, Noorma Kahila. Sapa Pemiarsa is one of the programs in the radio, every day from 06 a.m. until 9 a.m. If the announcer is Noorma Kahila, she always holds polls as the poll in December 12th.
The respondents of this poll are the listeners of the radio, who are between 15-30 years old. The method used in this poll is by Short Message Service (SMS). The respondents give their opinions by sending an SMS to the cellular number which has been provided by the radio. In the beginning of the broadcast, the announcer gives questions or topics will be discussed at that time. Then the respondents were given a chance to convey their opinions by sending an SMS. The time used for the respondents to submit their opinion is about 120 minutes.

The question of the poll held in December 12^th is “What subjects do you like most? Why?”

The result of the poll shows us that most of the respondents do not like mathematics. There is only a few respondents who loves math. The other respondents prefer lessons on the art and language. However, in my analysis, the most important thing that we get from this poll is that most of the respondents liked certain subjects because they love the teacher first.
According to my opinion, the teacher has an important role in the learning processes in the school, especially in Math. The teachers have a much role in motivate the students to learn. Almost of the respondents said that they don’t like Math because of the math teacher. They said that the teacher is a killer teacher, not interesting and always gives much burden tasks to the students. They said that the tasks given by the teachers often need much time.

From the illustration above, we can conclude that students like or not like a lesson is affected by the teachers. Teachers have a role to the Mathematics successful learning

The weakness of this poll is it does not show the detailed quantitative data because the opinion of the respondents is only read by the announcer.

Reference

http://www.retjobuntungfm.co.id

What I can reflect about Psychological Aspects if the student is confronted with the following question

The question is

Tiga tahun yang akan datang umur Yudi menjadi enam kali umur Erik. jumlah umur mereka saat ini adalah 68 tahun. Umur Erik saat ini adalah ... tahun

a. 10 b. 11 c. 12 d. 13

If the students get the question above, there are some students feel confused about what the question wants. They don’t know what the question about. After that they will look the question only, because they don’t understand what they have to do. So they will ask for their friend who can solve the question. The class will be noise because most of the student can’t solve the question.

I think the student will ask the teacher how to solve the question. They think the question is quite difficult. So they need the teacher’s help. If they can’t solve it quickly, they will don’t like mathematics more. It will reduce the motivation of the student to solve the other question. They will always think that mathematics is difficult. They won’t to try to solve some mathematics problem later. It makes them dislike the mathematics. Most of the student like that are easy to surrender.

In spite of that, there are some students who enjoy this situation. They will enjoy solving the question, because they think that they can solve the question. They will try to understand the question about by read it first. After that they will try to solve the question patiently.

If they can solve it, they will be motivated to solve other question. They think that mathematics is interesting and they can’t solve it, they will ask for the teacher then. They will always try to solve more mathematics problems. Most of the students who are able in mathematics are hard workers.

The Mathematics Teachers’ Homework

Students’ ability in mathematics is influenced by their teacher’s way to explain the material. There are some students who want to be explained by the teacher intensively. They can accept what their teacher explains. Thus, it makes the students be confident solving the problems. They think that mathematics is must be explained by the teacher clearly. This is the method they like most. After the teacher explains some materials, the students can do the exercises. .

There are some students who said that mathematics make him confused. They think mathematics is difficult. It is because of the teacher’s way to explain the material is not clearly. They feel so bored in learning mathematics. So they need carefulness in learning mathematics. They think that mathematics teacher always prosecute the students to be able in mathematics lesson. They think that mathematics teacher is less communicative, and don’t take care of the student.

The students need a much motivation in learning mathematics, especially by the teacher. They want the teacher be more communicative and friendly. They are not eager to have a lot of homework and task, because it makes them stress. They don’t feel comfort in this situation. They want to be given some homework but full of knowledge. They want to be relaxed in learning mathematics.

The teacher must develop the motivations of the students. They must make the student feel comfort in the mathematics learning processes. They need to develop a self confidence to their students. They have to ensure the students that they can solve the problem in mathematics. If the students have much motivation and self confident, they will like mathematics unconsciously. After that, they will feel that mathematics is easy.

It is not easy to change the students’ mind-set about mathematics. The teacher must have much motivation themselves. They need to work hardly to make the student like mathematics. It needs a long time to develop the self confident of the student.