Pola dan Lintasan Kesalahan Mahasiswa dalam Pemecahan Masalah Trigonometri Open-Ended
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53696/venn.v5i5.664Keywords:
Analisis Kesalahan, Lintasan Kesalahan, Masalah Open-Ended, Polya, TrigonometriAbstract
This study aims to identify error patterns and trace students’ error trajectories in solving open-ended trigonometry problems based on Polya’s problem-solving stages. An exploratory qualitative approach with cross-case analysis was employed. The participants were 85 first-year undergraduate students enrolled in a Trigonometry course in the second semester of the 2025/2026 academic year. Four open-ended problems yielded 340 responses, which were analyzed across four stages: understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, and looking back. Errors were categorized as conceptual, representational, strategic, procedural, and verification errors. Eight students were purposively selected for interviews to clarify their problem-solving processes in specific cases. The findings revealed that error patterns varied according to the demands of each problem. Strategic and procedural errors predominated in general triangle problems, conceptual and verification errors were prominent in trigonometric identity proofs, whereas representational and strategic errors dominated function modeling and graphing problems. Cross-case analysis identified four main error trajectories: representational errors that propagated into strategic and procedural errors; adequate problem understanding accompanied by inappropriate or undeveloped strategies; appropriate strategies followed by errors during execution; and correct execution followed by inadequate verification. These findings extend Polya-based error analysis beyond stage-specific classification by tracing the relationships among errors across successive stages of the problem-solving process.
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