Student’s Analytical and Synthetic Thinking Level in Solve Linear Programming

Analysis and synthesis are higher level thinking skills that are fundamental in creative thinking. This research is a qualitative method to identify the analytical and synthetic level of thinking of students in solving linear programming problems. Twenty-three students from the 2018 class of the Mathematics Education Program of UKSW participated in this study. The data collection instruments of this research were 5 linear program essays categorized into 5 types of problems, which were dismemberments of the whole into its component parts problems, establishment of relationships between the parts of the whole problems, integration by parts problems, solution planning problems, and error finding problem with an explanation of the error reason. This result shows that the level of analytical and synthetic thinking skills of students in the 2018 class of the Mathematics Education Program of UKSW are relatively low. For dismemberments of the whole into its component parts problems and establishment of relationships between the parts of the whole problems, most of the students achieved until the attributing stage, but more complex problem i.e. integration by parts problems, the students only achieved the differentiating stage. For solution planning problems, and error finding problem with an explanation of the error reason, most of the students only achieved the generating stage.