Context Exploration: An Example from the Implementation at Discrete Mathematics Classroom

Context is recently claimed as an important aspect of mathematics learning in many countries, including Indonesia. Context proposes many opportunities for students to learn mathematics, including logic. In this case, the role of context is intended to enhance the students’ desire towards logic and to develop a better insight into it to solve contextual problems. Moreover, context can provide students with different strategies for mathematical problems. Thus, this paper attempts to descriptively describe the results from a developmental study which aims to investigate the concept of context, context design and the examples of context used in discrete mathematics classrooms. Students’ written works were also presented to show how students deal with context-based problems. Several articles and books related to the issues about what context basically means, why it is important in mathematics classrooms and how to design the context were also studied. Lecturers’ awareness and perception about context were essentially needed in order to design the context that can be implemented in the classroom. The results of this study show that context can be a powerful instrument for students to construct their mathematical knowledge, especially in discrete mathematics, and to react with high-quality mathematical reasoning. Moreover, the lecturers need to acquire a better understanding of how to design context that bridge the students’ previous knowledge to right mathematics procedure.