Overcoming Students’ Misuse of Linearity in a Non-linearity Situation in Schools

This paper aims to address issues on factors influencing students’ overuse of linearity in schools and ways to prevent the illusion of linearity. It is observed that students’ misuse of linearity is influenced by peer pressure, lack of knowledge, and problem-solving skills among students, excluding real-world knowledge in solving problems, the effect of education, content effect, teaching and learning approach, and cultural beliefs. This illusion of linearity can be eradicated among students through different approaches including using teaching as an intervention, incorporating both proportional and non-proportional word problems in the assignment, test, and examination, constructing open-ended questions only in the test and examination, giving both proportional and non-proportional word problems in a single lesson plan, using textbook/syllabus as an intervention, and interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and practice. This paper has implications for the teaching and learning process, including teachers gaining knowledge and skills on how to use word problems in the learning context to help students avoid the misconception of using linearity in a non-linear situation, including when responding to assignments, tests, and examinations.