ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN SOLVING STORY PROBLEMS AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

One of the abilities that must be possessed by students is the ability to understand concepts but the facts in the field show that students' ability to understand concepts is in the low category. The purpose of this study was to determine students' conceptual understanding skills in solving math word problems. The research method used is a qualitative approach with descriptive methods. The subjects in this study were class VIII SMPN 1 Want Jaya which consisted of six students, namely two students with the ability to understand concepts in the high category, two students in the medium category, and two students in the low category. The instruments in this study were the researchers themselves, concept comprehension test sheets, namely LTKPKS-1 and LTKPKS-2, interview guides and recording devices. Data collection is done by tests and interviews. Data analysis using time triangulation. The results of the study were (1) Subjects in the high category fulfilled all indicators of conceptual understanding ability. (2) Subjects in the moderate category meet the four indicators of understanding the concept, namely restating a concept, giving examples and non-examples of a concept, presenting concepts in various forms of mathematical representation, developing necessary and sufficient terms of a concept, but still making many mistakes on indicators of using and utilizing and selecting certain procedures or operations and applying concepts or algorithms to problem solving and not fulfilling on indicators fulfilling on indicators of classifying objects according to certain properties according to the concept. (3) Subjects in the low category only meet the four indicators of ability to understand concepts, namely indicators restating a concept, giving examples and non-examples of a concept, presenting concepts in various forms of mathematical representation, developing necessary and sufficient requirements of a concept, but not yet able to classify objects according to certain characteristics according to the concept, use and utilize and select certain procedures or operations and apply concepts or algorithms to problem solving.