Luthfiana Tarida, Mega Teguh Budiarto, Agung Lukito
Introduction. The problem and the aim of the study. Vocational maritime students need to understand basic mathematical concepts to support shipping safety, for example, in the material on linear interpolation functions that can be used to estimate the relationship between various variables needed to avoid shipping accidents. However, students need help solving mathematical problems. Students require a functional thinking process to solve mathematical problems, primarily in generalizing the relationship between quantities. Some of them have difficulty in the functional thinking process. In this case, we utilize a digital teaching aid in the form of GeoGebra software, which has the potential to overcome the difficulties of functional thinking processes. Therefore, this study aims to explore the functional thinking process of maritime vocational college students in solving linear interpolation problems with GeoGebra to estimate relationships between variables that can avoid ship accidents. Study participants and methods. This study involved (36) third-semester vocational maritime college students majoring in the Deck Officer Program in Indonesia with different categories of mathematical ability, including (11) high, (24) moderate and (1) low. This category was obtained based on their applied mathematics course scores in the first semester. A qualitative research approach was used in this study. Data collection was carried out by giving students problem-solving tasks (PST) and PST-based interviews. Data analysis began by calculating the frequency of occurrence of students' functional thinking aspects based on the students' PST answers, transcribing the interview results based on PST and organizing PST results and transcripts according to a framework that reflects the functional thinking process. Results. The results showed that 50% of students achieved low functional thinking aspects with the frequency of occurrence of three out of six functional thinking aspects, 33.33% of students achieved four functional thinking aspects, and 16.67% of students achieved five functional thinking aspects. The functional thinking process of students with different mathematical abilities improved after they used GeoGebra to solve PST. Students with high and moderate mathematical abilities achieved all functional thinking aspects so that they discovered the general rules of linear interpolation used to estimate the relationship between variables to avoid ship accidents. Students with low mathematical ability also experienced increased functional thinking even though they only achieved four functional thinking aspects. The problem-solving stage can trigger functional thinking, including identifying problems at the analysis stage, representing data at the design stage, finding recursive patterns and finding covariational relationships at the exploration stage, finding correspondence relationships at the implementation stage, and evaluating general rules at the verification stage. Conclusion. This study concluded that GeoGebra improved maritime vocational college students’ functional thinking processes in problem-solving, especially in visualizing relationships through function graphs. However, students with different mathematical abilities showed different levels of engagement, and further research is needed to explore other types of tasks to improve functional thinking in all students. © Luthfiana Tarida, Mega Teguh Budiarto, Agung Lukito, 2025.
Mathematics Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia; Departement of Deck Officer Program, Akademi Maritim Nusantara, Indonesia; Mathematics Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia; Mathematics Education Study Program, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
