The impact of students’ personality types on the application of problem-solving strategies in solving PISA questions

Abstract

Abstract The problem-solving strategy is one of reasons why Indonesian students competing in PISA only placed at the lowest rank. This is caused by some factors, including personality types. To indicate the effect of these types towards students’ strategies used is required more detail explanation. This research aims at investigating the strategies used by students in solving PISA questions based on personality types. There were 30 junior high school students in Banda Aceh involved in this research. Two research instruments were used, one consists of level 4, 5, and 6 PISA questions and another one is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questioner. The data gathered were analysed by grouping students based on the Myers-Briggs types. Afterwards, students’ answers to PISA questions were matched with the ten indicators of Posamentier and Krulik’s problem-solving. The result of this research shows that students come under 6 of 16 personality types. The result indicated that personality types impact the strategies which students applied in solving a problem in answering PISA questions. The implication of this study shows that teachers require to use combination of problem solving strategies to address different types of students’ personalities in Mathematics teaching and learning processes in order to optimize students’ achievements, particularly in problem-solving.