Ethnomathematics: Utilizing South Sumatra’s cultures to emphasize prospective teachers’ creativity in creating mathematical problem

Abstract

Abstract This Study aims to describe prospective teachers’ creativity in producing mathematical problems based on South Sumatra’s Cultures. The subjects are 30 3rd-year mathematics study program students of Sriwijaya University. These students are divided to 8 groups of three or four. Each group assigned to create 2 mathematical problem from the same cultural context in two weeks. The results show that there is improvement for students’ fluency, flexibility, and elaboration aspect. Students are able to create more than one mathematical problems, proposes more than one resolution, and some of them are able to evaluate those alternatives. There is no significant improvement in the aspect of originality. The topic engaged with the culture tend to be uniform, with most groups employ the concept of geometry and transformation. However there is a sense of mathematical modeling in students’ works. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct further research on ethnomodeling.