An analysis of junior high school students' creative thinking skills in solving flat-side geometry problems

The study was aimed at analysing the students' creative thinking skills at SMP Negeri 2 Bandung, focusing on the fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration aspects in solving the flat-side geometry problems. This type of research is qualitative. Tests, interviews, and documentation were utilized as the data collection methods. The students of class VIII-D were chosen as the subject, six of whom were taken as the sample, consisting of two students with high mathematical skills, two moderate, and two low. The findings reveal that the students with high mathematical skills experience no obstacle in the fluency and flexibility aspects, while in the originality aspect the inability to provide creative answers is still exhibited by some students, and in the elaboration aspect the students represent lack of accuracy and detail in answering the elaborative questions. The moderate mathematical-skilled students still indicate difficulty in understanding the problems given, whereas the low mathematical-skilled students show difficulty in understanding the problems. Therefore, they can merely provide less-structured, unsystematic, undetailed answers, and they do not solve many problems as well. This is due to considerable obstacles they still experience.