THE DIFFERENCE OF STUDENTS MATHEMATICAL UNDERSTANDING IN REALISTIC MATHEMATICS EDUCATION AND CONVENTIONAL CLASSROOM AT SMP NEGERI 1 LUBUK PAKAM

This research is quasi-experiment. The purpose of this research was to know if students mathematical concept understanding in RME classroom is better than students mathematical concept understanding in conventional classroom at SMP Negeri 1 Lubuk Pakam.The population of this research was all students of SMP Negeri 1 Lubuk Pakam which consists of 24 classes, whereas the sample consisted of 2 classes, they are Bil-1 as experimental class consists of 28 students, Bil-2 as control class consists of 29 students. Experimental class used RME, whereas control class used conventional learning model. Collecting data technique of this research was mathematical concept understanding test that was given in the end of learning either in experimental class or control class. The type of this test is essay test. Before doing hypothesis test, it would be done normality and homogeneity test beforehand. From the result of those tests, sample was taken from normal distributed and homogeneous population. From the data analysis of experimental class by using t-test with significance level α = 0.05, it was obtained that tcalculation > ttable then H0 is rejected and Ha is accepted.So, it can be concluded that students mathematical concept understanding in Realistic Mathematics Education approach classroom is better than students mathematical concept understanding in conventional classroom at SMP Negeri 1 Lubuk PakamFrom the research that has been done, researcher suggested that RME can be as consideration to teachers in enhancing junior high school students mathematical concept understanding ability, and if teacher intends to use RME, it is needed preparation and used time effectively in its implementation because learning process of mathematics by using RME needs longer time since in its learning, students receive information from teacher indirectly. For further researcher, result and instrument of this research can be used as consideration to implement RME approach in different class level and topic