As a generation closely connected to the world of education and innovation, students play an important role in supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the 4th goal on quality education. One of the steps that can be taken is presenting learning innovations that are relevant, contextual, and close to students’ lives. However, mathematics is often still considered difficult by students, as evidenced by Indonesia’s 2022 PISA ranking at 70th place, which reflects a tendency for low mathematical problem-solving skills. This problem can be seen in the students’ low understanding of Social Arithmetic materials. To overcome this, innovative teaching materials that are close to students’ lives are needed.
To support the realization of quality education, students from the Mathematics Cluster of Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) presented an innovation in a Social Arithmetic textbook integrated with Challenge Based on Ethnomathematics Learning (CB-EL). This innovation combines mathematical concepts with the local wisdom of traditional culinary arts from Purworejo Regency. Through this approach, students can learn mathematics via cultural contextualization while honing their critical thinking skills. The research and development of this textbook were carried out at SMP Negeri 12 Semarang, Central Java, to test its feasibility, readability, effectiveness, and student responses. The development team consists of Arina Durrul Muna, Jauza Novita Ahzahra, Diana Putri Agustin, Sylvia Ratna Duhita, and Chealsya Antanina Situmorang, under the guidance of Mr. Adi Satrio Ardiansyah, S.Pd., M.Pd.
The main advantage of this textbook lies in the presentation of Social Arithmetic materials directly linked to traditional Purworejo culinary arts, such as clorot, geblek, and kue lompong. Students are invited to solve real challenges interactively, such as calculating capital, selling price, profit-loss, and discounts. The research results indicate that this textbook is highly feasible to use, easy to understand, and received a very positive response of 85% from the students. Furthermore, this textbook has proven effective in improving students’ mathematical problem-solving skills, as seen from the increase in the average score from 44.27 to 77.20. This innovation is expected to inspire local wisdom-based learning as well as serve as tangible evidence of students’ contributions to improving the quality of education.
