Learning by Doing in Mathematics Class of Fisheries Agribusiness Student in Agriculture Polytechnics Kupang

Mathematics is an important subject for understanding almost every subject whether science and technology, medicine, the economy, or business and finance. Previous research shows that many agricultural students have deficient mathematical skills for their future profession after their education. They also indicated that there is often a weak link between mathematics teaching in vocational education and the labour market. Fisheries agribusiness students did not really seem to understand the importance of learning mathematics and they claimed that learning mathematics means doing with formula, memorize algorithm, calculate and manipulate without understanding. While several researchers found that students working with an integrated mathematics education have more motivation, they learn better, and understand and remember more, when it’s related to their reality. Therefore, this research aimed to see the effect of learning by doing in mathematics for students’ achievement and motivation. All of 47 first semester students in fisheries agribusiness study program participate in this research. Pretest-posttest experiment compiles with survey research was chosen as the research methods to reach the goal. Paired sample t-test showed Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) = 0,057 (p > 0.05) means that learning mathematics by doing can improve students achievement. Moreover, 75% students have high motivation, 20% average motivation and 5% have low motivation.