Could Exist the Cognitive Theory in

al-Qur'an that revealed 12 centuries ago?

Minanur Rohman

Many experts have proposed theory of learning mathematics, namely, "how a mathematical
concept can exist in the students minds ". Piaget stressed that abstraction is an important
thing when learning math concepts. As for David Tall, abstraction capability is also
required in addition to the awareness that there are symbols in mathematics. How the
Qur'an describes the idea of learning mathematics?

Knowledge (philosophical point of view)

At the time the students learn the knowledge, then in fact the student is studying a
phenomenon that is before him. Inorganic symptoms will provide information as to the nature
of reality as the definitive limits of the concept of the all physical. Symptoms or organic
phenomena will provide information as realities definitively portrayed in all-biological
concepts. Realities of the organic and inorganic in other words refer directly to objective
empirical nature, so the concepts are concrete.
Most of the mathematical concepts do not refer directly to organic and anorganic nature, but
rather are more abstract in nature supraorganik (more intangible). Supraorganik reality it is
more rational construction of a mental image which forms a more imaginative cognitive. The
representation of mathematical concepts supraorganic phenomenon can only be said, but it
will not be able to show his form directly.
Ontology of knowledge is the content of knowledge itself (Agus Prasetya, 1997: 87). The
contents of a mathematical concept includes definitions, procedures, symbols, or may apply
the theorem of the concept. Students sometimes (perhaps often) have the contents of the
concepts he learned, that is not the same as the actual content of the concept. This
happens because each student has different understanding of perception, so each student has
a content of a different concept. Anna Sfard gives the term concept and conception is
in accordance with the phenomenon. The term concept used when the mathematical is
viewed as formal definition. Conceptions refers to the representation and the student
association (internal) caused by the concept (Anna Sfard, 1991: 3). Concept and conception
itself depends on the process and the ways in which students learn a concept at the time.

According to Langeveld, needed observations, the object (mathematics) were observed

(supraorganik), and awareness at the students learn mathematical concepts (Agus Prasetya,
1997: 111). For example, high school class XI students who study the concept of limit
functions, at first the students will make observations of the procedures applicable in the
limit of a function (as the observed object). Initial observations that students might see the
similarity between limit functions and function concept. After repeated observations, the
students will have an awareness of differences between concepts of function and limit
function. Awareness includes awareness of the relationship between the definitions,
procedures, concepts and theorems of limit functions with all applicable rules in the concept
of function.T his Langeveld assumption is nothing but epistemology of science
(mathematics) itself.
Philosophy of education is also discussed axiology of science: the values contained in
science. The value of science among other favors value, use value, the value of intellectual,
aesthetic values, ethical values and religious values (Agus Prasetya, 1997:135-136).
Mathematics is one kind of science, so that in mathematics there are those values.
Examples of the intellect may be contained in mathematics is the ability of students in
solving math problems or questions. When students are able to find solutions to these
problems, the students will feel happy, and vice versa. Feelings of students can be viewed as
the pleasure that comes from the mathematical sciences. While the solution of mathematical
problems found , students could be viewed as a use value of the mathematical sciences. After
the students have done a lot of mathematical problem solving exercises, the students may be
able to find new ways to solve these problems. The new solution is found that the student can
be considered as the aesthetic value of the mathematical sciences. Ethical values contained in
mathematics may arise from the rules of mathematics itself. It may be students who are
used to perform mathematical procedures by themselves will have an awareness that life is
inseparable from the rules and norms prevailing in a society. Religious values is the value of
the abstract and require a deep religious consciousness. Students who study the informal
definition of limit - for x close to c then f (x) approaches L-, he might be able to connect this
definition with the rules of a particular religion. Students realized that when he tried their
effort can be considered as a variable x and students as a variable f (x) - to approach God in a
certain way - in a certain way as a variable c, and L -God- as a variable, the student will not
be forever with God (either the nature, form, or the god's own substance). It is clear that the
religious value of the mathematical sciences rely on students' understanding of religion
itself.

The problem is, do students know about the those values embodied in the science of
mathematics itself. In connection with these problems, al-Ghozali quoting al-Khalil bin
Ahmad of the four possibilities, namely: 1) know that he knows, 2) know that he did not
know, 3) do not know that he knows, and 4) do not know that he did not know (alGhozali, 52). Difference between the first and second types of students with third and
fourth types of students lies in the consciousness of the students themselves. This
awareness is so important, because the students are fully aware of what is being learned,
the students will be able to explore the values contained in the mathematical sciences.
Awareness that can provide confidence in a concept has been studied by Ausbel. In view of
Ausbel philosophy, knowledge loses its main purpose if it does not provide a thorough
understanding of the content of knowledge itself (Paul Suparno, 1997:61). Therefore, an
understanding of the beliefs of knowledge has a very important, especially if that
knowledge is the basis for other knowledge.

Activities of Abstraction in Mathematics

As mentioned at the outset, that the mathematical concept is an abstract concept, which
the authors refer to it as supraorganic knowledge. Students who learn math concepts
required to perform a process that aims to create a sense (conception) of the concept.
According to Piaget, "The (mathematical) abstraction is drawn not from the object That Is
acted upon, but from the action itself. It seems a to me that this is the basic of logical
and mathematical abstraction "(Piaget, in Anna Sfard, 1991:17). The process of making
sense of mathematical concepts is none other than the abstraction of mathematical
operations. Gray and Tall defines abstraction as, dually a process of 'drawing from' a situation
and also the concept (the abstraction) output by That process (Eddie Gray and David Tall,
2007: 1). Piaget proposed three kinds of abstraction, empirical abstraction, pseudo-empirical
abstraction and reflective abstraction (David Tall, 1999: 3).
Emperical abstraction is the abstraction that emerged from the concept itself (Jean
Piaget, tth: 39). That is, the abstraction is to focus on one concept and involves no other
mathematical concepts. Pseudo-empirical abstraction is the abstraction that emerged
from a concept that has been manipulated by others related concepts (David Tall, 1999: 4).
In other words, pseudo-empirical abstraction is the abstraction of mathematical objects
that have been given the action. Reflective abstraction is a mental abstraction that
emerged from students in the form of action (pseudo-empirical abstraction) and
operation (empirical abstraction) are performed by students of the studied objects (Piaget,

in Minanur Rohman, 2012: 18). With reflective abstraction, students will find the form of
a concept that involves others related concepts.
In the case of the limit function, students perform an abstraction that focuses on the
concept of limit of function, both abstractions of definitions, procedures, functions and
limit theorems. When students are doing empirical abstraction, then the students will
see a link between the concept of limit functions of the concept of function, so that the
students themselves do the pseudo-empirical abstraction. Reflective abstraction occurs
when a student has given an internal reflection on the concept of function and limit
function, so that students make the unity of the whole concept of the limit function and
the concept of function.
Reflective abstraction visible at a glance as the pinnacle of abstraction that can be
done by the students. However, reflective abstraction has not given guarantees about the
students' beliefs about a concept that they learned. In the case of limit case above,
although the students have performed reflection (reflective abstraction) to the limit with
all the formal definitions related to the concept of limit function, students still find it
difficult to understand the purpose contained in the formal definition of the limit (Cornou,
in Jim Cottril, et. al., 1996: 4). There are other forms of abstraction that can give students
confidence of limit in formal definition.
Author postulated that when the reflective abstraction is done repeatedly, then the
reflective abstraction will form relationships intact concerning a concept. From these
relationships, students will conduct an abstraction s that students have beliefs about a
concept. Author calls the abstraction which rise from the relationships that emerge from
reflective abstraction as an interactive abstraction. Interactive abstraction is the
abstraction of the student when the student connecting among empirical abstraction,
pseuodo-empirical abstraction and reflective abstraction. With interactive abstraction,
students will get an deep understanding of a concept. Thus, students who do not only
reflect on interactive abstraction of a concept and provide a reflection on the concept, but
have got a deep understanding that he gets to give the reflection and coonecting all things
related to a concept.
Abstractions will then be compacted in students' mental cognitive. Students are no longer
seen as the mathematical concept of operation and action, but it is qualitatively as a whole.
Compaction process of abstraction is called compression,
you may struggle a long time, step by step, to work through some process or idea
from several approaches. But once you really understand it and have the mental

perspective to see it as whole, there is often a tremendous mental compression. You can
recall it quickly and completely when you need it, and use it as just one step in some
other mental process. The Insight that goes with this compression is one of the real joys
of mathematics. (WP Thurstone, 1990: 847).
Through compression of abstractions that are performed by the students will turn not
just a description of the process, but form the mental picture of concepts that students feel
as a new entity.

Skemp Theory of Understanding

Perkins and Blythe (1994) defines understanding as ability in explaining, finding evidence
and examples, generalizing, and represents a topic in a new way. Understanding is an
important thing that absolutely must been have by students in learning mathematics, as
most of the mathematical concepts are interconnected between one concept to another
concept. The ability to use and understand the procedure of a concept are two things
needed in the study of mathematics (Hiebert & Carpenter, in N. Idris, 2009: 5).
In 1976, Skemp argues that there are two levels of understanding, instrumental
understanding and relational understanding (Richard R. Skemp, 1976: 13-2). Instrumental
understanding consits of the learning of an increasing number of fixed plan, by which
pupils can find their way from particular starting points (tha data) to required finishing
points (the answer of question) (Richard R. Skemp, 1976: 14). At this stage instrumental
understanding, students still perform certain procedures in understanding a concept.
Procedures wich be done by student is still looks random, because the students still do
not know the reason of the use of such procedures. So Skemp argues that instrumental
understanding is the stage where the students actually have no understanding at all of
a concept (Richard R. Skemp, 1976: 2). Relational understanding consist of building up a
conceptual structure (schema) from the which its possesor can (in principle) produce an
unlimited number of plans for getting from any starting point within his schema to
any finishing point (Richard R. Skemp, 1976: 14 - 15). After a lot of students do exercises
solving mathematical problems, the students will see a link between the procedure
performed with all matters relating to the procedure. Students know the reason for
using the procedure, both these reasons appear to link the procedure with the
definition of a concept, theorem, etc.. That's when students' understanding of relational
understanding is at this stage.

In 1979, Skemp provide additional understanding on the theory of logical

understanding. Logical understanding is closely related to the difference between being
convinced oneself, for the which relational understanding is sufficient, and convincing
other poeple (N. Idris, 2009: 38). Logical understanding is a form of understanding in
which students feel confident of the relationships he made at this stage of relational
understanding. At this stage of understanding, the students have understood all of it
related to a concept and he was able to explain concepts to others.
If Skemp theory is attributed to Piagets abstraction, in the stage instrumental understanding
the student will conduct empirical abstraction and pseudo-empirical abstraction. Both
abstractions are used for students as a first step in understanding a concept. After the
both abstraction is often done, the students will conduct reflective abstraction by reflects
the pseudo-empirical abstraction and empirical abstraction. With reflective abstraction,
students will realize the relations contained in a draft, so the students' understanding can
be said to be on stage relational understanding. Furthermore, with intercative abstraction,
students interacting the previous abstractions. Interactive abstraction will give students a
confidence about understanding a concept, so that the students' understanding can be
considered to be at the stage of logical understanding.

Recognizing the Meaning of Symbols in Mathematics

Students will always find symbols when they learning a mathematical concept. At first,
the students did not know the purpose of these symbols. By enough time, students gain
new information contained in these symbols. It has been meticulously by Grey and Tall,
a major source of the generative power of mathematics is in the use of symbols
(David Tall and Eddie Grey, 1992: 1). These symbols provides an easy way to
understand a simple concept and a guide between the symbol of a concept with
existing processes in the concept (David Tall, 1998: 4). The idea that the symbols are the
processes and concepts, where the symbol can also indicate the process and objects as a
result of a process called procept,
We define a procept to be a combined mental object consisting of both process and
concept in which the same symbolization is used to denote both process and the object
which is produced by the process (David Tall and Eddie Gray, 1992:4)

Procept
Process
Symbol
Concept

Figure 1. Symbol as the Guidelines for Process and Concepts

In Forming Procept
Quran Explanation about Construction Concepts of Mathematics
Because of the Quran is arabic language, then the explanation of the verses are set to
use the rules of the Arabic language. Abstraction activities already exist explicitly in
the Qur'an.
In surah al-'Alaq verses 1 mentioned,

"Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of your Lord and Cherisher, Who Created." Words that
started this surah is the word of command (fiil amar) that "read" (Iqraa). Word Iqraa
itself comes from a root word meaning collect, arrange things in order (Mahmud Yunus,
1990: 335). Word read does not have an object of the command itself, so that the
command of a general nature (A. Malik ibn Muhammad al-Andalusy, tth: 11-16). That is,
humans are required to read whatever he could read and should not be writing, so that people
are accustomed to think. In the context of understanding iqraa like that, then the man is
actually required to contemplation, which is another form of abstraction. Iqraa who have
no understanding of the object in accordance with the mathematical knowledge that is
supraorganic.
Matematics are the kind of konwoledge which rise from definitions, which the definitions
itself are dificult to explain by the language. In the case of limit function, although students
have learned limit function, they have difficulty to explain limit definition by their language
(Minanur Rohmanm 2012: 102-103). The students will make sense about limit function when
they have accumulated their experience in limit function (David Tall, 1992: 2).

Iqraa concept of the Quran can overcome those problems. Here the author divides the two
types of Iqraa, namely Iqraa bil 'aini (read with the eyes) and Iqraa bil' aqli (read by
mind). Students who are accustomed iqraa bil 'aini will find difficulty in understanding the
abstract concept of mathematic. Usually students who do iqraa bil 'aini are students who
learn a new mathematical concept. When students do iqraa bil 'aini, then they will see a
set of procedures and do not realize the interconnection between the procedures,
symbols, and definitions of the concept. Students are still feeling the concept as
quantitative, meaning that they still feels that they learned the concept is the
calculation steps. This little thing is actually a major problem that is difficult for
students to understand the concept, because they still felt that the concept as an
external part of them and they have not made a complete picture of the concept in
their mind. Students should change the style of reading from iqraa bil 'aini be iqraa bil'
aqli. When students continue to take iqraa bil 'aqli, then they will read it mental/abstraction relationships contained in the concept of mathematics, and then create a picture the concept
(mental image) in mind. Through iqraa bil 'aqli, the students can make the concept image
in their mind. Without iqraa bil 'aqli, it is impossible to form concept images of
mathematical concepts that students are learning. So iqraa bil 'aqli will change the way
of quantitative mathematical thinking -the calculations- to qualitative -without involving the
concept of the calculation scheme- (Minanur Rohman, 2012: 8).
In the same verse also there,

" in the name of your Lord and Cherisher, Who Created ". Word ba' ( ) at the

beginning of the sentence arabic grammatically show meaning lil isti'anah, the

sentence that falls after it ( ) are tools to do a job (Maftuhin Sholeh N, 1986: 168-169).
So the letter ba' is hinted that the reading should begin by mentioning the name of
God. In addition, the phrase "Who Creates" indicates that the man -who are reading- is
created by God. This sentence structure as a whole will give the sense that the main
purpose of the reading learning mathematics- is to become closer to God. This is the

difference between the recent cognitive theory with the Quran theory. Unfortunately,
education in Indonesia can not mediated the God message which are in disguise.
In the third verse stated,

"Proclaim! (Read!) and your Lord is Most Bountifull ". Repetition of words in arabic
grammatically shows the meaning taukid (reinforcement), so reading activities -iqraa bil
'aini and iqraa bil 'aqli- is something that is very word very appears as the effect of
strengthening- the most important as a means of drawing near to God.
The Qur'an also describes (in author sense) that the students read activity will take
students' cognitive structure in certain stages.

In surah an-Nahl verse 125 explained that:

"Invite (all) to the path of your Lord with hikmah and mauizhah hasanah; and jidal with
them in ways that are best and gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from
his path, and who receive guidance."(M. Quraish Sihab, 2007: 385)
Ar-Raghib al-Asfahani stated briefly that himah (wisdom) is something that hit the truth
based on science and reason. According Tabataba'i, wisdom (hikmah) is the argument
that generates the truth is not in doubt, do not contain flaws and ambiguities. Al-Biqa'i
expert commentary highlights the people who have wisdom (hikmah), must be fully
confident about the knowledge and actions, so he performed with aplomb, not to
speak with hesitation, or roughly and did not do anything with trial and error
(M. Quraish Sihab, 2007: 385). Al-mau'izhah hasanah (good preaching) is a heart felt
description that led to the good. This can occur if delivery is a ccompanied by practice
and example of the pass. Jidal (denial) is a discussion of the evidence or reason or
excuse to break the discussion partners and make it unable to survive, both described
it accepted by everyone and just by the conversation partner (M. Quraish Sihab, 2007:
385).

In the book of tafsir al-Misbah and Fi Zhilalil Qur'an suggests that wisdom, mau'izhah
hasanah, and jidal is a method of preaching. Preaching is preaching that the
individual is getting better by understanding the religion. The word understanding here
can mean wider. In the surah al-'Alaq there is the understanding that the purpose of
science is to draw closer to God. Mathematics include science, so that mathematics
can be used as a way closer to God.
If surah al-Alaq -verse 1 and 3 - is connected with students' cognitive structure, then
mau'izhah hasanah is the stage where students begin to transform the basic objects
are studied, namely by providing a description of the properties of objects are studied
and assimilate into the schema associated with the object being studied by the
individual. Model abstraction of the student is iqraa bil 'aini.
When students mauizhah hasanah have not understood correctly, the students will
automatically become confused to complete the math problems are more complicated.
Therefore, the cognitive structures as a means to perform jidal to straighten those
students confused. Jidal is a means to enable students to transform the object with
the possibilities were further abstraction of the mental image of the object that has
been studied. At this jidal stage begin to change abstraction of iqraa bil 'aini be iqraa
bil aqli'.
When students do abstraction to give a response back to the object being studied, the
students had done strengthening jidal and lead him to hikmah, because the abstraction
is doing will lead to beliefs about the object being studied. At this hikmah stage
students have balanced between iqraa bil 'aini and iqraa bil' aqli, so there is a new
belief about the concepts learned.
Object

iqraa bil aini

Mauizhah
hasanah

iqraa bil aqli

iqraa bil aini

Jidal

iqraa bil aini

iqraa bil aqli

Hikmah

Used to learn
Another new
object
Figure 1. New Concept Formation Process scheme of the Mind Students

Conclusion
This article aims are to show the development of cognitive structures according to the
Quran. We can also see that the abstraction iqraa affect the level of cognitive
structure. On the other hand, the main difference between the recent cognitive theory
and Quran theory lie on the main purpose is to draw closer to God.
Teachers can insert the values of divinity when explain a concept, so students get
used to remember their Lord. The essence of the deity is very important, because the
techers function is to educate, not teaching. The author lets the other people who read
this article to developing what is in this paper.

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Minanur Rohman, fresh graduates from State Islamic Isntitut of

Sunan Ampel of Surabaya. Born 23th in Malang Indonesia.