Universal Journal of Educational Research 8(3): 1055-1061, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080340 Understanding the Number Concepts through Learning Connected Mathematics (CM): A Local Cultural Approach Desi Andriani 1 , Wahyu Widada 1,* , Dewi Herawaty 1 , Hafizatul Ardy 1 , Khathibul Umam Zaid Nugroho 1 , Nilna Ma’rifah 1 , Dessy Anggreni 2 , Abdurrobbil Falaq Dwi Anggoro 1 1 Department of Mathematics Education, Universitas Bengkulu, Indonesia 2 SMP N 16 Kota Bengkulu, Bengkulu, Indonesia Received October 29, 2019; Revised January 21, 2020; Accepted February 7, 2020 Copyright©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Mathematics becomes an important subject in elementary school. Numbers are one part of school mathematics. Learning that links between concepts and what is close to students' minds makes it easy for students in the process of reaching concepts. This is CM based on local culture. This research used a 2x2 factorial design. The population is all elementary school students from the "Integrated Islamic Foundation" in Bengkulu City. Samples were taken by using an intact group technique. The total sample is 60 students. With the local culture-based CM learning for experimental class and conventional learning for control class, the research instrument is a test of the ability to understand the concept of numbers. It is a valid and reliable instrument. The data was analyzed using the ANCOVA statistical test. The results of this study are Fo (A) = 9.7289 with, df = (1, 57) and p-value = 0.090 <0.05, which means Ho is rejected. It is showed that there is a linear effect of the covariate (initial ability) to understand the concept between the students who follow the learning by using CM with a local cultural approach. Fo (B) = 4.8096, df (1, 57) and p-value = 0.016 <0.05. In this case, Ho was also rejected. Thus, it can be inferred that there is the influence of CM learning with a local cultural approach on the ability to understand number concepts. It can be concluded that the average score and comprehension of the number concept for students who were taught by using CM learning was higher than the students who were taught with conventional learning models. Finally, the mean score for students' ability to understand the number concepts among the students who were given local culture-based materials was higher than the students who were given the materials which are not based on local culture. Keywords connected Mathematics, Local Culture, Concept Understanding 1. Introduction Mathematics is the main subject of elementary school students. This is often the main reason why they are learning mathematics and feel anxiety with the mathematical concept [1]. Mathematics lessons become the most difficult material to be understood by the students. The effect is that the students are afraid to learn mathematics at schools. Probably, the process of learning was boring, and also the teachers who taught mathematics can not design the learning well. Also, mathematics is taught structurally and mechanically. As a result, students fail to understand the concepts in mathematics correctly. Therefore, mathematics learning is needed to be connected with daily life. So, the teachers need to develop an empirical mathematics learning [2]. This is connected to mathematics [3], which is the development of connected mathematical material. In Connected Mathematics (CM), the word connected has three meanings. There is a context that is connected to the environment where the students live [4]. It is also called a local culture [5][6]. There are thematic ideas in mathematics that connect the units and strands, together with symbiotically linking at the unit and grade level. Everything becomes coherent. It was called a Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) [3]. In learning, mathematics will be more meaningful if it connects with the local culture [7]. The local culture is one of the ways that make students easier to begin to learn mathematics. It is often called CITE THIS PAPER [1] Desi Andriani , Wahyu Widada , Dewi Herawaty , Hafizatul Ardy , Khathibul Umam Zaid Nugroho , Nilna Ma’rifah , Dessy Anggreni , Abdurrobbil Falaq Dwi Anggoro , "Understanding the Number Concepts through Learning Connected Mathematics (CM): A Local Cultural Approach," Universal Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 1055 - 1061, 2020. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080340.