The development and evaluation of mathematics learning materials based on realistic mathematics education with a scientific approach to enhance students’ learning outcomes

This study aims to develop, describe learning activities, and test the effectiveness of mathematics learning materials based on Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) with a scientific approach on the topic of sequences and series. The study uses the 4-D development model, which includes the stages of define, design, develop, and disseminate. The developed materials consist of Lesson Plans (RPP), Student Worksheets (LKS), and Learning Outcome Tests (THB). The research subjects were tenth-grade science students (X MIPA) at SMA Negeri 1 Dringu. Data were collected through validation sheets, observations of learning activities, observations of teachers’ ability to manage learning, student response questionnaires, and learning outcome tests. The results show that the developed learning materials meet very valid criteria, with validation percentages of 91.30% for RPP, 90.18% for LKS, and 91.03% for THB. Learning activities showed that students were actively engaged in observing contextual problems, discussing, formulating problem-solving strategies, communicating results, and drawing mathematical conclusions. The practicality of the materials is demonstrated by teachers’ ability to manage learning at 96.23%, students’ positive responses to learning at 96.76%, and positive responses to the materials at 89.35%. The effectiveness of the materials is indicated by the experimental class’s posttest average score of 84.3, higher than the control class’s 72.5, with a t-value of 7.21 and significance of 0.000. The N-Gain value of the experimental class was 0.68, also higher than the control class’s 0.42. Thus, RME-based learning materials with a scientific approach are declared valid, practical, effective, and capable of supporting more meaningful mathematics learning activities.