Home > Published Issues > 2026 > Volume 12, Number 1, 2026 >
IJLT 2026 Vol.12(1): 64-69
doi: 10.18178/ijlt.12.1.64-69

What Does Defragmenting Research Reveal about Solving Mathematical Problems? A Systematic Literature Review

Abdul Wahab A.1,*, Jarnawi Afghani Dahlan1, Yaya S. Kusuma1, Syaiful2, and Mirza Aulia1
1. Department of Mathematics Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Science Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
2. School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, and Economics, The University of Adelaide, Australia
Email: abdulwahaba@upi.edu (A.W.A.); jarnawi@upi.edu (J.A.D.); yayaskusuma@upi.edu (Y.S.K.)
*Corresponding author

Manuscript received May 15, 2025; accepted August 29, 2025; published February 27, 2026.

Abstract—Research on defragmentation in mathematics education has developed in response to the issue of fragmented thinking structures that often hinder students' success in solving mathematical problems. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aims to analyze findings from studies on defragmentation in addressing these challenges. A total of 17 peer-reviewed articles published between 2019 and 2024 in Scopus or SINTA-indexed journals were systematically and thematically analyzed. The results show that defragmentation strategies help students overcome various errors in mathematical problem-solving by enabling the diagnosis of thinking errors and supporting the design of more guided and coherent intervention strategies. The findings imply that defragmentation can serve as an alternative instructional strategy to strengthen students’ conceptual understanding in mathematics learning. 
 
Keywords—defragmentation intervention, problem solving, mathematics learning

Cite: Abdul Wahab A., Jarnawi Afghani Dahlan, Yaya S. Kusuma, Syaiful, and Mirza Aulia, "What Does Defragmenting Research Reveal about Solving Mathematical Problems? A Systematic Literature Review," International Journal of Learning and Teaching, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 64-69, 2026.
 
Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

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