Thinking is a cognitive activity that produces different ways of solving problems which affects numeracy literacy ability. The numeracy literacy consists of two domains, namely change and relationship and quantity. This study aimed to describe students’ numeracy literacy ability viewed by characteristics of students’ way of thinking. This study was a qualitative research with a phenomenological design. The participants were eight 9th grade students from a junior high school in Central Java, Indonesia, who had different characteristics, that are concrete sequential (CS), concrete random (CR), abstract sequential (AS), and abstract random (AR). The data were collected by using written tests, questionnaires, and interviews. The results show that each characteristic had its own way of solving the numeracy literacy problems. In quantity domain, CS, CR, and AR students tend to answer the problem with one solution; however, AS students responded with various alternative answers. In change and relationship domain, a difference was observed between concrete thinkers and abstract thinkers. CS and CR students tend to solve problems by using an example to take a trial-and-error approach. Meanwhile, AS and AR students tend to work using existing concepts by manipulating the formulas in the question with logical and rational processes.
Keywords: characteristics of students’ way of thinking, junior high school, numeracy literacy ability