Challenges in Designing Tasks: Multiple-Case Study of Secondary Mathematics Teachers

• In Event: 18.058 - MTCC Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: 18.058-2 - Rethinking Math Quantitatively

Abstract

In this multiple-case study we examined secondary mathematics teachers’ design of mathematical tasks at different levels of cognitive demand. There are four levels of cognitive demand by Stein et al., (2000) memorization, procedures without connections, procedures with connections, and doing mathematics. 40 secondary mathematics teachers were asked to design tasks at each level of cognitive demand and 13 were interviewed. We found that teachers had issues designing tasks at the higher levels and mostly designed tasks at level 2 (procedures without connections). The interviews showed the following challenges: 1) challenges related to the cognitive demand levels, 2) challenges related to the students, and 3) challenges related to the teachers.

Authors

• Angelica Monarrez, University of Texas - El Paso

• Mourat Tchoshanov, The University of Texas - El Paso