Supporting teachers in structuring mathematics lessons involving rich and challenging tasks
Peter sullivan
monash university
australia
This presentation will report on aspects of a project that is exploring the
characteristics of tasks that are appropriately challenging for school
students, and ways of supporting teachers in converting such tasks into
classroom lessons. The responses of the teacher participants to surveys after
their teaching indicate that the lesson structure we propose is effective and
the elements of the lessons presented to teachers are both necessary and
sufficient for supporting students in engaging with the challenging tasks.
There are implications not only for teacher educators but also for curriculum
developers. The presentation will include examples of the challenging tasks.
Workshop: features of challenging tasks that can be adapted to different levels of secondary school
My plenary presentation outlined the purpose and potential of posing students with more challenging tasks in mathematics. In this workshop we will examine the features of four more challenging tasks set at junior secondary levels but which can readily be extended to suit senior secondary students.