Transforming secondary mathematics teaching: increasing the cognitive demands of instructional tasks used in teachers' classrooms

Abstract

Mathematics teachers' selection and implementation of instructional tasks were analyzed before, during, and after their participation in a professional development initiative that focused on selecting and enacting cognitively challenging mathematical tasks. Data collected from 1 8 secondary mathematics teacher participants included tasks and student work from teachers' classrooms, lesson observations, and interviews. Ten secondary mathematics teachers who did not participate in the professional development initiative served as the contrast group and participated in 1 lesson observation each. Analysis of the data indicated that, following their participation in the professional development initiative, project teachers more frequently selected highlevel tasks as the main instructional tasks in their classrooms and had improved the maintenance of high-level cognitive demands. Significant differences existed between project teachers and the contrast group in task selection and implementation. These differences were not influenced by the use of Standards-based or conventional curricula in project teachers' classrooms.