Teachers' Decisions about Mathematics Tasks When Planning

At some stage when planning, teachers make decisions about the mathematics tasks they will pose and how they will structure lessons. It seems, though, that these decisions are complex, and that this complexity has been underestimated by curriculum developers and teacher educators. The following is a report of data collection that simulated some of these planning decisions. The results suggest that teachers may need support in matching tasks to curriculum content statements, in articulating the purposes of tasks, and in considering how tasks might be used to address differences in student readiness. [Additional funding was provided by New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Catholic Education Office Melbourne and the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. The project is collaboration between Monash University, Australian Catholic University, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle, and the University of Melbourne.]