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http://dx.doi.org/10.7468/jksmec.2015.18.2.61

An analysis on the level of cognitive demands of mathematical tasks set up by pre-service elementary school teachers  

Kwon, Sungyong (Gongju National University of Education)
Publication Information
Education of Primary School Mathematics / v.18, no.2, 2015 , pp. 61-75 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study analyzed the characteristics of mathematical tasks including the level of cognitive demands set up by pre-service elementary school teachers. 50 pre-service teachers in G university of education who participated in their 4 weeks teaching practicum were selected as subjects. They planned and implemented mathematics lesson with their lesson plans. Lesson plans, video of their lessons, transcript of video were gathered and analyzed the characteristics of mathematical tasks used in their lesson. Through the analysis, several conclusions were drawn as follow. First, 78% of the subjects modified tasks in mathematics textbooks. Since modification or construction of mathematical tasks gives good chance for constructing mathematical task knowledge for teaching, more chance should be given to pre-service teachers to construct new tasks or modify tasks in mathematics textbooks. Second, types of modification done by pre-service teachers were categorized as number change(15.6%), situation change(78.1%) and material change(6.3%). As Chapman(2013) emphasized the importance of MtKT, pre-service teachers must have more MtKT by understanding the characteristics of mathematical tasks. Third, the level of cognitive demands required by mathematical tasks were relatively low. 74% of mathematical tasks was lower cognitive demands and only 26% was higher cognitive demands. The level of cognitive demands of tasks in mathematics textbooks tended to be lowered by the directions given right after the tasks were given. In this respect, the structure of mathematics textbooks need to be changed.
Keywords
pre-service elementary school teachers; mathematical tasks; level of cognitive demand;
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