Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation

Christopher W. Parrish; Kelly O. Bryd

doi:10.29333/iejme/11475

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Christopher W. Parrish ¹ ^* , Kelly O. Bryd ¹

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¹ University of South Alabama, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

A clear relationship exists between the consistent selection and implementation of cognitively demanding tasks and students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics. However, mathematics teachers often struggle to maintain the cognitive demand of implemented tasks, with a number of factors identified as contributing to this decline. As many students have limited opportunity to engage with cognitively demanding tasks, the percentage of students proficient in mathematics remains low and unchanged. Given that the consistent opportunity to engage with cognitively demanding tasks is key to increasing the percentage of students proficient in mathematics, understanding the role of tasks in the mathematics classroom is of essence to both mathematics students and the field of mathematics education. As such, the purpose of this paper is to describe the role of cognitively demanding tasks in the mathematics classroom, the barriers to task implementation, and the supports for students and teachers related to either their engagement with or implementation of cognitively demanding tasks.

Keywords

cognitively demanding tasks
student supports
teacher supports
professional development

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Review Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 17, Issue 1, February 2022, Article No: em0671

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

Publication date: 03 Jan 2022

Article Views: 3532

Article Downloads: 1838

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Declaration of Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by author(s).

Data sharing statement: Data supporting the findings and conclusions are available upon request from the corresponding author(s).

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How to cite this article

APA

Parrish, C. W., & Bryd, K. O. (2022). Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 17(1), em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

Vancouver

Parrish CW, Bryd KO. Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2022;17(1):em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

AMA

Parrish CW, Bryd KO. Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2022;17(1), em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

Chicago

Parrish, Christopher W., and Kelly O. Bryd. "Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2022 17 no. 1 (2022): em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

Harvard

Parrish, C. W., and Bryd, K. O. (2022). Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 17(1), em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475

MLA

Parrish, Christopher W. et al. "Cognitively Demanding Tasks: Supporting Students and Teachers during Engagement and Implementation". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 17, no. 1, 2022, em0671. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11475