Learning to Launch Cognitively Demanding Tasks: A Practice-Based Unit for Secondary Methods

Author:
Mark A. Creager University of Southern Indiana

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Rachel B. Snider The College of New Jersey

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Christopher W. Parrish University of South Alabama

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Volume/Issue:
Volume 9: Issue 2
Page(s):
127–140
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5951/MTE.2019.0002
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Keywords:
Cognitively demanding tasks; Noticing; Pedagogies of practice; Practice-based teacher education; Secondary methods course; Task launch

Cognitively demanding tasks provide important opportunities for students to develop an understanding of mathematics; however, they are challenging to launch and implement. The authors designed a secondary methods unit on launching tasks. Participants in the study were enrolled in five different methods courses. Using a noticing framework, findings suggest that by engaging in the unit, preservice teachers developed a greater understanding of the four aspects of an effective task launch. When viewing video examples, preservice teachers were able to talk about the four aspects of a task launch with increased specificity. Additionally, they began to identify ways of developing common language without reducing cognitive demand. We discuss implications of this work and offer suggestions for future teacher education research.

Contributor Notes

Mark A. Creager, University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd., Evansville, IN 47712, macreager@usi.edu

Rachel B. Snider, The College of New Jersey, PO Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718, sniderr@tcnj.edu

Christopher W. Parrish, University of South Alabama, University Commons 3124, 307 N. University Blvd., Mobile, AL 36688, parrish@southalabama.edu

(Corresponding author is Mark Creager macreager@usi.edu)
(Corresponding author is Rachel Snider sniderr@tcnj.edu)
(Corresponding author is Christopher Parrish parrish@southalabama.edu)
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Copyright:
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc. All rights reserved. 2021
Page Count:
18
Article Category:
Research Article
Print Publication Date:
01 Feb 2021
Online Publication Date:
01 Feb 2021
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