Mathematics teachers’ multiple perspectives on adaptive tasks: task evaluation and selection as core practices for teaching quality

Abstract

The selection of tasks based on the evaluation of task features can be considered a core practice of teaching and a relevant component of teaching quality. This is typically part of teachers’ preparation for their classroom teaching, which prompts the following question: What are the characteristics of the tasks that teachers use when selecting tasks for differentiated teaching? To answer this question, we analyzed systematic differences in the focus of 78 in-service high school and lower secondary school teachers during the evaluation of task features. The teachers had to select eight tasks about the practice of fractions with respect to their differentiation potential—operationalizing their adaptive teaching competence from a mathematics educational perspective. To analyze the differences, we performed a cluster analysis of the task features that the teachers drew upon. Three groups of teachers could be identified with variations in their focus on directly or indirectly relevant, domain-specific or domain-general task features. Taking into account such variations may explain differences in teaching quality and student outcomes and may be relevant when designing teacher professional development programs.