%0 Journal Article
%T Examining the Types of Mathematical Tasks Used to Explore the Mathematics Instruction by Elementary  School Teachers
%A Wei-Min Hsu
%J Creative Education
%P 396-404
%@ 2151-4771
%D 2013
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ce.2013.46056
%X <p style=\"text-align:justify;\">
	<span style=\"font-size:12px;\">This study examined the different types of
mathematical tasks used in the classroom to explore the nature of mathematics
instruction of three sixth grade teachers in an elementary school. Case
studies, instruc</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">tional observations,
and classroom artifacts were used to collect data. The results showed that the
three teachers used different types of mathematical tasks and implementation
methods. One teacher focused on high cognitive demand tasks, most of which
involved substantial group discussion and students working cooperatively. Even
though the other two also used many high cognitive demand tasks, these were
mainly presented via teacher-student dialogue. By examining the types of
mathematical tasks and their imple</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">mentation, it was found that the group discussion tasks were generally
all high cognitive demand tasks, in which the students fully explained the
solution process. As for the tasks administered through teacher-</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">student dialogue, due to the usage of large
amounts of closed-ended dialogue, the students used low cog</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">nition to solve the mathematical tasks and
did not have the opportunity to completely explain their think</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">ing about the solutions. Thus, in order to
fully understand the nature of mathematics instruction by teach</span><span style=\"font-size:12px;\">ers, there should be simultaneous
consideration of the types of mathematical tasks used as well as how the tasks
were implemented.</span> 
</p>
%K Mathematics Instruction
%K Mathematical Tasks
%K Task Implementation
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=32537