Moving from the Task to the Lesson: Pedagogical Practices and Other Issues

Abstract

We alluded in earlier chapters to the many challenges and considerations faced by teachers as they seek to take a task and build a coherent lesson around it. We talked about research on task choice, the role of teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge, the need to consider extending and enabling prompts to use alongside the task, and the subtle but important differences in the use of different kinds of tasks. Put simply, the task of itself is not sufficient to guarantee student learning, irrespective of its quality. This chapter is an attempt to articulate some key teacher actions which have the potential to maximise learning opportunities presented by a given task. The seven actions which we highlight in this chapter are the following: being clear on the mathematical focus and the goals of the lesson for students; considering the background knowledge which students are likely to bring to the task, how to establish this, and likely responses students will make to the tasks; considering ways in which students who have difficulty making a start on the task and students who solve the task quickly might best be supported; monitoring students’ responses to tasks as they work individually or in small groups on the tasks; selecting students who will be invited to share during discussion time; focusing on connections, generalisation and transfer; and considering what the next lesson might look like.