Exploring high school teacher’s design of rich algebra tasks

Abstract

The phenomenon in schools today is that teachers rarely change their tasks. However, the teacher's activities to change their tasks, build students' arguments, support solutions, and maintain arguments without long debates are important and exciting things to learn. This study explores the ideas of high school teachers about task design and practice in teaching mathematics. The authors surveyed twelve high school teachers who teach mathematics in East Java Province. First, the authors conducted preliminary observations to observe the design of mathematics teacher tasks for six months in eight schools. Second, the authors state that teachers are engaging and consistent in designing rich algebra tasks. Third, the authors examine the teacher's ideas through direct observation and unstructured interviews. The results show how teachers' ideas about task design enhance students' creative thinking by reforming tasks from textbooks into rich mathematics tasks. The design of the task carried out by the teacher is to create to stimulate creative thinking. The teachers also use their knowledge and understanding of the material and curriculum to modify mathematics tasks in students' mathematics books. The task given by the teacher is to improve students' reasoning, not just memorize formulas or properties.