PUTTING CONTEXT IN CONTEXT: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE FOR THE BENEFITS OF ‘CONTEXTUALISED’ TASKS

By Kim Beswick. 2011

87 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The professional literature in mathematics education is replete with calls to use tasks that are ‘authentic’, ‘relevant’ and related to ‘real life’ and the ‘real world’. Such activities are frequently advocated for their potential to motivate and engage students, but evidence of their ability to do so is rarely presented. This paper examines evidence in relation to the effectiveness of context problems in achieving their intended purposes and thereby contributing to enhanced student participation, engagement and achievement in mathematics education. It is argued that context problems are not a panacea and that categorising problems as contextualised or de-contextualised is less helpful than the consideration of more salient aspects of tasks that impact on their effectiveness. Such aspects also relate to the purposes for and affordances and limitations of particular tasks in relation to the purposes they are intended to serve, along with attention to the contexts in which students learn mathematics. Examples of theoretical and empirical programs built on these considerations are reviewed in terms of their potential to enhance participation, engagement and achievement in school mathematics.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Literature and Literary Theory

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5a56ce636ff5471dde7b08a9ca51007d976ee777

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Literature and Literary Theory

Citations in the corpus

Emotions and motivation in mathematics education: theoretical considerations and empirical contributions (2017, background): “, converting intra-mathematical problems into word problems) on motivation and emotions have widely been discussed in mathematics education, although they have not yet been sufficiently empirically clarified (Beswick 2011; Schukajlow et al. 2012).”
Authentic Problem Solving and Learning in the 21st Century (2015, methodology): “In contrast, Jurdak (2006) provided a more general definition that did not specify exclusions but described authentic tasks as ‘meaningful, purposeful and goal-directed’ tasks that simulated real-world problem-solving (cited in Beswick 2011, p. 369).”