Online Discussion: Implementation of High-Level Cognitive Demand
High levels of cognitive demand must be maintained in order to ensure high levels of student learning. A high-demand task (procedures with connections or doing mathematics) in the written curriculum is not necessarily implemented at that level. So, part of ensuring student learning is maintaining high levels of cognitive demand. Research describes four specific trajectories for high-demand tasks when they are implemented. These include:
- Maintenance of high-level demands
- Decline into procedures without connection to meaning
- Decline into unsystematic and nonproductive exploration
- Decline into no mathematical activity
READ the file Tasks in Implementation (in the module contact) for more detail about each of these trajectories. Given these possibilities, it is important to think about how this can happen. What does it look like for a high-demand task to devolve into something else? For this activity, read the file Classroom Vignettes. Answer the following questions:
- For each vignette, identify which of the four categories best describes what happened to the high-demand task during implementation.
- For each vignette, provide a justification for the description you chose in #1.
- What specific details from the vignette led you to categorize the case as you did?
POST ONCE. RESPOND TWICE. Do you agree with the categories/justifications provided by your classmates? If so, why? If not, why not