1997/11/01 by Marjorie Henningsen, Marjorie A. Henningsen, Mary Kay Stein
Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods #Mathematics Education and Pedagogy #Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
paper · doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.28.5.0524
crossref issued 1997/11/01 · crossref published 1997/11/01 · crossref published-print 1997/11/01 · openalex publication_date 1997/11/01 · crossref created 2020/08/19 · crossref deposited 2020/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
In order to develop students' capacities to “do mathematics,” classrooms must become environments in which students are able to engage actively in rich, worthwhile mathematical activity. This paper focuses on examining and illustrating how classroom-based factors can shape students' engagement with mathematical tasks that were set up to encourage high-level mathematical thinking and reasoning. The findings suggest that when students' engagement is successfully maintained at a high level, a large number of support factors are present. A decline in the level of students' engagement happens in different ways and for a variety of reasons. Four qualitative portraits provide concrete illustrations of the ways in which students' engagement in high-level cognitive processes was found to continue or decline during classroom work on tasks.