Numeracy: Mathematics Content Design

Purpose: To raise questions about the mathematics content for online delivery.

References: 43, 45, 64

1. With respect to rules (implicit & explicit; normative in nature), does the activity:
1. embed and impose a certain set of mathematical rules? Which?
2. embed and impose a certain set of rules for pedagogic discourse? Which?
3. make the set of mathematical rules visible and comprehensible?
4. make the set of pedagogic discourse rules visible and comprehensible?
5. enable the negotiation of ‘new’ mathematical rules?
6. enable the negotiation of new pedagogic discourse rules?

2. How prescriptive does the mathematical content need to be?
1. Is content defined and prescribed by the teacher/designer, not changing during the delivery cycle?
2. Is content defined and prescribed, but with additions or modifications made by teacher/designer if and when required?
3. Is content defined and prescribed, but learner additions and contributions enhance the resource base?
4. Through collaborative endeavours between learners and with teachers, content material is added to the overall resource base for the program?
5. Is content defined through research between learners and with teacher/designers, with subsequent interpretation and construction by learners?

3. How well does the structure and organisation of mathematical information link with the possible construction of content?
1. If adopting strategies that enable the dynamic construction of knowledge, how will traditional forms of mathematical information presentation be modified?

4. How well does the content match the goals and outcomes?
1. How will the extent to which program goals and objectives are predefined affect, and be affected by, strategies that enable the learners to use knowledge construction techniques?
2. How will the content be mapped onto the big mathematical ideas?

5. To what extent can there be a contextualisation of content?
1. If there is a dispersed cohort of learners, how might mathematical content be considered in terms of the varying contexts in which the learners are situated?

6. How extensible/adaptable is the content?
1. Is the discipline base so rigid that no options for new content are considered possible, or can new alternatives be considered for collaboratively constructing and extending the knowledge base?

7. How are mathematical accuracy and levels of complexity to be decided, and by whom?
1. Recognition of the learners’ ability to contribute to their own contextualised knowledge base presents questions as to accuracy and integrity of mathematical information — from whose perspective are these characteristics of the content to be measured and assessed?