Examining the Quality of the Elementary School Mathematics Tasks Recommended for Distance Education

Abstract

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, distance education started at K-12 levels in the spring semester of the 2019-2020 school year. The Ministry of National Education had also published instructional tasks to be used in distance education at all grade levels in order to create mathematics learning opportunities for students and to provide resources for teachers. Well-structured and high-quality instructional tasks play an important role in students' learning mathematics. The aim of this study is to examine the quality of the elementary school mathematics tasks recommended for distance remedial education from multiple perspectives, in particular their cognitive demand levels. A total of 85 tasks focusing on 79 critical objectives in grades 1-4 mathematics were examined using document analysis. Results of this study showed that the majority of the tasks were at low cognitive demand level, cognitive demand levels did not show a balanced distribution, and some tasks had mathematical errors.