How the written structure of mathematics tasks influences secondary school students’ engagement and learning.

As student engagement with mathematics experiences have been shown to be directly related to mathematics learning outcomes, understanding of engagement in mathematics is critical. This study adds to the knowledge of student engagement in mathematics by investigating how the written structure of mathematics tasks influence student engagement and learning. The study explored two versions of mathematics tasks, employing a combination of survey and comparative case study to better understand student opinions, preferences, engagement and learning with mathematics tasks. In this study, a simple written structure task more effectively generated engagement and learning than a traditional, textbook task.