How often and when teachers should teach with challenging tasks: the role of motivational beliefs

Prior research has revealed a variety of factors associated with teacher views around when to incorporate challenging mathematical tasks into instruction, such as teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and their prior assumptions about student ability. There has been less focus on how motivational beliefs (teacher anxiety, enjoyment, confidence) shape teachers’ views around teaching with challenging tasks. To address this gap, the current study administered questionnaires to Australian primary school teachers (n = 92) prior to them undertaking a professional learning programme focusing on teaching mathematics through sequences of challenging tasks. Employing logistic regression, we found that more teaching experience and lower levels of teacher anxiety teaching mathematics were associated with the view that challenging tasks should be introduced earlier in a student’s schooling. We also found that higher levels of teacher enjoyment substantially increased the likelihood that a teacher would endorse teaching with challenging tasks more than once a week; however, higher levels of teaching confidence somewhat reduced the likelihood. Implications for practice are discussed.