Preservice Mathematics Teachers’ Effective Use of Technology: Analyzing the Cognitive Demands of Technology-Based Instructional Activities

This study examined pre-service teachers’ (PST) ability to integrate technology into instructional activities in ways that support students’ mathematical thinking and reasoning, using the Instructional Quality Assessment to assess the cognitive demand of: (a) instructional tasks, (b) description of how tasks would be implemented or were implemented during the lesson, and (c) level of response expected from or produced by students. Results show that PSTs designed technology-based instructional activities with high-level cognitive demands and aimed to maintain high-level implementation and student response. Results suggest that focusing on cognitive demands of tasks and implementation may be productive for supporting PSTs to incorporate technology in ways that enhance students’ mathematical learning.