Mathematics Designed for Engagement: from tasks promoting situational interest to sustained positive mathematics experiences

Abstract Efforts to engage students with mathematics should better take the knowledge of interest development into account. This is a comprehensive study combining personal, philosophical and evidence based considerations aiming for productive contributions to the understanding of the role of interest in long term mathematics engagement. The three parts of the study consist of 1) theoretical review of the interplay of interest development and long term engagement, following with a proposal of interest developing features in mathematics tasks, 2) case study of mathematics tasks following with a model for interest promoting task design and 3) pilot study of teachers’ role in applying interest developing tasks. I will explain how situational interest can be triggered and maintained in ways that result in long term engagement. I will show that common mathematics tasks may lack interest-promoting features. I will provide principles to interest-developing mathematics task design. Finally, I will argue that by unraveling the confusion of the interplay between interest and engagement in research, in practice, in policy documents and in teachers’ professional development, we can improve the quality of students' personal mathematics experiences. The study bridges important gaps in the knowledge of how to promote long term mathematical engagement.