What does it mean for an instructional task to be effective

In this paper we discuss the considerations and challenges in designing instructional tasks that support both students ’ mathematical engagement and their developing mathematical competence. We draw on Dewey’s work and take the perspective that cultivating students’ content-related interests should be an instructional goal in their own right rather than solely serving the instrumental purpose of supporting students ’ conceptual understanding. We reflect on our learning from two classroom design experiments to offer illustrations of issues related to supporting students ’ interests. We offer these illustrations, not as exemplary cases, but instead, as points of reflection and discussion. In this paper, we focus specifically on instructional tasks by presenting a retrospective analysis on the role of tasks in supporting students ’ interests and access to important content ideas