Eleven experienced secondary school mathematics teachers from Catalonia participated in semi-structured interviews exploring student learning difficulties. The research identifies sources of complexity related to inherent knowledge intricacy and task design, using cognitive load theory as a framework. Interviews were conducted face-to-face, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed until empirical-driven saturation was reached.
Use Cases
- Analyze teacher-reported sources of complexity in mathematics learning based on interview transcripts.
- Compare perceived difficulty of different mathematical topics based on teacher comparisons.
- Identify factors contributing to task and knowledge complexity in classroom instruction based on teacher insights.
- Validate or extend cognitive load theory frameworks using empirical teacher perspectives.
Strengths
- Data collection reached empirical-driven saturation, suggesting comprehensive coverage of themes.
- All participants had at least five years of teaching experience, providing insights from seasoned professionals.
- Interviews were semi-structured and included analysis of a specific Year-7 textbook learning sequence on fraction operations.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Sample is limited to 11 teachers from three schools in Catalonia, which may reflect geographic bias.
Provenance
- Source
- Miró, Àlex via QDR Harvested Dataverse.
- Collection Method
- Semi-structured interviews with secondary school mathematics teachers.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-04 07:13:56; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Catalonia, Spain (Barcelona metropolitan area).