ABSTRACT
This chapter problematises several aspects of the design and use of tasks to teach mathematics: the nature and role of tasks and the importance of associated teaching strategies; the authorship of tasks: who designs them and why; and differences of intentions and expectations between designers, teachers and learners. If learners are given tasks that ask them to make something, whether virtually on-screen or a physical object of some kind, they will come to see mathematics as a creative tool. However, the question of authority in task design is pertinent in the literature. However, there is a school of thought that claims task design as a specific skill that cannot be done by teachers, because teachers do not have the time or resources to undertake research-informed cycles of design that, following an engineering process, lead most effectively to learning.
