ABSTRACT
One reason given for teaching mathematics is to lay the ground for the future learning of mathematics—for A-level Mathematics in England, and post-compulsory/tertiary mathematics more generally in many parts of the world. Another argument for teaching mathematics is that it provides experiences of the skills and reasoning needed to function productively in a world that brims with quantitative data—data that needs to be made sense of for effective participation in everyday life. This chapter describes how the task has been presented, including examples of questions asked that allow a range of agendas—some more mathematical and some more life-competence focused—to emerge. In some descriptions, the need to understand the situation, or to solve a problem in context, drives mathematical selections, while in other descriptions, the situations are just ‘vehicles’ on which specific mathematical content/processes are carried.
