mathematical reasoning ;
computational thinking and the role of technology in both doing and teaching
mathematics; the
four focal content areas ; and
21st century skills in the context of mathematics .
Mathematical reasoning 161. The PISA 2021 mathematics framework foregrounds mathematical reasoning enabled by
some key understandings that undergird school mathematics (understanding quantity, number
systems and their algebraic properties; appreciating the power of abstraction and symbolic
representation; seeing mathematical structures and their regularities; recognising functional
relationships between quantities; using mathematical modelling as a lens onto the real world; and
understanding variation as the heart of statistics).
162. The focus on reasoning has implications for the background questionnaires which should
provide measu
res to understand students’ opportunities to learn to reason mathematically and
employ the key understandings that undergird school mathematics. In particular the questionnaires
should establish the frequency with which students, for example:
Identify, recognise, organise, connect, and represent;
Construct, abstract, evaluate, deduce, justify, explain, and defend; and
Interpret, make judgements, critique, refute, and qualify.
163. In addition to establishing the frequency of the opportunities (to learn) to reason, the
questionnaires should get at what forms these opportunities take (verbal or written).
164. Finally, with respect to reasoning, the questionnaires should get a sense of the willingness of
students to persist with tasks that involve reasoning.
165. In the case of teachers and teaching there is the need to better understand how they see the
role of reasoning in mathematics in general and in their teaching and assessment practices in
