Why do some mathematics lessons captivate high school students and others not? This study explores this question by comparing how the content unfolds in the lessons that students rated highest with respect to their aesthetic affordances (e.g., using terms like "intriguing," "surprising") with those the same students rated…

Research suggests that high school students often have negative experiences with mathematics. To address this challenge, this paper shares findings of a design-based research project in which researchers and teachers developed and used a narrative approach to lesson planning in order to design lesson experiences that provide opportunities for high…

When mathematics educators work towards making mathematics more relevant, they often think about including more real-world applications into mathematics lessons. But what happens when a lesson is devoid of real-world contexts? In what ways can students find it relevant? This study explores how high school students perceived relevance when they…

How can we design mathematical lessons that spark student interest? To answer this, we analyzed teacher-designed and enacted lessons that students described as interesting for how the content unfolded. When compared to those the same students describe as uninteresting, multiple distinguishing characteristics are evident, such as the presence of…

One way to recognize how mathematical lessons can be stimulating for children is to interpret them as stories. If mathematical lessons follow a structure similar to that of a story, they can build anticipation, create surprise, and even generate intrigue (Egan 1988). To support the design of mathematical lessons with these types of aesthetic…

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for interpreting the content found in mathematics curriculum in order to offer teachers and other mathematics educators comprehensive conceptual tools with which to make curricular decisions. More specifically, it describes a metaphor of "mathematics curriculum as story" and defines and…

Elliot Eisner proposed that educational challenges can be met by applying an artful lens. This article draws from Eisner's proposal to consider the assumptions, values, and vision of mathematics education by theorizing mathematics curriculum as an art form. By conceptualizing mathematics curriculum (both in written and enacted forms) as stories…

Efforts to enhance the aesthetic impact of mathematics lessons must account for the role of teachers in shaping the unfolding mathematical content of their enacted lessons. In this paper, we draw from Dietiker (2015) to describe differences in the mathematical stories of the enacted lessons of two veteran teachers teaching the same lesson. We…