Aligning numeracy task design with SDG goals: Nutrition facts as a context for prospective mathematics teachers' problem posing

Abstract

Nutrition facts are the details on food packaging that describe its nutritional value, including serving size, calories, macronutrients like carbohydrates, protein, and fat, and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. These facts have mathematical concepts that can be utilized as a context for prospective teachers to create mathematical problems. By leveraging this real-world data, educators can contribute to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), by promoting nutritional awareness, and SDG 4 (Quality Education) by enhancing student engagement and understanding through relatable examples. This study examines the profile of mathematical tasks created by prospective mathematics teachers using nutrition facts as a context that meets numeracy task criteria. Data were collected from 62 mathematical tasks created by 31 prospective teachers attending a realistic mathematics education course on numeracy based on a problem-posing task at a public university in Surabaya, Indonesia. The posed tasks were categorized into solvable or unsolvable tasks and the domains of the level of context use and the level of cognitive processes. Results revealed that the level of context use in the posed tasks varied from zero to second order. Surprisingly, most of the tasks were in the first-order level context. Most posed tasks reached the application level, with only a few identified as reasoning tasks. Interestingly, some tasks coded as second-order context were classified as reasoning tasks. The study provides implications for designing numeracy tasks using nutrition facts and interventions in teacher education related to numeracy task design.