Author(s)

Jixiang Zeng ¹, Hongchang Li ²

Affiliation(s)

¹ Zunyi No. 4 High School, Zunyi, Guizhou, China
² The High School of Guiyang Affiliated to Beijing Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

Corresponding Author

Hongchang Li

ABSTRACT

Assignments have long been treated as an afterthought of classroom instruction, with their educational functions reduced merely to knowledge reinforcement and skill drilling. Meanwhile, big-idea-based teaching is plagued by a substantial interpretive gap between theoretical discourse and teachers' real-world classroom practice. Drawing on long-term classroom observations, this study puts forward two key arguments. First, the essence of assignments lies in "meaning-making weave" rather than mechanical knowledge consolidation: students interweave their personal experiences with disciplinary big ideas to construct their own individualized conceptual tapestry of meaning. Second, big ideas function as "conceptual anchors" within students' cognition, and problem-solving constitutes an exploratory process unfolding along cognitive manifolds. Building upon these propositions, this paper develops the "meaning-making weave: three-domain integration theory" and the Conceptual Anchor-Thinking Manifold Theory (CATM). It further establishes the Big-Idea Anchor-Manifold Unit Assignment Design Framework (BIAM-DT), which consists of five procedural phases: anchor extraction, objective formulation, upfront evaluation, manifold-oriented design, and reflective refinement. It demonstrates how this framework can be applied in real-world teaching contexts through complete cases falling into three categories: pre-unit assignments, lesson-based unit assignments, and core-thinking-method tasks. Findings indicate that large-unit assignments anchored in big ideas and organized around cognitive manifolds can effectively push students beyond reproductive thinking toward integrative weaving-style thinking, enabling a pedagogical shift from knowledge transmission to cognitive-oriented student development.

KEYWORDS

Big ideas; Large-unit homework design; Conceptual anchors; Thinking manifolds; Senior high school mathematics

CITE THIS PAPER

Jixiang Zeng,  Hongchang Li. Principles and Case Studies of Large-Unit Assignment Design in Senior High School Mathematics: A Big-Idea Perspective. Curriculum and Teaching Methodology (2026). Vol. 9, No. 4, 67-76. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/curtm.2026.090410.

REFERENCES

[1] Zeng, J. X. (2026). Principles and Case Studies of Large-unit Assignment Design in Senior High School Mathematics: A Big-Ideas Perspective. Nanchang: Jiangxi People’s Publishing House.
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[4] Liu, H. (2022). Big Idea Teaching: Unit Overall Design for Competency-Oriented Education. Beijing: Educational Science Publishing House.
[5] Zhang, J. Y. (2021). Research on High School Mathematics Curriculum, Textbooks, and Teaching Methods with Core Competencies as the Focus. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press.
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[7] Yu, P. (2022). Homework Design for Core Competencies in Mathematics. Journal of Mathematics Education, 61(5), 1-7+12.
[8] Chang, N., Hu, D. S. (2024). An Analysis of Mathematics Unit Teaching Design under the Guidance of Big Ideas—Taking Middle School Functions as an Example. Journal of Mathematics Education, 33(2), 20-26.
[9] Guan, E. C. (2025). Integrative Teaching of Big Ideas for Core Competency Cultivation: Theoretical Model and Practical Path—Taking High School Mathematics as an Example. Shanghai Research on Education, (6), 68-73.
[10] Li,H.C.(2026) Instructional Design-Driven Generative Learning Analytics: A New Field under the "AI + Education" Initiative. Curriculum and Teaching Methodology. Vol. 9, No. 3, 44-49. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/curtm.2026.090306.

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