Perceived difficulty of a mathematical task: do in-service and preservice teachers have a common view?

This qualitative study investigates how pre-service and in-service teachers perceive the difficulty of mathematical tasks and examines the factors that shape their evaluations. Using two tasks from the national large-scale assessments INVALSI, we aimed to identify whether perceived difficulties align with those of students and to explore any discrepancies between the two teacher groups. Our findings reveal significant differences between pre-service and in-service teachers, particularly in their handling of open-ended versus structured tasks. In-service teachers generally demonstrated alignment with students' evaluations for simpler tasks, while pre-service teachers exhibited emotions with respect to complex tasks. In our interpretation, these results highlight both the influence of teacher experience on perceived difficulty and the importance of addressing both cognitive and affective factors in teacher professional development.