Generic and subject-specific dimensions of cognitive activation: Assessing the potential of cognitive activation in mathematics and science tasks

Abstract Cognitive activation (CA) is a key dimension of teaching quality, yet its empirical operationalization remains challenging. This study examines the Potential for Cognitive Activation (PCA) in Grade 9 mathematics and science tasks by differentiating generic and subject-specific dimensions. Building on established coding approaches, we integrated generic and subject-specific dimensions of PCA for application in the large-scale context of the German PISA-Ceco study. Using German textbook tasks ( N = 380) and teacher-used classroom tasks ( N = 5877), distinguishing learning tasks ( N = 966) and exam tasks ( N = 4911), we examined whether theoretically distinguished generic and subject-specific dimensions of PCA can be reliably applied and empirically differentiated within and across mathematics and science tasks. We further investigated differences across subjects, task functions, and school types (Gymnasium vs. lower school tracks). Results indicate high interrater reliability, but reveal a low prevalence of task-based PCA dimensions across subjects and task types. Dimensionality analyses indicated that generic and subject-specific PCA, as captured by the coding scheme, could be empirically separated for classroom tasks, whereas textbook tasks were best represented by an overall, largely unidimensional PCA construct. School-type differences were not systematic in textbook tasks. For classroom tasks, they varied by task function and subject. Overall, the findings provide further insights into the empirical structure of generic and subject-specific PCA and into how potentially cognitively activating task characteristics vary across task types, task functions, school types, and subjects.