Research and articles

Articles

Mathematics Teaching 281, 2022 

In Building an inclusive community of mathematical inquiry,  Hollie Walton and Andrew Blair argue that inquiry classrooms are equitable classrooms. 

Hollie and Andrew  discussed the article with MT editor Tony Cotton for a podcast. They also ran a workshop at the Mixed Attainment Maths conference in London (UK) in July 2022.

The relationship between inquiry and instruction Andrew Blair (Mathematics Teaching 277, 2021)

Inquisitive about inquiry? Loaded with cognitive load Mike Ollerton, Jude Stratton and Anne Watson (Mathematics Teaching 270, 2020)

Planning and unplanning mathematical inquiry Andrew Blair (Mathematics Teaching 271, 2020)

Capturing mathematical curiosity with notice and wonder Aaron M. Rumack and DeAnn Huinker (Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 2019)

Models for teaching mathematics revisited Andrew Blair and Helen Hindle (Mathematics Teaching 268, 2019)

Inquiry Maths: an idea whose time has come Andrew Blair (Mathematics Teaching 240, 2014)

Inquiry in mathematics education Michèle Artigue and Peter Baptist (2012)

Getting started with student inquiry (2011)

Effective questioning and responding in the mathematics classroom John Mason (2010)

Inquiry teaching Andrew Blair (Mathematics Teaching 211, 2008)

When the problem is not the question and the solution is not the answer Magdalene Lampert (American Educational Research Journal, 1990)

External links

Learning Mathematics in a Classroom Community of Inquiry Merrilyn Goos (Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2004)

Recent research articles

Calleja, J. (2024). Features in task design for inclusion: An example of a mathematical investigation. Educational Designer, 5(17), 1-21.

Dr Calleja explains how inquiry embraces student diversity of ideas and supports an inclusive secondary school mathematics classroom setting.

Makar, K. (2024). Primary teachers' early and retrospective instructional vision of mathematical inquiryJournal of Educational Change, 25, 173-196.

Professor Makar explores how teachers' perceptions of inquiry evolves as they gain experience of teaching mathematics through inquiry over five years. 

The research provides insights into how teachers were confronted by and then persisted through early challenges to make mathematical inquiry a regular part of their pedagogy.

Research

Reading list

The reading list contains books, chapters, PhD theses and articles from research journals about inquiry in mathematics classrooms. Topics covered include the nature of mathematical inquiry, classroom practice, outcomes of inquiry learning, and training teachers in inquiry methods. 

Contact Inquiry Maths with suggestions to include on the reading list.

Last updated in October 2024.

Research questions

Postgraduate students and trainee teachers who are interested in carrying out research into the Inquiry Maths model and mathematical inquiry more broadly might consider research questions related to the following topics:

Research-based structured inquiry

When Richard Glennie, a teacher of mathematics at Levenmouth Academy (Fife, Scotland), started using Inquiry Maths prompts he devised a structured approach to classroom inquiry. Richard divided each inquiry into four stages: notice, wonder, explore, and found. 

He designed an organiser so that students could keep a record of their inquiries as they passed from one stage to the next. Richard also used the organiser to plan inquiries, replacing the final stage with 'learn' (see 'Planning Inquiry Maths lessons' here). To support his model, Richard linked each stage to research.

Richard Glennie's four-stage model of structured inquiry.pdf

Essays and theses

PGDE essay

University of Edinburgh, 2023

Emily Borrill, a newly qualified teacher, compares philosophical inquiry (PwC) with Inquiry Maths. 

Emily submitted the essay as part of her postgraduate qualification in mathematics education (PGDE).

MPhil thesis

University of Cambridge, 2017

In her MPhil thesis, Jane Moss explains how she and her colleagues used a lesson study approach to implement Inquiry-Based Tasks. Aiming to develop reasoning in A-level classes, the teachers "evolved from a group of practitioners into a collaborative democratic partnership, where rich dialogic and supportive discussions emerged."

Universities

Inquiry Maths workshops

There have been Inquiry Maths workshops at the following universities:

Birmingham (UK)

Brighton (UK)

Cambridge (UK)

Dundee (Scotland)

London Metropolitan (UK)

Manchester Metropolitan (UK)

Maryland (US)

Part of a workshop on approaches to learning mathematics.

Nottingham (UK)

Sheffield Hallam (UK)

St. Mary's (UK)

UCL Institute of Education, London (UK)

Sussex (UK)

Warwick (UK)

Trainee teachers' reflections on Inquiry Maths

London Metropolitan University 

Trainee teachers at London Metropolitan University have been using Inquiry Maths in their practice since 2016. Some have created their own prompts, while others have devised new concepts with which to plan and analyse inquiry lessons. Below are links to a selection of the trainee's projects:

Stem and leaves

New fractions prompt

Developing independent and self-aware learners

Planning and evaluating

New prompt on prime factors

University of Brighton

Trainee teachers on a course at the University of Brighton (UK) in 2014-15 review an article about Inquiry Maths.

Inquiry Maths reviewed 

Masters in Education interview

Chelsea Young, an MYP teacher at the Canadian International School in Singapore, contacted the Inquiry Maths website with four questions for her Masters in Education course. Dr Andrew Blair replied.