Education and Human Sciences, College of (CEHS)
Title
TEACHERS’ INQUIRY-BASED MATHEMATICS IMPLEMENTATION IN RAPID CITY AREA SCHOOLS: EFFECTS ON ATTITUDE AND ACHIEVEMENT WITHIN AMERICAN INDIAN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
4-24-2009
Abstract
Project PRIME (Promoting Reflective Inquiry in Mathematics Education), was funded by
the National Science Foundation in October 2002. Implementation subsequently began in 2003
and focused upon K-12 mathematics education within Rapid City, South Dakota Area Schools
(RCAS). One goal of the project has been to reduce the achievement gap between Native
American and non-native students enrolled in RCAS. At the elementary level, this gap reduction
was to be achieved through promoting broader use of inquiry-based mathematics, strategies that
have been shown elsewhere to help struggling math students in general (Baxter, Woodward, &
Olsen, 2001; Franke, Carpenter, Levi, & Fennema, 2001; Kazemi & Franke, 2004) and Native
American students in particular (Demmert, 2001; Hankes, 1998; Nelson-Barber & Estrin, 1995).
This ethnography of education policy implementation (Hamann, 2003; Levinson & Sutton, 2001;
Muncey & McQuillin, 1996) focused on whether through Project PRIME, inquiry-based
mathematics strategies were consistently implemented in the three K-5 elementary schools with a
significant Native American student population in RCAS and only then considers whether
Project PRIME and RCAS can be used to extend or challenge the existing understanding that
inquiry-based mathematics might be particularly advantageous to Native American students.
This study examined 5th grade classrooms during the 2008-2009 year as these students
have been the target of Project PRIME the longest; the vast majority of 5th grade RCAS students
should have been involved with inquiry-based mathematics for most of their elementary years (if
intended implementation was enacted). Implementation at the three high-Native American
enrollment schools was then compared with a fourth elementary school that had a lower Native
American student population but was considered an exemplar of inquiry-based mathematics by
RCAS and Project PRIME leadership.
Advisor: Edmund T. Hamann
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A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Education, Major: Educational Studies. Under the Supervision of Professor Edmund T. Hamann.
Lincoln, NE: May, 2009
Copyright (c) 2009 Jamalee Bussinger-Stone.