PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The choice to use inquiry-oriented instruction: The INQUIRE instrument and differences across upper and lower division undergraduate courses
Page: 558
In this study of mathematics teaching, we explore how to measure inquiry-oriented practices of college mathematics instructors. We offer a conceptualization of inquiry-oriented instruction organized by the instructional triangle (Cohen, Raudenbush, & Ball, 2003) and introduce an instrument developed to explore the extent to which elements of inquiry-oriented instruction are present in the teaching of university mathematics courses. This scale has been developed to explore what practices instructors currently use and eventually investigate the relationship between beliefs and practice. We show how we have operationalized inquiry-based instruction as self-report items and report preliminary findings that indicate our scales are performing well. We show that some inquiry-oriented practices are significantly more present in upper-division courses than lower-division courses. This suggests that at least some components of inquiry-oriented instruction are not reducible to individual differences (whether the instructor is an inquiry-based instructor), but also dependent in the context of instruction.