| In 2002, University of Cincinnati faculty members from the College of Engineering and the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services proposed the Science and Technology Enhancement Program Project (STEP) to improve students' learning in the secondary mathematics classroom using modules of inquiry-based teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the STEP Project on students' achievement in and attitude toward mathematics. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to evaluate the impact of the STEP Project. The sample group for the study was 130 ninth grade students enrolled in Integrated Algebra I in a large urban school district. The school was one of eight secondary schools that participated in the STEP Project. The classes in the treatment group were three of five classes ordered in terms of the highest, middle, and lowest mean GPA. The control group consisted of two other middle GPA classes. The classes had an average of 25 students. Teachers who previously had been involved in the STEP Project taught all treatment and control classes. The inquiry-based teaching activities provided by the project were confined to the treatment classes. The mathematics achievement test scores and a survey measuring students' attitudes toward mathematics were obtained for both groups of students.;An effect on mathematics achievement was significant at p < .08 (ES = .51). The inquiry-based teaching methods had no substantially different effects on students of different genders ( p = .42, ES = .07). These results suggest that inquiry-based teaching improved mathematics achievement. Furthermore, the inquiry-based teaching affected students' attitudes toward mathematics (p < .07, ES = 3.07). Especially, African American students who had preexisting favorable attitudes toward mathematics were significantly affected by treatment (p < .02, ES = .02), while the treatment affected African American students overall at p < .08 (ES = .58). |
