The Inquiry Math Classroom: Growing Confidence and Building Equity in K-8 Settings

The Inquiry Math Classroom guides teachers to infuse inquiry-driven student learning into their math classrooms. Veteran teacher and international school leader William Polan brings an approachable lens to the role of inquiry in math and breaks down barriers to entry. Chapters introduce and connect inquiry-driven learning to math while exhibiting how it can boost student confidence and promote equity. Each section provides key principles for inquiry-driven math education—collaboration, curiosity, creativity, metacognition, concepts, and communication—and explains them philosophically, practically, and through action research from the author’s and colleagues’ real classrooms. Ideal for K-8 educators, this resource shows how teachers can nurture student curiosity and cultivate the conditions for student agency, engagement, and self-directedness in mathematics.