Book Description

The intended purpose of this study was to analyze the differences between teaching mathematics to sixth grade advanced math students using the constructivist apporach, and then to compare this class with another sixth grade advanced math class who had been taught the same standards using traditional algorithms. These students were placed into different groups and worked collaboratively on different investigations [using Connected Mathematics 2] to discover the algorithms to simplify integer expressions. The data from this study was compared to other sixth grade advanced math students who had been taught algorithms using a traditional textbook [McDougal Littell Middle School Math. Course 3] with teacher led instruction. After analyzing the data, the results showed that there was no significant difference between the two methods of teaching. The test scores were similar despite the pedagogy used to teach the standards to the students.