Inquiry & CMP Research

CMP is a student-centered, inquiry-based teaching model. First the teacher sets the stage, states the objective and provides real-world context and any necessary background information (Launch). Then the students work together to solve the problem or complete the project with the teacher acting as facilitator and offering open-ended questions as answers to students' inquiries (Explore). After students work independently in groups, the class is brought together to share what they've learned and share problem-solving strategies. The teacher summarizes what the students learned (Summarize).
Compared with the traditional model of instruction, guided practice and independent practice, there is less modeling by the teacher and instead students are more left to their own devices to discover how to complete tasks, and they share their strategies with the class. The CMP also emphasizes more group collaboration as a given.
As the Connected Math Project website states:

• Classroom instruction focuses on inquiry and investigation of mathematical ideas embedded in rich problem situations.
• Mathematical tasks for students in class and in homework are the primary vehicle for student engagement with the mathematical concepts to be learned. The key mathematical goals are elaborated, exemplified, and connected through the problems in an investigation.
• Ideas are explored through these tasks in the depth necessary to allow students to make sense of them. Superficial treatment of an idea produces shallow and short-lived understanding and does not support making connections among ideas.
• The curriculum helps students grow in their ability to reason effectively with information represented in graphic, numeric, symbolic, and verbal forms and to move flexibly among these representations.
• The curriculum reflects the information- processing capabilities of calculators and computers and the fundamental changes such tools are making in the way people learn mathematics and apply their knowledge of problem-solving tasks.