Abstract
The purpose of this study is to research the process of mathematics instruction at junior high school through the examination of the effectiveness of materials made to improve mathematical inquiry. The effectiveness was determined by the observation of students in the classroom, their performance in a post-test, and their responses to a consciousness survey. The materials utilized were as follows: "The Method of Multiple Solutions Using Negative Remainders", made for 7^<th> graders to address a particularly difficult subject in the compulsory mathematics curriculum; and "The Study of Polygons", made for 8^<th> graders by reconstructing an existing unit of the compulsory mathematics curriculum. "The Method of Multiple Solutions Using Negative Remainders" was a little too difficult for most of the 7^<th> graders in the study; however, the material seemed to change their unfavorable image of negative numbers and raise interest in them. It also enabled students to enjoy expanding into, and making use of, negative numbers. "The Study of Polygons" deepened student interest in the comprehensive relationships among quadrangles. In particular, the material facilitated student discovery of the properties of parallelograms and the conditions that must be met for quadrilaterals to be parallelograms.
