This book is the culmination of more than 10 years of work on developing the implications of an inquiry approach to mathematics instruction, and on the idea
of "using errors as springboards for inquiry" more specifically. Over this period
of time, my ideas and research benefited greatly from my interactions with sev-
eral people, in a variety of contexts and r01es. Here I would like to acknowl-
edge at least those contributions that were most influential with respect to the
study infonning this book, while also providing some glimpses into the .'histo-
ry" behind the results reported in the following chapters (since the process that
led to them was not as &&linear" and smooth as it may be suggested by the logical
organization finally achieved in the book).