Abstract

In this introductory chapter I give a preview of the landscape of issues concerning mathematics education in the Netherlands and the role of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) that one can come across in this volume, which contains the reflections of twenty-eight Dutch mathematics didacticians on teaching and learning mathematics in the Netherlands. Although all chapters have their own focus and mostly only discuss one particular aspect, together they provide a rich inside view into what is worth knowing of Dutch mathematics education and RME. The preview highlights some significant topics from these chapters, such as what tasks are preferred in RME to elicit students’ mathematical thinking, RME’s focus on the usefulness of mathematics, the role of common sense and informal knowledge, changes over time in the content of the mathematics curriculum, aspects of the Dutch educational system, including teacher education and assessment, the implementation of RME, and the context of developing RME.

Highlights

  • The 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13) held in Hamburg, Germany, in 2016, and in particular the ICME-13 Thematic Afternoon session “European Didactic Traditions,” was a trigger for Dutch mathematics didacticians to reflect on what is typical for mathematics education in their country

  • The common characteristics that came to the fore and that can be considered as distinctive features of the European didactics of mathematics, were: “a strong connection with mathematics and mathematicians, the key role of theory, the key role of design activities for learning and teaching environments, and a firm basis in empirical research” (Blum et al, 2019, p. 2)

  • These are the features that recur in the reflections on mathematics education in the Netherlands as described by the twenty-eight Dutch mathematics didacticians in this volume

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Summary

Introduction

The 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13) held in Hamburg, Germany, in 2016, and in particular the ICME-13 Thematic Afternoon session “European Didactic Traditions,” was a trigger for Dutch mathematics didacticians to reflect on what is typical for mathematics education in their country. In this session, the Dutch approach to teaching and learning mathematics in school, in research, and in development was presented, together with the approaches in France, Italy, and Germany. The aim of the session was to delve into what the four countries

Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen (B)
The Focus on a Particular Type of Tasks
Usefulness as a Key Concept
Common Sense and Informal Knowledge
Mathematical Content Domains Subject to Innovation
The Systemic Context of Dutch Education
The Implementation of RME
The Context of Creating a New Approach to Mathematics Education
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