Two Decades of Realistic Mathematics Education in Indonesia

Abstract

AbstractIn this chapter, we report on the process of adapting Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), a didactic approach founded by Freudenthal in the Netherlands, to the Indonesian context. In Indonesia, RME is called ‘Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia’ (PMRI). The chapter starts with describing how RME came to Indonesia. It was Sembiring from the Institut Teknologi Bandung who saw Jan de Lange, the director of the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University, presenting a keynote at the ICMI conference in Shanghai in 1994. Then the story continues with the decision of the Indonesian government to send six doctoral candidates to the Netherlands to learn about RME. The chapter also explains the process and results from the development and implementation of RME through a Dutch-Indonesian project Dissemination of PMRI (Do-PMRI). Moreover, the chapter describes examples of implementation strategies such as developing a master’s program on RME, designing learning materials using RME theory and the development of a national contest of mathematical literacy using context-based mathematics tasks similar to those employed in the PISA test. The chapter ends with a discussion of two new initiatives at Sriwijaya University in Palembang, namely the development of a Centre of Excellence of PMRI and the establishment of a doctoral programme on PMRI.