Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen
Realistic Mathematics Education
This lecture addresses several “progress” issues related to the Dutch approach to mathematics education, called “Realistic Mathematics Education” (RME). The most important of these issues is the way in which RME facilitates the progress of children’s understanding in mathematics. This topic forms the heart of the lecture. Attention is paid to both the micro-didactic and the macro-didactic perspective of the students’ growth. Progress in achievements, as the result of this learning, is the next progress issue to be dealt with. Finally, the spotlights are turned towards the developments within RME itself. The general focus in the lecture is on primary school mathematics education.
RME in brief Realistic Mathematics Education, or RME, is the Dutch answer to the need, felt worldwide, to reform the teaching of mathematics. The roots of the Dutch reform movement go back to the beginning of the seventies, when the first ideas for RME were conceptualized. It was a reaction to both the American “New Math” movement, which was likely to flood our country in those days, and the then prevailing Dutch approach to mathematics education, which often is labeled as “mechanistic mathematics education.”