Searching for Alternatives for New Math in Belgian Primary Schools—Influence of the Dutch Model of Realistic Mathematics Education

Abstract We sketch the turbulent history of primary mathematics education in Belgium during the last (half) century. The outline starts with traditional mathematics in the period before and shortly after World War II, an approach that is often, but partly unjustly, labelled as ‘mechanistic’. Then we focus on the rise of New Math or ‘modern mathematics’ in the 1970s. We briefly discuss its roots and describe how this structural approach, which basically followed the development at the secondary level, was implemented in Belgian primary schools. By the early 1980s, New Math was strongly criticis... Mehr ...