significance of meaningful contexts for mathematics and emphasize the need to pre-
serve meaning within classroom contexts. Nunes et al. propose that the Dutch Real-
istic Mathematics Education, in which problem solving is central, goes a long way
in doing this (Nunes et al., 1993).
Whilst children in the Netherlands do not begin school until six years of age, in
England most children now start school during their fourth year and it is largely for
this reason that we have focused on children’s earliest marks and their
development. Such a socio-cultural approach as REM, ‘integrates both the child’s
personal constructions and the educator’s pedagogical responsibilities’ (Oers,
2004a, p. 71). The term ‘realistic’ in the Dutch curriculum refers not only to
‘connections to the real world ...’ (but also) offering students ‘problem situations
that they can imagine’ (Heuvel-Panhuizen, in Anghileri, 2001b, p. 51). Pupils
following the REM curriculum ‘are expected ... to develop models and to be able to
proceed from their “own informal mathematical constructions to what could be
accepted as formal mathematics”’ (Streefland, 1990, p. 1, in Nunes et al., 1993),
something which we also expect children to do. Essentially the curriculum view is
that ‘mathematics is a cultural activity that should not be reduced to correctly
performing mathematical operations’ (Oers, 2002, p. 23).
A recent study (Anghileri, 2002a) compared pupils written calculations strategies
in England with those of children in the Netherlands using the REM approach. The
research emphasises that flexible calculation strategies are ‘more important than the
use of one sophisticated strategy’ (Anghileri, 2002a, p. 1). Acknowledging this
research, MEI argues that that in the Dutch approach ‘there is a much stronger sense
that mastery develops over time, and that fluency has to go hand in hand with
understanding (MEI, 2005, p. 73).
Whilst the majority of Dutch schools use the REM curriculum, work in the
Netherlands based on a Vygotskian perspective has led to the Developmental Edu-
cation curriculum (adopted by an increasing number of schools and pre-
schools),with children of four to seven years of age, and this is supported by the Free
University in Amsterdam. The Developmental Education approach supports chil-
dren’s meaning-making through a play-based curriculum. Oers emphasises that
whilst Vygotsky’s cultural-historicalperspective (on which the core of the socio-cul-
tural approach is based) is ‘still strongly activity based ... the focus on meaning has
become more explicit’ (Oers, 2004b, p. 1, 3). Interest in the cultural historical
approach has grown internationally through the work of researchers including
Jerome Bruner, Michael Cole, Barbara Valsiner and James Wertsch, (Oers, 2004b, p.
2) and has also been linked with the work of Bakhtin, Wells, Halliday and Dewey
(Oers, 2004c, p. 1) and with Lave and Wenger’s situated learning(1991). Thus in the
Netherlands, both the REM and the Developmental Curriculum appear to emphasise
the importance of allowing pupils to attach personal meaning to the cultural
transmission of mathematics.
Zevenbergen raises concerns about the philosophy that underpins mathematics
curricula in Australia and many other western countries. Comparing the Dutch
approach to that of Queensland in Australia, she argues that ‘while there are tokenis-Who takes notice of children’s own ‘written’ mathematics? 58657part 1b.qxd 04/07/2006 18:05 Page 5