Welcome to the ICRME

The mission of the International Consortium for Realistic Mathematics Education (ICRME) is to nurture a global network of collaborating researchers, teachers & developers who are interested in improving mathematics education using principles of Realistic Mathematics Education.

The activities of ICRME focus on:

• Collaboration in research and development in mathematics education.
• Developing curricula and related resources at several levels of detail, from teaching, learning and assessment trajectories to classroom materials for teachers and students.
• Supporting improved teacher practice in at all levels (i.e., schools, districts, regions, and countries) through communication, sharing of resources and professional development.
• Cross-campus exchange of instructors, graduate students, and research faculty.

Realistic Mathematics Education

​Since its founding in 1971, the Freudenthal Institute developed a domain-specific instruction theory on the learning and teaching of mathematics, known as Realistic Mathematics Education (RME). RME incorporates views on what mathematics is, how students learn mathematics, and how mathematics should be taught. It is the result of many years of design research, and is a ‘living’ theory, which is being continually adapted as new insights are gained.

The principles that underlie the RME approach have been strongly influenced by Hans Freudenthal’s idea of mathematics as a human activity. Freudenthal felt that students should not be considered as passive recipients of ready-made mathematics, but rather that education should guide the students towards using opportunities to reinvent mathematics by putting it into practice themselves (i.e., guided reinvention). RME requires a high intellectual autonomy of the students. One of the key principles of the RME approach is that students should actively participate in the learning process. In a stimulating learning environment students should have the opportunity to build up their own knowledge and understanding. 

[Guided reinvention] is striking a subtle balance between the freedom of inventing and the force of guiding, between allowing the learner to please himself and asking him to please the teacher. Moreover, the learner’s free choice is already restricted by the “re” of “reinvention”. The learner shall invent something that is new to him but well-known to the guide.
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     -- Hans Freudenthal, on the role of guided reinvention in math education
              Revisiting Mathematics Education. China Lectures. p. 48