Mathematical modelling in Dutch lower secondary education: An explorative study zooming in on conceptualization

In the Netherlands, mathematical modelling has become a major subject in the higher secondary education curriculum. However, it is absent from the greater part of lower secondary education. To improve the vertical coherence in the curriculum, this study explores the mathematical modelling proficiency in both primary school and lower secondary school. Additionally, this study also gains insight into the difficulties that students encounter while solving modelling tasks. The study includes two modelling tasks on three difficulty levels for 248 learners ranging from 11 to 15 years old. At each level, learners encounter difficulties when constructing a meaningful representation of the described modelling problem or may even fail to understand the problem. These representation problems are qualitatively analysed and are shown to be partially related to learners’ language problems.