Scientific reasoning refers to the thinking skills involved in conceiving and conducting an investigation. This study examined how proficiency in performing these skills develops during the upper-elementary school years. A sample of 157 children (age 7-10) took a performance-based scientific reasoning test in three consecutive years. Four distinct…

Standard setting methods, like the Bookmark procedure, are used to assist education experts in formulating performance standards. Small group discussion is meant to help these experts in setting more reliable and valid cutoff scores. This study is an analysis of 15 small group discussions during two standards setting trajectories and their effect…

A description is presented of the mathematics curricula in four different school types in the Netherlands, based on empirical data from the Second International Mathematics Study. It was shown that there were big differences within and between school types. (LMO)

The principal focus of this study was the assessment of mathematics in primary education within Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), a mathematics reform movement begun in The Netherlands in the 1960s. The book that resulted from this study is comprised of seven chapters, the first four of which constitute part 1 and are the core of the work.…

The operational preparations for the Dutch national assessment program in education started in 1986. The program's aim is to periodically describe the contents of the curriculum in use and the attainment of 8-year-old and 11-year-old students on a national basis by means of surveys. In this paper some of the guiding principles in instrument…