In the Dutch secondary education system, students must carry out at the end of their school career a research or design project to demonstrate their ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills while pursuing a rather large research question or design goal in some depth. They are encouraged to choose the topic themselves and they are to some…

Describes a study that examined the problems Dutch secondary students encountered when conducting research projects and difficulties teachers faced when coaching students in research skills. Results indicated that problem finding was an underdeveloped skill in education. Although teachers score d much better than students on a test of research…