Possibilities for, and Obstacles to Teaching Applications and Modelling in the Lower Secondary Levels

Reports on teaching applications and modelling in eight countries dealt with similar arguments regarding obstacles, each with a different emphasis. The following four obstacles are seem to be common across eight countries in which applications and modelling are located within the national curriculum; “Teachers’ perceptions of mathematics”, “Teachers’ understanding of modelling”, “A lack of adequate textbooks and curricular modelling tasks”, “A lack of adequate assessment, and of modelling tasks in central examinations”.