In this study we investigated associations between studying in a foreign language and students' academic achievement and study behaviour. Data were gathered in the Netherlands, at the Delft University of Technology (DUT). The results show that the success rate of foreign students was about the same as that of the Dutch students, but that foreign students needed more time to pass the examination. Language proficiency played a major part in explaining differences in study achievement as did the presence or absence of a selection procedure in the student's country of origin. Furthermore, the results show that the study behaviour of foreign students was significantly different from the Dutch students: their average grades on examinations were lower, they made more attempts before passing an examination, they were more likely to postpone examinations and to follow a different order from the recommended one. Suggested measures to improve foreign students' study success include requiring higher levels of language proficiency and stricter selection of foreign students in the country of origin. It is suggested that a system of mentors which provides for intensive coaching of foreign students in their first year may prevent a slow start.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Mathematics as a compulsory school subject was introduced in the Netherlands in the first decades of the 19th century. While in the beginning there was some involvement of Dutch academic mathematicians, later on their engagement with mathematics teaching was only marginal. That changed in the second half of the 20th century. Hans Freudenthal, professor of mathematics in Utrecht, became deeply involved in mathematics teaching. He became the first director of the IOWO, the Institute for the Development of Mathematics Education, that dominated Dutch mathematics teaching from the 1970s on. In the 1960s, under the influence of New Math, other mathematicians had already played a role in the modernisation of the teaching of mathematics, but from the 1970s on, their role became minimal again. In the first decade of the 21st century the dominance of the ideas of Realistic Mathematics Education elicited protests from mathematics departments at several universities. This criticism induced fierce and often heated debates. At the moment, these discussions have calmed down and it seems that a new understanding between the worlds of school and university mathematics is growing. 1 Latin schools were grammar schools for boys of approximately 12-18 years old to prepare them for university.