Mathematics problems in eighth-grade lessons in the Netherlands emphasized the relationships between mathematics and real-life situations to a greater extent than those in most of the other countries (figure 4).

	Figure 4 Average percentage of problems per eighth-grade mathematics lesson that were either set up with the use of a real life connection, or set up using mathematical language or symbols only, by country: 1999 1Japanese mathematics data were collected in 1995. 2AU=Australia; CZ=Czech Republic; HK=Hong Kong SAR; JP=Japan; NL=Netherlands; SW=Switzerland; and US=United States. 3Problems whose set-up contained a real life connection: AU, SW>JP; NL>CZ, HK, JP, US. 4Problems set up using mathematical language or symbols only: AU, CZ, HK, JP, SW, US>NL; JP>AU, SW, US. NOTE: Percentages may not sum to 100 because some problems were marked as "unknown" and are not included here. For each country, average percentage was calculated as the sum of the percentage within each lesson, divided by the number of lessons. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study. (Originally published as figure 5.1 of the report from which this highlights summary is drawn, Teaching Mathematics in Seven Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study [NCES 2003-013]).

Students in the Netherlands were more likely than their peers in four of the other six countries to encounter problems that included a real-life connection (that is, word problems or other presentations that place problems in the context of a real-life situation; 42 percent of problems, on average, per lesson). The mathematics problems teachers presented to their students in all of the other countries were more likely to use only mathematical language and symbols than the problems presented in Dutch mathematics lessons (69 to 89 percent of problems, on average, per lesson compared to 40 percent, respectively).