This chapter gives a historical sketch on the development of the Didactics of Mathematics as practised in German language countries, from the nineteen sixties to the present. Beginning from "Stoffdidaktik", anecdotal teaching episodes and large scale psycho-pedagogical research, Didactics of Mathematics has developed into a well defined scientific discipline. This tradition has embraced a plethora of areas researched via a range of methodological approaches stretching from local case studies to

more »

... large scale surveys in order to capture broad perspectives on research into teaching and learning mathematics. Enlarged "Stoffdidaktik", and Didactics of Mathematics as a "design science", draws on a large number of classroom studies looking into a wide variety of specific aspects of teaching and learning mathematics. The sometimes politically driven, large-scale studies use sophisticated statistical methods to generate generalizable results on the state of educational systems, especially in terms of the changes and trends over time.