Background: Traditional mathematics teaching involves a form of education that is based on educational materials where pupils’ skills are trained through individual silent work. It is currently the kind of teaching that is currently used most in Swedish schools. Reality-based mathematics means that the teacher implements real situations that occurs in everyday life / reality in mathematics teaching. It aims to clarify the relationship between mathematics as practiced in school and practiced outside school. This study is based on Jean Piagets cognitive constructivism and Lundgrens (1972) and Stensmos (2008) frame factor theory. That proposes that humans must construct and build their knowledge through experience and which factors that have an affect on the tuition. Aim: The aim of this study is to look into the teachers' experiences of reality-based mathematics. To answer this following questions were prepared:  What is reality-based mathematics and when is it used?   How do different factors affect the possibility to conduct reality-based mathematics?    What are the advantages and disadvantages concerning a reality-based mathematics?   Methods: The study is qualitative in nature, where semi-structured interviews and observation were chosen as the research method. Results: The analysis shows that teachers mainly have positive experiences into reality based teaching, with elements of negative experiences. Four themes emerged from the results: Varied teachings, the relevance of mathematics, lack of time and relationships and results. Conclusion: The interviewed teachers mainly have positive perceptions of reality based mathematics, but they do not have enough time to plan it as required. For that reason they claim that the time is the primary factor that limits their teachings. The school system has a responsibility to reduce teachers' workload so that they can focus on teaching.

Syftet med vår undersökning är att studera möjligheterna att använda utemiljön som ett komplement i matematikundervisningen. Vi vill därför undersöka vad forskningslitteraturen säger och vad några lärare anser om och hur de genomför sin matematikundervisning utomhus med mål att eleverna kan få en ökad förståelse i matematik samt lust att lära. Undersökningen utfördes av litteraturstudier samt fyra kvalitativa intervjuer i skolår 1 och 5 och tre ostrukturerade observationer i skolår 1. Resultatet visar att utomhusmatematik kan vara ett bra komplement till matematikundervisningen. När undervisningen flyttas utomhus kan matematiken lättare verklighetsanknytas och varieras, dessutom gynnas kommunikationen. Följaktligen kan vi säga att utomhusmatematik ger en bra möjlighet ur inlärningssynpunkt samt ett lustfyllt lärande, vi har dock fått för lite material för att påstå att elevernas förståelse ökat. / The purpose of our research is to study the possibilities of using outdoor teaching in mathematical education. We therefore want to investigate the current research literature and probe the views of a group of teachers to see how they conduct their outdoor mathematical teaching, with the aim of giving the pupils increased understanding of mathematics and to stimulate their desire to learn. The investigation consisted of four qualitative interviews of teachers in the first and fifth grades, three unstructured observations of first grade teaching and a literature review. The results show that outdoor teaching can be useful for mathematical education. When teaching is conducted outdoors it is easier to vary the lesson and easier to connect to the world around us and thus can communication benefit from it. Consequently we can conclude that teaching mathematics outdoors provides a good potential for a fun learning environment, but our data is not extensive enough to claim that the pupils' understanding increases from this.