In mathematics education, there has been a strong plea during the last few decades for treating modelling problems in mathematics classrooms (for an overview cf. Blum & Niss, 1991; Niss, Blum, & Galbraith, 2007; Verschaffel, Greer & De Corte, 2000).
In addition to intensifying the learning process, an increased motivation, an activation of positive emotions and more student interest in mathematics are expected from providing references to reality. However, do students really attribute more importance to realityrelated modelling problems than to intra-mathematical problems? Do they like them more? Are they more interested in solving these problems? All of these questions have not been investigated sufficiently so far, and the same holds for the question of how classroom instruction using modelling problems influences students’ task-specific
affective dimensions. In the present study, these questions are addressed in relation to
the topics “Pythagoras’ theorem” and “linear functions”. These topics were selected
because of the important role they play in mathematics curricula in Germany as well as in other countries.