EDITORIAL
© ATM 2011 • No reproduction (including Internet) except for legitimate academic purposes
copyright@atm.org.uk for permissions
2
In this edition Jonny continues his circle theme for
the RISP, I hope you will enjoy this ‘themed’
approach – I have found myself thinking more
about ‘the circle’ than I have for some time. In Spin
the wheel we are once again involved with circles,
but this time as a device that enables us examine
number patterns in Modulo 8. This article provides
a different view of Fibonacci – John Critchett
would say that he is an enthusiast rather than a
teacher of mathematics, but that does not detract
from the ideas he puts forward. I never cease to be
amazed at how inventive, and creative, the human
mind can be when a line of enquiry is pursued.
The theme of ‘number’ is sustained by two
further articles – Mental calculation by Ian
Thompson, and Painting a picture of numeracy by
David Gibson. Ian Thompson offers a forensic
critique of ‘official’ advice given to teachers of
mathematics, and David Gibson presents an insight
into how visual images can be a powerful resource
to help pupils to understand basic operations in
number.
It is always useful when there seems to be some
divergent thinking in the journal because it gives
you, the reader, an opportunity to join the ‘forum’
– in a discussion that has the potential to be both
interesting and passionate. Ian Thompson maintains
that the new documentation relating to mental
calculations entitled Teaching Children to Calculate
Mentally, is a marked improvement on its predecessor – The National Numeracy Strategy:
Teaching Mental Calculations, however Mark
Pepper – in Some positive aspects of a three-part
lesson – ranks this new documentation as ‘one of the
best resources for practical ideas and strategies...’.
While each is worthy of merit, do you have views
that support, or refute those put forward by Ian
and Mark?
Here we publish the final article from Tom
O’Brien written for MT. You will, I am sure, be
intrigued by Mystery person. As always Tom, and his
co-author Chris Wallach, give us some very
substantial ‘food for thought’. Personally, I will miss
his articles. They always challenged us to think
about what it is that we are trying to achieve with,
and for, learners in the mathematics classroom.
The activity was trialled with younger pupils, aged
six initially, yet the activity has potential to be
engaging for any age group. There is no doubt in
my mind that Mystery person would be a useful
activity in the secondary classroom where we are
trying to encourage students to use ‘inference’.
Following much interest in his previous pieces
Marten Gallagher offers us yet more useful advice
in News from the web. Our aim with these cameos is
both to publicise the ATM website with its host of
features, and to provide the reader with practical
advice and techniques that will enhance the use of
ICT in the mathematics classroom. These articles
are a resource that we hope will target the needs of
classroom practitioners – if there is an issue, or
technique, you would like Marten to focus on in a
future edition of MT then please let me know
through any one of the many communication tools
we offer.
The image on the front cover of this issue
shows pupils in Uganda going home after school.
This is an image provided by Tobias Eveleigh for his
article Ugandan mathematics: an unsolvable problem.
Tobias has been working at a school attached to an
orphanage in Uganda and recounts some of the joys,
and some of the difficulties, he has experienced
working in this environment. There will be another
episode in this developing story from Tobias in MT
222.
In The lure of algorithms, after many years in the
teaching profession, Michael Drake suddenly
realises there is a much bigger picture linked to the
operation of addition. Here Michael presents a well
documented account of his experience, his thinking,
and leaves us with the intriguing challenge: does the
same rule apply for subtraction? What do you think?
Janine Blinko, in her article succinctly entitled
Capturing the learning, presents what might best be
described as ‘a user guide to working within APP’.
What do we, as teachers, need to look for, and
observe to make meaningful assessments of pupils’
learning – how do we recognise it when we see it?
With a set of exemplar material Janine walks us
through some of the steps in this process, and
shows that pupils themselves can have a real part to
play in the process of assessment.
On page 29 there is a reminder for you, as a
reader, to take the opportunity to respond to the
Review of the National Curriculum. So, if you haven’t
done so yet, put your views forward. You might feel
that your views, and those of others, just ‘fall on
deaf ears’ – my fear is that if we, as teachers, fail to
respond there will come a time when ‘asking us for
our views’ is deemed unnecessary, as we have been
judged as being disinterested through our collective
inaction in previous reviews.
Our final piece in this edition is the response
by ATM to the white paper, The Importance of
Teaching. This response – compiled by John White
– clearly follows a theme long held dear to the
association. Surely, this is what we are about as an
association – the learning and teaching of mathematics!
Margaret Jones
MATHEMATICS TEACHING 221 / MARCH 2011
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