Editorial.

Attard, Catherine

As this is my first editorial I would like to thank and congratulate the outgoing 1editors, Linda Marshall and Dr Paul Swan for the exemplary job they have done in building the reputation of APMC. We now receive papers from authors all over the world wanting to share research findings, classroom experiences, provide advice and practical ideas. In the last editorial, Paul and Linda expressed concerns over criticisms regarding the content of APMC and its suitability for practical classroom applications. I would certainly welcome feedback from classroom teachers in regard to this and would also welcome suggestions for inclusions in future issues.

My own background is one of a primary teacher. For the past six years I have been teaching at the University of Western Sydney in primary mathematics education. I also work with many teachers conducting research and providing professional learning. In my roles I often refer to articles from APMC and these are always well received by practicing and pre-service teachers, providing professional development as well as valuable teaching resources. It is not uncommon for teachers to praise APMC articles on their combination of research and practical activities. In light of these comments, I am very excited to be editing my first issue which brings together five high quality articles that span the three strands of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. In addition to the articles, Derek Hurrell has provided some Australian Curriculum linked lessons that provide hands-on and engaging activities on measurement.

The first two articles in this addition focus on fractions. In his article, Peter Gould argues for the use of a linear model to teach fraction understandings rather than the popular area model. Peter discusses issues relating to a reliance on using the area model that lead students participating in a simple counting exercise rather than a focus on area. He provides several examples of student responses to highlight this and he gives excellent advice for introducing the linear model to students. Monica Wong's paper follows and builds on the idea of using a linear model. Monica discusses students' understanding of the number line model and she presents a task that can be used to assess students' understandings and identify misconceptions.

Sonja Kalbitzer and Esther Loong delve into geometric reasoning in their article, providing a great range of open-ended tasks to engage students in the visualisation of three-dimensional objects. The tasks incorporate a range of concrete materials and the use of technology and the authors make reference to an article by Swan and Marshall, published in 2010, on the use of mathematics manipulative materials.

An interesting article by Troy Thomas and Lynda Wiest from Reno, USA, explores the use of the context of video games to develop their students' ability to analyse and interpret data taken from the Internet. Although from the US, Troy and Lynda make strong links to the Australian Curriculum and their lesson idea can be easily replicated in Australian primary classrooms.

In the final article, Anne Roche describes a lesson called "Sandy Point Fun Run", which involves map reading and provides an opportunity for students to build their understandings of the concept of scale, within a problem solving approach. Anne has provided templates with article so this activity can easily be tried out in any Year 5 or 6 classroom. If you do try this lesson or any of the activities in this issue, I would love to hear from you and perhaps share your experience with our readers. It would be great to have a regular feedback page where we could share student work and teacher advice in regard to activities from this and previous issues.

I hope you enjoy this issue and remember to share it with your colleagues over lunch in the staffroom or as some professional reading during your staff meetings.