Impression of FLM 1-1

This is a good opportunity for me to think about a journal as a whole, especially the very first volume of its kind.

In July 1980, the first volume of FLM, For the Learning of Mathematics, was published. The cover page is simple, only the title of the journal and a symbolic graph containing iterated tiles and triangles. I cannot see the color as in pdf it is black and white, but I tend to believe the color may be yellow or green. Meanwhile, the back page is empty, with short statements telling that this is a space for future improvements.

Then I start to read the journal. In total there are 54 pages excluding the cover and the bottom pages. The goal of the journal is printed on the second page as:

The journal aims to stimulate reflection on and study of the practices and theories of mathematics education at all levels; to generate productive discussion; to encourage enquiry and research; to promote criticism and evaluation of ideas and procedures current in the field. It is intended for the mathematics educator who is aware that the learning and the teaching of mathematics are complex enterprises about which much remains to be revealed and understood.

This journal is published three times in a year, July, November and March. The price of subscription is also printed on the second year, along with the staff members of the journal. The instruction of writing articles to FLM is stated in detail at the end of the journal.

Three out of the nine articles published in this volume talk about geometry, with the rests talk about different topics. The lengths of these articles vary a lot. The “Two Cubes” is a one-page article with most of the page occupied by two reversed cubic boxes. The longest articles are “About Geometry” and “Alternative Research Metaphors and the Social Context of Mathematics Teaching and Learning”: 9 pages. The former contains two graphs, while the latter illustrates 15 graphs and tables. It is clear that these articles are of different writing styles.