5th and 8th grade pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of the relationships between teaching methods, classroom ethos, and positive affective attitudes towards learning mathematics in Japan

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• Why do you think particular teaching methods enable your pupils to feel relaxed in
learning mathematics by using these methods?

• Why do you think these methods help your pupils to feel a sense of progress in
learning mathematics?

The statement, which measured the teachers’ attempts to enhance their pupils’ self-
concept was, ‘How often do you attempt to enhance your pupils’ self-concept or self-
confidence in your mathematics classes?’ In addition, the statement, which measured
the teachers’ attempts to enhance their pupils’ mathematics concept was, ‘How often do
you attempt to enhance your pupils’ positive attitudes towards mathematics learning in
your mathematics classes?’ These statements adopted the five point rating scale:
always, nearly always, sometimes, hardly ever and never.

Teachers’ attributions of their pupils’ success or failure in learning mathematics was
measured with open questions. Teachers were required to express their opinions by
answering two questions, ‘Why do you think some pupils succeed in learning
mathematics?’, and ‘Why do you think some pupils fail to learn mathematics?’ Enquiring
about teachers’ attributions of their pupils’ success and failure separately aimed to
explore the hypothesis that teachers may have different attributions of their pupils’
success in learning mathematics and failure in learning mathematics, due to the self-
serving system, discussed in the literature review (Pintrich, 1996).

Teachers were asked how often they praised their pupils, according to four criteria.
These were based on ‘mastery goals’ and ‘performance goals’, and were identical to
those used for the questionnaire for pupils. Five point rating scales were adopted:
always, nearly always, sometimes, hardly ever, and never. The statements indicating the
four criteria were as follows.

• When pupils get good results in Maths tests, compared to other pupils.

• When pupils have improved their results in Maths tests from previous results.

• When pupils make more effort in Maths, compared to other pupils.

• When pupils make more effort in Maths than before.

Teachers’ perceptions of classroom ethos were measured with five-point rating scales.
Fraser’s (1986) synthesis showed that satisfaction in classes was positively related with

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