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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greater individual bias, reduce comparability across studies, and may also be less
reliable and more affected by the subjective opinions of the people studied (Coolican,
1994). However, qualitative studies offer greater ecological validity, though they may
lack validity in other respects. To reduce researcher bias, two persons (the researcher
and a Japanese researcher) coded the findings independently. Where there was initial
disagreement over coding discussion was undertaken to reach agreement.

All data obtained in the interviews were transcribed and translated from Japanese to
English. Responses were categorised. The statements supporting the categories were
extracted. Comparisons were made between 5^th grade teachers and 8^th grade teachers.

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