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

150

4.4: Relationships between teaching methods in promoting positive attitudes
towards mathematics learning

This section examines how the teaching methods taken up in this study were related to
each other in promoting pupils’ attitudes to mathematics learning. A series of Pearson
Product-moment correlations were undertaken. The findings in previous sections
suggested that both teachers and pupils perceived that the different teaching methods
promoted pupils’ positive affective attitudes differently. For instance, Practical work and
Using a computer were perceived as more enjoyable than Reading a textbook. The
findings in this section explore these relationships. Positive correlations indicate that the
participants evaluating one teaching method highly in relation to a particular affective
outcome positively evaluate the other teaching method as well, even if one method
might be perceived to be less positively promoted than the other teaching method.
Negative relationships indicate that participants perceive that these teaching methods
might be opposed in terms of promoting a particular aspect of pupils’ affective attitudes.

This section also examines the relationships between teaching methods in terms of their
frequency of deployment. The findings reported in section 4.1 suggested that teachers
and pupils perceived differently the frequency of deployment of teaching methods. If a
positive relationship is found between teaching methods in terms of frequency, the
participants perceive that these teaching methods are deployed to a similar extent.

Enjoyment

Figure 4.4.1 below shows that there were significant moderate positive correlations
between several teaching methods, with respect to enjoyment in the responses of 5^th
grade teachers. The effects of the teaching methods were correlated in a relatively
coherent way. The only negative correlations related to Practical work and Teacher
explanation. These seem to represent methods, which were perceived to have very
contrasting impacts on enjoyment.

150

<<   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   >>

More intriguing information