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

that children came to believe less that they could succeed in mathematics learning
through effort or through enjoying mathematics learning. Secondly, older pupils become
less likely to find value in mathematics learning. Sanada (1994) reported that Japanese
7^th-9^th graders valued mathematics when they were able to make use of mathematics
knowledge in everyday life, but Fujii (1992) reported that as pupils advanced through the
grades they came to believe less that learning mathematics would be useful in everyday
life. Thirdly, older pupils are more extrinsically motivated and tend to lose their intrinsic
motivation in mathematics learning. The results of SlMS and TlMSS showed that pupils
wanted to learn mathematics for the sake of the entrance examinations to high school or
university, not because they liked learning mathematics. Lastly, some authors have
commented that the current examination may not be a strong elicitor of positive
motivation in children, except for a limited number of top performers. This is increasingly
because academic credentials are not perceived as important in social mobility, and
people seek fulfilment in their lives outside educational aspirations. This may apply to
junior high school students who face senior high school entrance examinations (Amano,
1989, Fujita, 1993).

Japanese students also revealed their lack of confidence in learning mathematics in the
international survey. Japanese 8^th graders taking part in TIMSS overall did not think that
mathematics was an easy subject to master. The percentage of pupils perceiving that
mathematics was easy subject to master decreased from 40% at 4^th grade to 13% at 8^th
grade (National Institute for Educational Research, 1997, 1998). More than half of the
Japanese 8^th graders replied that they were poor at mathematics, despite that majority of
them performed well. The lack of confidence was also found in the perceptions of
younger children and their mothers. Kimura (1989) reported that two-thirds of 5^th graders
stated that their mathematics performance was average, while half of American 5^th
graders stated that their performance was above average. Crystal et al. (1991) reported
that 79% of Japanese 1^st and 5^th graders’ mothers perceived that their children managed
to learn fundamental mathematics skills, but had difficulties with applied problems in
mathematics.

Teachers are encouraged to promote pupils’ understanding of a wide range of
mathematics contents (Schmidt, 1997). The textbooks cover all required topics in a way

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