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



which aims at the logical development of progress through the curriculum (Whitburn,
2000). Teachers of both elementary schools and junior high schools are encouraged:
• to promote pupils’ fundamental knowledge and skills,

• to promote pupils’ ability to apply such fundamental knowledge and skills in everyday
life,

• to promote pupils’ ability to relate new mathematics conceptual structures to their
existing knowledge, and

• to develop pupils’ thinking abilities including intuition, prediction, inference, induction,
deduction, examination and expression. (MinistryofEducation, 1999).

Teachers also appear to value pupils’ affective attitudes towards mathematics learning.
The results of SIMS showed that most of teachers of 7th graders in Japanese schools
thought that having their pupils become interested in mathematics was more important
than improving their mathematics competencies. In addition, the proportion of teachers
valuing the promotion of pupils’ interest in mathematics was larger than that of teachers
of other participating countries (Robitaille, 1992). These findings reflect Japanese
educational culture, in which promoting the spiritual aspects of education is stressed
more than the acquisition of knowledge and skills (Okamoto, 1992).

Some research, however, has reported that teachers’ and parents’ attitudes may have
negative effects on pupils’ affective attitudes towards mathematics learning. Firstly,
people appear to believe that enjoying mathematics learning and doing well in
mathematics learning are separable, but also that enjoying mathematics learning is more
difficult to achieve than succeeding in mathematics learning. For instance, Mori’s (1998)
study showed that most parents believed that children could succeed in learning
mathematics through effort, but half felt that not all children could enjoy learning
mathematics. This dichotomised view of the importance of learning mathematics versus
enjoyment in mathematics learning was also reflected in teachers’ attitudes. Robitaille
(1989) reported that Japanese teachers of 7th graders believed that teaching
mathematics was important, but they generally did not like teaching mathematics.
Secondly, teachers may not employ effective measures to promote pupils’ affective
attitudes, such as reducing pupils’ anxiety about mathematics learning. Stevenson
(1993) pointed out that Japanese textbooks were difficult to understand because of the
early appearance of complex materials. Many Japanese teachers reported in SlMS that



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