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CHAPTER 7: TEACHERS’ AND PUPILS’ PERCEPTIONS OF
PUPILS’ SELF5 MOTIVATIONAL ORIENTATION AND
CLASSROOM ETHOS
This chapter explores teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions of pupils’ self concept,
attributions of mathematics performance, classroom ethos and goal orientation in
relation to pupils’ affective attitudes towards mathematics as reflected in their
perceptions of different teaching methods. These factors were raised in the literature as
affecting pupils’ affective attitudes towards mathematics learning.
7.1: Pupils’ self-concept, their mathematics self-concept and teachers’ attempts
to enhance them
Pupils ’ perceptions
General self-concept
The general-self scales of SDQ-I and SDQ-II were adopted to measure the self-concept
of 5th and 8th graders, respectively. Marsh (1990) explains that the general-self scale in
both SDQ-I and SDQ-II measures the child’s self-worth, self-confidence and self-
satisfaction. However, the number of statements contained in SDQ-I and SDQ-II are
different. If 5th graders select the highest point 5 for all eight questions on the scale, they
get a score of 40. If 8th graders express their absolute agreement for statements
supporting a high self-concept for all ten questions, they get 50.
The mean s∞res of individual statements on the general-self scale of 5th graders varied
between 2.75 and 3.58, the overall mean was 3.09. The mean scores of the general-self
scale of 8th graders varied between 2.64 and 4.11; the overall mean was 3.21. The
statement where 8th graders scored 4.11 was ‘If I really try I can do almost anything I
want to do.’ 77% of 8th graders expressed absolute agreement or agreement with this
statement. The standard deviation of each statement was, overall, greater than 1.0 at
both grades. Therefore, there were wide individual differences in general self-concepts
at both grades. The total mean score of 5th graders was 24.76 (SD= 5.57), the total
mean score of 8th graders was 32.09 (SD=6.20).
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