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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5^th grade teachers seemed to see relationships between improvement of satisfaction and
enjoyment promoted by Practical work, improvement of cohesiveness and sense of
progress promoted by Group discussion, and reduction of difficulties and motivation
promoted by Individual work. 5^th grade teachers attempting to improve class
cohesiveness and reduce pupils’ difficulties reported more frequent deployment of Group
discussion.

8^th grade teachers seemed to see relationships between improvement of satisfaction and
motivation promoted by Individual help, and improvement of cohesiveness and sense of
security promoted by Whole-class discussion. 8^th grade teachers who believed that
competition could be used for improving pupils’ motivation perceived that Individual work
could promote enjoyment. 8^th grade teachers attempting to improve pupils’ satisfaction
reported more frequent deployment of Individual help than other teachers. There were
no other differences in teachers’ reported frequency of deployment of teaching methods
according to their perceptions of classroom ethos. The findings suggest that 5^th grade
teachers view improvement of classroom ethos in relation to Group discussion and
Practical work, while 8^th grade teachers think of it in relation to individualised teaching
methods (see Table 7.3.6).

Table 7.3.6: Teachers’ perceptions of affective attitudes promoted by teaching methods
according to higher and lower means of their classroom ethos

Summary of 7.3

Pupils of both age groups, overall, experienced relatively low satisfaction and moderate
levels of difficulty in mathematics classes, although no significant correlations between

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