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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7.4: Goal setting reflected in teachers’ praise

Pupils ’ perceptions

In the questionnaire survey, pupils were asked to what extent they perceived that their
mathematics teachers praised them according to the following four criteria:

• when pupils get good results in Maths tests, compared to other pupils;

• when pupils have improved the results of Maths tests over their previous results;

• when pupils make more effort in Maths, compared to other pupils;

• when pupils make more effort in Maths than before.

Pupils’ perceptions of teachers’ praise were measured with five-point rating scales. They
were also asked to what extent they were happy to receive praise from their teacher.

Overall, pupils of both age groups perceived that their teachers hardly ever praised
them, although there was a relatively wide distribution of responses. Pupils of both age
groups perceived differences in the extent to which they were praised for different
reasons. 5^th graders perceived that their teachers gave praise for effort more than
results, while 8^th graders perceived that their teachers praised them based on absolute
comparisons, such as improvement in results or more effort than before, more than for
relative comparisons with other pupils (see Figure 7.4.1). 5^th graders were more likely to
perceive that their teachers praised them based on effort than 8^th graders, while 8^th
graders were more likely to perceive that their teachers praised them based on results
than 5^th graders. This difference was statistically significant (see Table 7.4.1 and Figure
7.4.1).

Table 7.4.1: Mean scores and Standard Deviation of pupils’ perceptions of the extent to
which mathematics teachers praised them

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