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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Figure 7.4.1: Mean scores of pupils’ perceptions of the extent to which mathematics
teachers praised pupils (age group comparison)

I=Better results than others, 2=lmprovement results than before,
3=More effort than others, 4=More effort than before

There were relatively high correlations between pupils perceptions of praise given for
different reasons (Table 7.4.2).

Table 7.4.2: Correlation between pupils’ perceptions of their teachers’ praise

Pupils of both age groups on average acknowledged being neutral to happy when
praised by teachers. Pupils of both age groups felt happier with praise when it was given
for self improvement rather than comparison with others. 41.7% of 8^th graders expressed
that they were “very happy” with praise for improvement of results, while 41.2% of 5^th
graders expressed being “very happy” with praise for more effort than before. 8^th graders
were more likely than 5^th graders to feel happy when their mathematics teachers praised
them based on their results, e.g. getting higher marks than others or improving marks
than 5^th graders. No statistically significant difference was found in 5^th and 8^ttl grade
pupils’ feeling of happiness after being praised for effort. There was a relatively wide
distribution of responses to pupils’ feeling happy with their mathematics teachers

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