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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better results than others, while 93.6% of 5^th grade teachers and 81.0% of 8^th grade
teachers replied that they always or nearly always praised pupils for increased effort.

Summary of 7.4

Teachers of both age groups reported that they praised their pupils for increased
individual effort more than anything else. Teachers of both age groups adopted this type
of praise nearly always. 5^th grade teachers focused on this praise and adopted it more
frequently than 8^th grade teachers. 8^th grade teachers praised pupils for improvement of
results sometimes and they adopted this praise more than 5^th grade teachers. Teachers
of both age groups reported that they praised their pupils for better results than others
least frequently.

Pupils, overall, did not perceive that their teachers praised them very frequently. They
were neutral to happy in appreciating praise. There were wide individual differences in
pupils’ perceptions of the frequency of teacher praise and feeling happy with that praise.
5^th graders perceived that praise adopted in their mathematics classes was effort-based.
They perceived that effort-based praise was adopted more frequently than 8^th graders.
8^th graders perceived that the praise adopted in their mathematics classes was based on
absolute-comparison, improvement of own results or effort, although they perceived that
results-based praise was adopted more frequently than 5^th graders and they appreciated
results-based praise more than 5^th graders.

Pupils of both age groups preferred teacher praise based on absolute-comparison.
Therefore, there might be some incompatibility between pupils’ perceptions of the
reasons for teacher praise and the preferred reasons for teacher praise, especially for 5^th
graders. This incompatibility might occur due to pupils’ misunderstanding of the
teacher’s intentions. Although 5^th graders perceived that teacher praise based on more
effort than others was adopted as frequently as teacher praise based on individual
improvement of effort, 5^th grade teachers reported that this praise was much less
frequently adopted than the other. Although 8^th graders perceived that teacher praise
based on better results than others was adopted more than 5^th graders, their teachers
reported avoiding this type of praise. Perhaps teachers are reluctant to admit giving
result based praise as it does not fit well within Japanese educational culture.

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