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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Pupils’ perceived frequency of teacher praise appeared to affect their affective attitudes
more at 8^th grade than 5^th grade. However, 8^th graders’ enjoyment promoted by Practical
work and Using a computer were not affected by the perceived frequency of teacher
praise. 8^th graders’ enjoyment was less affected by their happiness with teacher praise
than other aspects of affective attitudes. Their enjoyment promoted by Practical work
was not affected by the degree of appreciation of teacher praise based on getting better
results than others. Their enjoyment promoted by Reading a textbook was not affected
by the degree of appreciation of teacher praise based on more effort than others. Their
enjoyment promoted by Individual work was not affected by the degree of appreciation of
teacher praise based on increased effort.

This study did not examine the relationships between teachers’ reported frequency of
adoption of praise and their perceptions of the effects of or deployment of teaching
methods, due to teachers’ predominant adoption of praise for pupils based on the
enhancement of effort.

7.5: Multiple regression

Factors contributing to pupils’ mathematics self-concept

Providing a more all encompassing analysis, this section explores the factors which
contribute to pupils’ mathematics self-concept by means of a stepwise multiple
regression. The analysis was conducted separately for pupils of different age groups
with differing perceptions of succeeding or failing in mathematics learning, because the
data were in this form. Pupils perceiving their mathematics learning as successful were
those who graded themselves above 3 in the five point rating of perceived mathematics
performance, while pupils perceiving their mathematics learning as failing graded
themselves as 1 or 2. Pupils’ mathematics self-concept was highly correlated with their
perceived mathematics performance (5^th grade: r=. 713, p=. 000; 8^th grade: r=. 675, p=.
000). This was therefore used as the dependent variable. The variables included in the
stepwise multiple regression were: pupils’ general self-concept, perceptions of
classroom ethos; perceived frequency of different types of teachers’ praise; the extent of
feeling happy with different kinds of praise; attribution of mathematics performance;
perceived frequency of the deployment of different teaching methods; and affective

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