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Chapter 8: IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
8.1: Summary Ofthefindings
The purpose of this study was to answer three main research questions. In the next
section, the three main questions are re-iterated, the findings in relation to each are
summarised and the possible reasons for the findings discussed.
Findings regarding Question 1
The first research question was whether teachers and pupils belonging to 5th and 8th
grades perceived that pupils’ enjoyment, motivation, feelings of security and sense of
progress were affected in a similar way by the different teaching methods deployed in
mathematics classes. The data to consider this question was obtained from the
questionnaire responses.
No deterioration in affective attitudes was found between pupils’ in 5th and 8th grade. This
contrasts with findings in the USA (e.g. Wigfield et al., 1994, Harter, 1981, 1992). Pupils
of both age groups did not perceive that any particular teaching method promoted
positive affective attitudes greatly, although there were relatively large individual
differences. Overall, this supports the TIMSS data indicating negative attitudes towards
mathematics in Japanese students (NIER, 1997, 1998). Overall, pupils’ perceptions of
the frequency of the deployment of the different teaching methods and the extent to
which their affective attitudes were promoted by these teaching methods were
consistently lower than their teachers. This reinforces the notion that individuals interpret
events in different ways as indicated by Kelly’s (1970) personal construct theory, which
suggests that individuals construe the same event similarly or differently, because
individuals construct corollaries through experience of previous incidents in their lives.
People share some constructs (Commonality Corollary), but other constructs are more
individual (Individuality Corollary). Although the evidence is clear that pupils and their
teachers hold different perceptions, why pupils should perceive the less frequent
deployment of particular teaching methods to their teachers is not clear.
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