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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Some teachers and pupils preferred traditional teaching methods, i.e. Teacher
explanation, Reading a textbook, Individual work and Individual help. Others preferred
more recently developed teaching methods, i.e. Practical work, Using a computer,
Whole-class discussion and Group discussion. Some teachers, especially 5^th grade
teachers, held an integrated view of the effects of different teaching methods on pupils’
affective attitudes, especially enjoyment and motivation, believing that all teaching
methods could have a positive effect. 8^th grade teachers were more likely to have
dichotomised views of the traditional teaching methods and more recently developed
teaching methods.

Recently developed teaching methods, overall, were not frequently adopted at either
grade, although Whole-class discussion was more often adopted at 5^th grade. The
reasons for this might be teachers’ overall belief that pupils’ enjoyment and motivation,
as opposed to sense of security and sense of progress as promoted by the majority of
the teaching methods investigated were unrelated. This effect was stronger for 8^th grade
teachers. Overall, teachers believed that the more traditional teaching methods
promoted pupils’ sense of security and sense of progress more than pupils’ enjoyment
and motivation. They perceived that the more recently developed teaching methods did
not promote pupils’ sense of security and sense of progress as much as enjoyment and
motivation.

This suggests that teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ affective attitudes towards
mathematics learning do not support motivational theories which indicate that aspects of
pupils’ affective attitudes are related at least to some extent (e.g. Harter, 1981). The
earlier literature (e.g. Mori, 1998; Robitaille, 1989) has indicated that Japanese teachers
and parents believe that enjoyment in learning mathematics and being successful may
not be related. This was reflected in teachers’ perceptions of the effects of the teaching
methods in this study. These opinions might have been influenced by the Ministry’s
attempts in the middle of the 1970s to encourage teachers to adopt discovery and
creative teaching methods which were then found to be beneficial for promoting pupils’
positive attitudes towards mathematics but not achievement (Saeki, 1978). The teachers
may also have some preconceptions of teaching outcomes based on what they have
learned during their teacher training course at university and afterwards, their own
teaching experiences, government, societal and parental expectations, and

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