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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method as it appeared in the questionnaire sheet indicated and how these related to the
teacher’s practice in a classroom. This might particularly apply if teachers adopted
several teaching methods simultaneously.

Limitations of particular tests

Although the standardised tests such as Marsh’s SDQ and Fraser’s MCI have already
been used in many studies and provide high levels of validity and reliability, using these
tests through translation in different cultural contexts from those originally developed
might have distorted reliability and validity.

In addition, the adoption of MCI raised further issues. Firstly, some statements
requested at the individual level, e.g. ‘In my math class everybody is my friend’, while
other statements referred to the whole class, such as ‘Most of the children in my Maths
class can do their work without help’. Secondly, MCI may not be sufficiently sensitive to
assess Hunt’s (1975) Person-Environment Interaction, i.e. learners’ perceptions of
classroom ethos and their preferred classroom ethos.

Lack of interviews with pupils

In the study interviews were conducted with teachers to provide triangulation whereby
different methods are employed to achieve the same aim (Denzin, 1970, in detail Cohen,
2000). However, interviews were not conducted with pupils due to the difficulties of
obtaining school and parental permission. The data obtained in the teacher interviews
deepened understanding and interpretation of the quantitative data. The lack of pupil
interviews precluded this and was particularly acute at 5^th grade where the
questionnaires did not include open questions.

Lack of observation

This study did not observe actual teaching in mathematics classes. The advantages and
disadvantages of observation research and the process of deciding not to adopt
observation was described in Chapter 3. The chief reason for avoiding observation lay in
the extent to which it could measure participants’ attitudes. In addition, generalising the

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