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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understanding of the curriculum was the strongest factor promoting their positive
affective attitudes. This may be because the difficulty perceived by pupils increased in
mathematics classes as their grades proceeded. Both teachers and pupils reported that
Individual work was frequently adopted in their mathematics classes. Teachers should
consider how they can provide each individual pupil with tasks at an appropriate level of
difficulty, and give them sufficient attention and support in their mathematics classes to
promote understanding.

8^th grade teachers need to provide tasks, which are interesting and also an environment,
which induces concentration, as their pupils reported that they enjoyed working when
they were engaged with the task. Teachers need to value pupil satisfaction in
mathematics classes. 8^th graders did not perceive high satisfaction in mathematics
classes despite the fact that satisfaction was the strongest factor contributing to
mathematics self-concept. Cohesiveness and satisfaction in mathematics classes were
correlated for 8^th graders so promoting a supporting learning environment is important.
There might be Otherfactors which increase satisfaction for older pupils. Teachers might
explore what these are.

8^th grade teachers should enable all pupils to experience a sense of progress so that the
need for effort becomes meaningful as the earlier literature has suggested. Making effort
without a positive outcome expectancy for future tasks leads to children feeling helpless
(Sakurai, 1989; Sugiura, 1996). Praising pupils more frequently based on enhancement
of effort and giving informational feedback on outcomes is likely to be effective in
increasing positive outcome expectancies.

8.3.3: The educational significance for government

If the government wishes new teaching methods such as practical work and using a
computer to be adopted extensively in Japanese schools their support is required in
providing resources and teacher training. These methods were perceived as hardly ever
being deployed at either grade level by pupils or teachers. This was partly due to
teachers’ lack of confidence in teaching mathematics using these methods and lack of
resources, as previous research has suggested (DFE, 1992; NIER, 1995). Enhancing
teachers’ confidence is important, because previous research has reported that

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