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Japanese teachers believe that improvement of pupils’ mathematics performance
depends on teachers’ effort and skills (Lee et al., 1998).
Overall, both teachers and pupils perceived that reading a textbook had negative effects
on enjoyment and motivation, although it was frequently adopted at both grades. One
reason for this may be the nature of the textbooks. If textbooks are to be used, they
should promote pupils’ motivation and enjoyment of mathematics. In this case they may
need to be more innovative in their design and modes of presentation. Lepper et al.
(1989) indicated that challenge, curiosity and fantasy in materials could promote intrinsic
motivation. Textbooks need to be examined in relation to these areas. Textbooks used in
Japanese schools are designed to follow the Course of Study and are approved by the
Ministry of Education (DFE, 1992; Whitburn, 1995). Textbook development is the
responsibility of the government. They need to improve the quality of the texts on offer.
The evidence from the study indicated that the pressure of the curriculum and the high
school entrance examination, determined the content and context of learning and
teaching. This phenomenon has long been accepted in education and has been called
‘backwash’ by Biggs (1993). To change the emphasis in teaching would require the
introduction of a high school entrance examination, which did not put too much
emphasis on the amount of knowledge acquired or the extent of skill development.
Introduction of criterion-referenced evaluation, avoiding too strict norm-referenced
evaluation has also been perceived to promote pupils’ affective attitudes in mathematics
learning (e.g. Harter, 1986; Ames, 1992; Wigfield et al. 1994, Kage, 1990). Change of
this nature may help 8th graders who have to take high school examinations at the end of
9th grade. Test results are their focus and that of their teachers. Many high schools have
already begun to make changes deploying multiple criteria, including school records,
recommendations, interviews, short essays, etc (Green, 1998). However, if these
measures continue to assess extensive knowledge and skills acquisition retaining the
already over loaded curriculum, then achievement focused lessons will continue.
8.4: Conclusions
The most distinct finding as for the adoption of teaching methods in mathematics was
that teachers currently tend to hold dichotomised views of the effects of different
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