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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elementary schools so that the approach to completing the questionnaire would be
similar.

Seventh graders were not chosen because of their recent transfer to junior high schools.
Sixth and 9^th graders were not selected because many take examinations in years 6 and
9 and it would have been difficult to obtain school and parental permission.

Table 1.1: The educational phases in Japan

Table 1.1 shows the educational phases in Japan. Children in Japan are in compulsory
education for nine years from the age of 6. The first 6 years are for elementary school
education, and the remaining 3 years are for junior high school education. Teachers
teach all the subjects in elementary schools, while specialists teach for each subject in
junior high schools. National tests are not adopted in Japan. Comprehensive style junior
high schools do not have entrance examinations, but many children who want to
proceed to private or national junior high schools need to take an entrance examination.
All children take entrance examinations for senior high schools at the end of 9^th grade.
Mathematics is normally a compulsory subject in the entrance examinations.

To pursue the aim of examining whether teachers and pupils perceive that widening the
range of teaching methods adopted in mathematics classes and to inform future policy
and practice, the study explores the current implementation of teaching methods and
their perceived effects on pupils’ affective attitudes in mathematics classes. The
Curriculum Council (1998) suggests that pupils’ sense of progress, enjoyment,
motivation, and sense of security are, to a certain extent, related. This view is supported
by the Ministry of Education in Japan (1999). In the light of these policy documents, this
study, specifically, takes up these four elements: enjoyment, motivation, sense of
security and sense of progress, and sets out to answer three subsidiary questions.

Question 1: Do pupils in the 5^th and 8^th grades and their teachers perceive that a range
of different teaching methods are deployed in mathematics classes and that pupils’

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