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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2.1: Factors contributing to pupils’ enjoyment, motivation, sense of security and
sense of progress

Pupils’ enjoyment

The Ministry of Education in Japan (1999) has proposed that one of the aims of
mathematics education is that pupils should experience enjoyment in mathematics
learning. This section will start by examining how theories define enjoyment in learning
particularly in mathematics. Pintrich (1996) argues that participation itself becomes a
reward for intrinsically motivated learners, while extrinsically motivated learners work on
a task for desirable external outcomes. Thus, pupils who enjoy mathematics learning
itself are intrinsically motivated to learn mathematics. The Ministry of Education in Japan
(1993) defined intrinsic motivation as pupils’ instinctive desire to evolve their potentiality.

The Ministry of Education (1993, 1999) has proposed that valuing pupils’ autonomy and
self-determination in learning and promoting pupils’ positive perceptions of their own
progress could enhance their intrinsic motivation. These ideas are supported by several
theorists, although the stress given to pupils’ autonomy and sense of progress varies.
Harter’s (1981) model of intrinsic motivation proposes that developing learners’ ability to
control the environment and satisfying their need to be autonomous and self-determined
in learning contribute to promoting their intrinsic motivation. Her model is a refinement
and extension of White’s (1959) formulation of ‘effectance motivation’. White’s (1959)
theory postulated that individuals are intuitively drawn to mastery and to efficacy in
interaction with the environment.

Harter (1978, 1981) proposed that positive reinforcement or approval for attempts at
independent mastery and lack of approval and reinforcement for dependence through
child-rearing agents in the early years led to the child internalising a self-reward system
and a system of standards or mastery goals. Such internalisation is assumed to develop
perception of their competence and internal perception of control, which influences
children’s sense of intrinsic pleasure and enhances or maintains their effectance
motivation to engage in subsequent mastery behaviours. Lack of reinforcement and/or
disapproval for independent mastery attempts, and reinforcement for dependency on
adults in the children’s early years, result in the need for external approval and a

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