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

through doing practices. Thus, doing practices and exchanging ideas in the whole class
are frequently adopted methods in mathematics classes.

I: Do you sometimes use practical activities?

T: I use practical activities when I teach them solid geometry. Pupils make polyhedrons
and examine the structure. Practical activities can promote pupils’ understanding of the
curriculum. Pupils do not seem able to apply what they have learned through activities to
other problems. So learning mathematics through activities does not lead to an
improvement in test results. Pupils enjoy practical activities, but learning mathematics
through activities does not necessarily lead to the improvement of attainment.

I: So you think that pupils enjoy learning mathematics through practical activities. But
you doubt how far this teaching method can promote pupils’ attainments. Is my
understanding right?

T: Teaching mathematics through practical activities seems to be more time-consuming
than other methods. Pupils are very busy. They need to learn a lot of subjects and
attend many school activities. It is very difficult to know how teachers can teach
mathematics effectively through practical activities in limited time. Teachers also need to
learn how to teach mathematics through practical activities. We need to collect the
materials and exchange materials which other teachers find successful to use in their
classes.

I: Do you use computers in mathematics classes?

T: I hardly ever teach mathematics with computers on the grounds that we don’t have
good software at present. They are very much improved, but I think they are still less
than satisfactory. Children may have too great expectations of learning mathematics by
computers. They misunderstand their interest in using the computer as an interest in
learning mathematics. Actually, children enjoy learning mathematics through computers

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