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

43

suggests that Japanese children’s striving to learn mathematics for entrance
examinations can be considered as affecting their perception of their competence and
affective attitudes positively.

Deci et al.’s (1985) organismic integration theory notes that internalisation is the process
which integrates external motivation into a unified system of structures and motives, so
that the extrinsic regulation that is internalised will eventually be experienced as self-
determined. Internalised regulation is observed as children grow older (Chandler et al.,
1984). Internalisation makes children value or view task engagement as important
(Chandler et al., 1984). Non-Spontaneous behaviour is assumed to be internalised
through four stages of regulation. External regulation occurs as a response to external
cues. Introjected regulation occurs through self-monitoring without the presence of
external cues. Identification is the stage when individuals accept the regulation as their
own. Integrated self-regulation is the stage when individuals integrate self-regulation with
other identification to unify the sense of self and experience and provide a full sense of
self-determination. The more internalised one’s extrinsic motivation, the more self-
determination, self-esteem and perception of competence are enhanced and anxiety is
decreased (Connell, et al., 1985; Deci, et al., 1985).

Deci et al’s (1994) self-determination theory emphasised the influence of social contexts
on motivation. They suggested that the social contexts that facilitate satisfaction through
competence, autonomy, and relatedness to others - by providing optimal challenge,
informational feedback, interpersonal involvement, and autonomy, support and promote
both intrinsic motivation and self-determined forms of extrinsic motivation (also see
Koestneretal., 1984; Deci, etal., 1985).

Deci et al’s (1994) empirical study showed that internalisation in self-determination -
supporting conditions was integrated, as reflected by positive correlations between
behavioural self-regulation and affective variables such as the personal importance of
the activity and enjoyment. On the other hand, internalisation, which occurred in more
controlling conditions, was introjected, as reflected by negative correlations between
behavioural self-regulation and the affective variables. Children are less likely to
integrate regulation when they perceive that they are controlled by others (Connell, et
al., 1985). Children whose motivation is Introjected tend to be nervous in school and

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