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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other-saving bias or modesty bias whereby individuals attribute success to others and
failure to self. This bias is contrary to the self-serving bias explained above. Little et al.
(1997) found that Tokyo children were less likely to attribute their school performance to
teachers’ behaviours. Shikauchi (1978, 1983, 1984) showed that Japanese participants
attributed their success to external factors such as task easiness and effective teaching
more than to other factors, while they attributed their failure to lack of effort. Harnisch et
al. (1983) found that Japanese students overall attributed their success to luck or task
easiness, and their failure to lack of ability. These findings suggest that Japanese
students’ attribution style might cause their low self-esteem.

The other-saving or modesty bias can also be found in teachers’ attributions of their
teaching outcomes, and mothers’ attributions of their success or failure in raising their
child. They tended to attribute negative outcomes to their own lack of effort, rather than
the children’s. Lee et al. (1998) reported that Japanese teachers, overall, expressed less
confidence in their teaching methods than American teachers. More than half of the
Japanese teachers stated that they wanted to learn more about effective teaching, and
94% of Japanese teachers considered that improved teaching methods could improve
pupils’ mathematics performance. Bornstein et al. (1998) reported that Japanese
mothers reported less ∞mpetence and satisfaction despite the fact that they reported
more willingness to invest time and energy in their children than mothers in other
countries such as America. They attributed their success in child raising to their child’s
behaviour and task easiness due to the child’s behaviour, while they attributed their
failure in child raising to a lack of effort rather than blaming the child.

Kashiwagi (1986) compared developmental tendencies reported in USA and Japanese
research regarding individuals’ attributional style. Overall, USA participants increased
internality attributions with increasing age, and this Internality was reported to relate to
achievement and self-esteem. Japanese participants’ attribution became more
complicated, and situation-specific external factors became more influential, while
internality was related to rigour in self-evaluation.

An individual’s attribution style has been reported to affect other aspects of affect as
well. Hosaka (1989), in Japan, reported that confidence in doing mathematics and liking
to do mathematics were separate factors. Ascribing success to ability positively affected

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