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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learning. For instance, criterion-based assessment emphasising individual improvement
and effort has been reported to promote pupils’ positive affective attitudes towards
learning.

There appear to be cultural differences in pupils’ perceptions of self, classroom ethos
and their motivational orientation. Japanese children develop a self in relation to others,
prefer co-operation to competition, make effort-based attributions of both success and
failure, and have an incremental theory of intelligence. These features of Japanese
pupils’ perceptions have been reported to produce positive affective attitudes towards
learning. However, some research suggests that too much emphasis on effort in learning
may produce negative effects such as lack of confidence, satisfaction, liking towards
learning and outcome expectancy. When teachers ascribe pupils’ negative performance
outcomes to lack of pupil effort, teachers may withdraw from giving sufficient support to
these pupils. These are features found in Japanese schools. The Ministry of Education
in Japan is currently concerned about them.

To further our understanding of these issues in terms of the teaching methods adopted
in mathematics classes, this project aims to research the following three key questions.

Question 1: Do teachers and pupils belonging to 5^th and 8^th grades perceive that pupils’
enjoyment, motivation, feelings of security and sense of progress are affected in a
similar way by different teaching methods deployed in mathematics classes?

• Do teachers and pupils perceive that pupils’ attitudes towards learning mathematics
are influenced by the various teaching methods adopted in mathematics classes in a
similar way?

• Are some teaching methods and not others perceived to promote particular affective
attitudes?

• What are the perceived relationships between affective attitudes and teaching
methods?

Question 2: What contributes to pupils’ enjoyment, motivation, sense of security and
sense of progress in mathematics classes?

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