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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3.2: The design of the questionnaire for pupils

Four pilot studies were conducted in constructing the questionnaire for pupils before the
main survey. This repeated conduct of pilot studies aimed to tighten the scope of the
questions, clarify the accessibility of the words used for the pupils, and ensure
completion in the time allocated. The first pilot study for the pupils’ questionnaire was
conducted with five 5^th graders because employing the same questionnaire for both 5^th
and 8^th graders might have posed difficulties for the 5^th graders, in relation to access to
words and in assessing their views. Therefore, the first pilot study focused on
accessibility for 5^th graders. Originally, open-ended questions, asking why particular
teaching methods gave them more positive attitudes towards learning mathematics than
other methods, were included. However, most of the 5^th graders taking part in the first
pilot study found difficulty in expressing their opinions in their own words. As a result, the
open-ended questions were eliminated from the questionnaire for 5^th graders.

The second pilot study was conducted with sixteen 5^th graders and eighteen 8^th graders.
In addition to completing the questionnaire, the participants were required to report how
long completion took. This varied, from five minutes to thirty minutes. The instructions
and questions seemed to be clearly understood by pupils from both grades. The majority
of the 8^th grade participants were able to express in sentences their views on why their
attitudes towards learning mathematics were promoted by particular teaching methods in
mathematics classes.

The third pilot study was conducted, with thirty-six 5^th graders in a mathematics
classroom at an elementary school in Tokyo, in order to see to what extent the revision
of the questionnaire had improved its accessibility for the pupils. A group-administered
questionnaire method was used with their teacher reading aloud. This can be beneficial
for children, especially those who experience difficulties in reading questions, because it
can ensure that all the respondents proceed in the same order and do the same thing at
the same time (Oppenheim, 1996). However, quick respondents have to wait for others
to finish. Therefore, this method may take longer than a self-administered questionnaire.
After the observation of the pupils’ completion of the questionnaire, the teacher taking
part in the pilot study was asked to feed back to the researcher. According to her

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