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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considered was the extent to which pupils were familiar with the words describing these
teaching methods. Since this survey was conducted before the introduction of the
reforms, not all the teachers in mathematics classes were expected to be using all these
teaching methods. Pupils might therefore be unfamiliar with the words used to describe
the teaching methods in the questionnaire. To solve this possible problem, examples of
earlier survey research regarding teaching methods with children in the upper stage of
elementary school were examined. In Japan, the National Institute for Educational
Research (1990), which investigated 4^th graders’ preferences for ‘whole-class learning
sessions’ or ‘individual learning sessions’ in mathematics classes, used these words,
with explanations of what each kind of learning session was. In England, Hall (1995)
who investigated 7 to 11 year-old children’s perceptions of teaching methods, used
concrete words suggesting the teaching methods, with explanations about each method.
Following these examples, this study used explanatory sentences for the first
appearance of the description, in order to promote pupils’ understanding of what each
teaching method involved. From the second appearance, these words were arranged in
the corresponding order, to save the time and effort needed to read a long explanation
each time, and also space on the questionnaire sheet. Confusion due to not
understanding the words describing teaching methods was not found in the pilot study.
Therefore, these descriptions were used in the main survey. The teaching methods
included in the study are presented in Table 3.2.1 below.

Table 3.2.1: Teaching methods included in this study

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