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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success and puts value on effort. Evaluation, within this goal orientation, is based on
absolute criteria. On the other hand, a performance orientation indicates striving for
better performance than others. Goal orientation is believed to affect the learners’
attribution pattern. For instance, a mastery goal orientation leads to an adaptive
attribution pattern whereby learners are likely to attribute their failure to lack of effort,
while a performance goal orientation leads to a maladaptive attribution pattern whereby
learners are likely to attribute their failure to a lack of stable ability. As a result, a mastery
goal orientation affects the learners’ affect, cognition and behaviour positively, while a
performance goal orientation affects them negatively (Anderman et al., 1994; Ames,
1992; Maehr et al., 1991). According to this theory, teachers with a mastery goal
orientation are expected to praise students when they show more effort in learning than
before, while teachers with a performance goal orientation are likely to praise their
students when they get higher marks in a test ∞mpared to other students. However,
there is doubt concerning the extent to which pupils distinguish whether teachers’ praise
is based on each orientation and the extent to which they can distinguish their own
preferences for teachers’ praise in terms of each orientation. Therefore, in this
questionnaire design, pupils’ perceptions of their teachers’ praise and their preferences
for teachers’ praise were examined in 2 x 2 (performance vs. effort) x (absolute criteria
vs. social comparison with others) dimensions. In addition, the design was based on the
hypothesis that teachers who generally praise their pupils are likely to do so irrespective
of the reasons, while teachers who do not generally praise their pupils are not likely to
do so, irrespective of the reasons. Similarly, pupils who seek their teachers’ approval are
likely to be satisfied with their teachers’ praise, irrespective of the reasons, while others
are likely to be not satisfied with their teachers’ praise, irrespective of the reasons.
Therefore, in the questionnaire design, a single-choice reply seemed inappropriate. A
five-point rating scale was adopted for each criterion.

Pupils’ perceptions of classroom ethos

Fraser’s My Class inventory (MCI) (Fraser, 1982) was adopted to assess pupils’
perceptions of classroom ethos. The MCI was specifically developed for children in the 8
to 12 years age range. It consists of twenty-five statements across five domains and is
very accessible. The five domains are cohesiveness, friction, satisfaction, difficulty and
competitiveness. The ‘Yes-No’ response form is employed because it is easier for

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