Exploring 'What Japanese Students Find Important in Mathematics Learning' Based on the Third Wave Project

The present study is an ongoing survey targeting Japanese fifth and ninth grade elementary and junior high school students respectively using the framework of "The Third Wave" international comparative study. The purpose of this research report is to describe the questionnaire survey's results and analyze some similarities and differences between fifth and ninth graders from a value perspective. The main results show that there are five common factors underlying students' valuing and that fifth graders tend to value "process", "effort", "exploration", "fact", "openness" and "progress"; in contrast, ninth graders tend to value "product", "ability", "exposition", "idea", "mystery", and "control". [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]