Students' and Teachers' Decision-Making Fit Before and after the Transition to Junior High School

Student and teacher perceptions of actual and preferred student decision-making opportunities in mathematics classrooms are assessed before and after the transition to junior high school in a longitudinal sample of 2210 students in 117 pre-transition and 137 post-transition classrooms. The findings include: (a) students and teachers perceive fewer actual student decision-making opportunities after than before the transition; (b) students express a preference for more decision-making opportunities while teachers believe students should have fewer opportunities after than before the transition; and (c) the congruency between students' actual and preferred perceptions declines after the transition while teacher perceptions both before and after the transition are highly congruent. It is suggested that there is a "developmental mismatch" between maturing children and the classroom environments they experience before and after the transition. This mismatch may be related to the negative changes in student beliefs and behaviors that have been observed when students enter junior high school.