Search

Many Open and Distance Learning (ODL) providers report that their students are prone to lower rates of retention and completion than campus-based students. Against this background, there is growing interest around distance-specific learning support. The current research investigated the experiences of students during their first semester as distance learners at Massey University in New Zealand. The overarching methodology was Design-Based Research, within which phenomenological data gathering methods were used to study the experiences of twenty participants from their own point of view. Using video cameras, over twenty-two hours of self-reflections were gathered between July and November 2011 using a technique adapted from previous studies. A grounded theory approach was applied to the process of thematic data analysis. Results revealed how participants varied in their engagement with learning supports, including orientation events, outreach activity, cultural services, learning consultants, library services, fellow students, lecturers, residential courses, and other people. The discussion reflects on clusters of participants who utilised learning supports effectively, moderately and barely. The paper concludes by summarizing how the current research has had an impact on the design of learning support services at one of the world's leading providers of distance education. [This paper has been awarded an ICDE Prize for Innovation and Best Practice on the theme of Impact at the 25th ICDE Conference, held in Tianjin (China) in October 2013.]

Learning about probability can pose difficulties for students at all levels. Performing probability experiments using games can encourage students to develop understandings of probability grounded in real events. In this reflective paper, we explore the thinking of a group of students and teachers as they reasoned about experimental and theoretical probabilities in a game context. We designed a probability lesson based on the game LuLu (McCoy et al., 2007). In this article we share the activity and describe the kinds of explorations that can be facilitated in any secondary school mathematics classroom. We were particularly interested in investigating whether students could construct a bidirectional link between experimental probability and theoretical probability. Overall, the lesson enabled students to gain hands-on experience in data collection and analysis and better comprehend affordances of culturally diverse games.

Is it possible to track the revitalization of the Maori language statistically? Different large-scale statistical collections (censuses and surveys) in New Zealand effectively have different definitions of speaker because they ask different questions. This paper compares trends in numbers of Maori speakers as estimated from responses to questions about conversational ability, first language, and level of speaking proficiency, with particular reference to the 2013 Census and Te Kupenga (Maori social survey) 2013. One might expect estimates based on these responses to align closely, but they do not. This paper explores the relationships between the different estimates for different birth cohorts. Data on first language from at least four surveys provide strong evidence of a resurgence in intergenerational language transmission, which is not clearly apparent from the other indicators. Patterns of response to conversational ability and speaking proficiency questions are found to vary according to first language and birth cohort. It is argued that the apparent inconsistencies between the indicators reflect the real complexity of revitalization processes, as well as varying interpretations of the language questions, and that the New Zealand census language question on conversational ability is of questionable value as an indicator for tracking Maori language revitalization.

Mathematical and statistical thinking is involved across the breadth of people's home and work life and leisure activities. This paper reports on an aspect of a project that aimed to develop preservice teacher awareness of the mathematical and statistical thinking required across the breadth of primary teachers' professional role. This thinking is conceptualised as the mathematics and statistics embedded in each of the curriculum learning areas, in data literacy, and administration and management tasks. Mentor meetings indicated pre-service teachers who were completing a one-year graduate diploma initially had a limited awareness of the extent of this thinking. Through focus group discussions across the year participating preservice teachers' commentary showed an increased awareness and appreciation of the breadth of contexts where teachers might encounter mathematics and statistics thinking beyond mathematics lessons. Given awareness is fundamental to learning and subsequent action we posit that developing this awareness during teacher education is important.

Substantial amount of research regarding L2 learners' beliefs has been conducted in recent years. However, not enough attention has been paid to investigating the nature of learners' beliefs; hence our understanding of the construct is contradictory in the sense that early research studies report stability in beliefs, while more recent studies provide evidence of change in learners' beliefs. This paper reports on a case study aiming at contributing to a deeper understanding of the nature of language learners' beliefs. Data were gathered longitudinally over an 18-week period using a number of tools. The findings reveal the complexity of learners' beliefs. The beliefs that the learners held were not always in harmony and some of them can be self-contradictory. Furthermore, while some beliefs may evolve and change over time and across situation, others may remain relatively stable, suggesting the complex and dual nature of learners' beliefs. Drawing on these findings, the paper concludes that learner beliefs can best be perceived as an inter-related construct that has dual features and sometimes can be paradoxical.

Education is the core of the factors that improved people for a better lifestyle and increases the level of society' development. Quality education is one of the most vital goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to actualizing these factors. Using relational network data envelopment analysis (DEA), which have three interrelated substages, this current paper computes the educational economy efficiency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries bearing in mind the characteristics related to SDGs. The contribution of our study is the use of a novel approach to computing the educational economy efficiency using relational network DEA with GAMS. Even though some interesting differences reveal in the efficiency of the countries, the findings show that countries with high-efficiency scores are clustered around countries like Latvia, Slovenia, and Korea.

This paper presents a dialogical tool for the advancement of learning analytics implementation for student retention in Higher Education institutions. The framework was developed as an outcome of a project commissioned and funded by the Australian Government's "Office for Learning and Teaching". The project took a mixed-method approach including a survey at the institutional level (n = 24), a survey of individual teaching staff and other academics with an interest in student retention (n = 353), and a series of interviews (n = 23). Following the collection and analysis of these data an initial version of the framework was developed and presented at a National Forum attended by 148 colleagues from 43 different institutions. Participants at the forum were invited to provide commentary on the usefulness and composition of the framework which was subsequently updated to reflect this feedback. Ultimately, it is envisaged that such a framework might offer institutions an accessible and concise tool to structure and systematize discussion about how learning analytics might be implemented for student retention in their own context.

This paper reports on progress to date with a project underway in New Zealand involving the extraction of data from multiple government agencies that is then combined into one comprehensive longitudinal integrated dataset and made available to trial participants in a way never previously thought possible. The dataset includes school leaver achievement data, enrolments and completions data from the tertiary education sector, with earnings data in the years after graduation from the Inland Revenue Department, government assistance through benefit dependency data from the Ministry of Social Development, and border-crossings data from Customs. This dataset allows us to track the destinations and earnings of graduates over a number of years after they have lost contact with the institution. This is authoritative population level data on some of the variables we all measure in other ways that is presented in one simple table and tracked over the years. In the first instance, analysis of the data has focused on young graduates as this is a priority group in New Zealand. Through Massey University's participation, however, and because of our interest in data for our slightly different student demographic, we have been able to extend the analysis and utility to include data for all age groups and thus make use of a very comprehensive set of information. This article describes the data governance through Statistics New Zealand, analysis via the Ministry of Education, and the potential utility of the data for one participating tertiary provider.

With the increasing importance and rapid growth of online courses, diversification of the student population, and the growing concern over retention rates, exploration of learner online participation and possible relationships with motivation and achievement behaviour is becoming increasingly relevant in higher education. Previous studies (Gerber, Grundt, & Grote, 2008; Picciano, 2002) have tended to explore links between learner activity and performance in online environments. But the relationships that may exist between motivation and participation (both in terms of quality and quantity of activity) in online contexts are not well understood. Indeed, participation, particularly active participation such as posting messages to online discussions, is frequently used as a proxy for motivation, with more active learners being perceived as more motivated. This paper presents findings of one aspect of a larger study (Hartnett, 2010) that explored the motivation of pre-service teachers situated within two separate and distinct online distance learning contexts. Self-report motivation data, achievement, and online usage statistical data, in conjunction with asynchronous discussion-forum transcripts, were used to explore possible relationships between motivation, participation, and achievement in these contexts. Analysis revealed important differences between and within the two cases (e.g., nature of the task and assessment approaches) that indicated situational factors played a key role in determining whether any significant relationships were present. In other words, various factors within the specific learning environment combined in complex ways to influence motivation to learn and the nature of student participation. In an age of increasing exploration and interpretation of online learner behaviour via automatically collected systems statistics (Beer, Jones, & Clark, 2009), these findings highlight the need to be cautious about using online activity as the only gauge for assessing student motivation in online contexts.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate international student recruitment from an institutional perspective and to consider institutional factors that may affect recruitment. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study is undertaken in which education marketing practitioners are interviewed regarding aspects of international student recruitment at their institutions. Interview data are analysed by NVivo and categorized into four institutional factors: marketing department size, employee qualifications, institutional recruiting experience, and institutional focus. Findings: Differences are found to exist between universities and secondary schools in terms of their current international education recruitment practices. The percentage of international student cohort appears to be largely responsible for sectoral differences. Research limitations/implications: Findings presented are from a sample of secondary schools and universities in Australia and New Zealand. Further research is required to determine applicability of the findings to other education sectors. Practical implications: Implications are considered from the viewpoint of the international education marketing practitioner, education manager and policy makers. The theoretical contribution of the study is also discussed. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified research and practitioner gap through investigating international student recruitment from an institutional perspective. (Contains 9 tables.)

New Zealand students in the middle and upper school achieve better results in reading than they do in writing. This claim is evident in national assessment data reporting on students' literacy achievement. Research findings also state that teachers report a lack of confidence when teaching writing. Drawing on the National Writing Project developed in the USA, a team of researchers from the University of Waikato (New Zealand) and teachers from primary and secondary schools in the region collaborated to "talk" and "do" writing by building a community of practice. The effects of writing workshop experiences and the transformation this has on teachers' professional identities, self-efficacy, and their students' learning provided the research focus. This paper draws mostly on data collected during the first cycle of the two-year project. It discusses the influence of peer group response--a case study teacher's workshop experiences that transformed her professional identity, building her confidence and deepening her understandings of self as writer and ultimately transforming this expertise into her writing classroom practice. (Contains 2 figures and 3 footnotes.)

Mixed methods research requires integration of qualitative and quantitative data. However, there is debate about how to define integration and what is required for integration to occur. This paper describes a mixed methods research project which revisits datasets from different eras, which were originally instigated for different purposes and had different theoretical frameworks. Using selected results about the relationship between teenagers' vocational aspirations and adult occupations we show how the research topic and question integrated the projects within a constructivist theoretical position. We argue that reanalysing and comparing historical datasets can provide new insights into a topic even with minimal integration of the data. We recommend a broad definition of integration and reflexive research practice to encourage innovation and diversity in mixed methods research, particularly with regard to reanalysis of datasets from different eras.

The aim of this paper was to gain an understanding of the views of a group of physical education teacher educators on the purpose(s) of school physical education and whether, how and why these views have changed over time. Semi-structured individual interviews were carried out with thirteen physical education teacher educators; a fourteenth participant responded to interview questions in writing. Participants were based in seven countries: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the USA. A relative consensus on the overarching purpose of physical education was evident, centred on physical education preparing young people for a lifetime of physical activity. The framing of this shared purpose differed somewhat between participants, reflecting a range of perspectives on the value of physical activity. Delineating the boundaries of their subject, participants characterised obesity prevention and maximising in-class physical activity as potential by-products rather than as goals of the subject. The views of many had changed over time, influenced by such factors as findings from research, societal expectations and a perceived need to legitimise physical education within school and university contexts. We note that many of the influences acting on the views of the physical education teacher educators are also known to affect practicing teachers. This suggests a possibility, in the open reflection of physical education teacher educators on the interaction between their views and the institutional and societal contexts within which they work, to provide future teachers with alternative value pathways paved with relatable explanations and shared experiences.

Influenced by the practices of social scientists, data journalists seek to create stories that frame social reality through quantitative data analysis. While the use of statistics by journalists is not new, exponential growth in available data and a desire for source material unmediated by political and public-relations framings have seen data journalism increasingly embraced--to varying degrees--by newsrooms, and editors increasingly seek reporters who can think in computational ways. Journalism programs keen to incorporate data journalism in curricula face a unique set of issues, including a lack of scholarship on data journalism education and how to teach it. This article reports on both the pilot of an international postgraduate collaboration in data journalism education in 2015, in which postgraduate students at two universities investigated state-run gambling in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the introduction of an undergraduate semester-long paper in data journalism at one of the universities. A visiting Fulbright specialist supported both initiatives, helping to develop staff and student data skills, kick-start a joint investigation by students, and lay the groundwork for future international collaborations. Thanks to his visit, New Zealand educators and students were able to seek support from, a global community of journalists and journalism educators working in data journalism. Set against a literature that predicts an increasing role for computational journalism, this article explores the successes and challenges of these cases of experiential journalism education. It explores the complex but not fatal issues of data competency among both instructors and students, collaboration between geographically distinct programs, access to sensitive datasets, and publication of student work.

Introduction: Initially developed by New Zealand Rugby in 2014, the Blue Card initiative in rugby enables match officials to remove athletes from play if they are suspected to have sustained a concussion. Considerable attention has been paid by sport and health advocates to the possibilities and limitations of this initiative in safeguarding athlete health. However, little if any attention has been paid to the well-being of those responsible for administering the Blue Card (i.e., match officials). The aim of this paper was to examine match officials’ experiences with and perspectives on implementing the Blue Card initiative in Ontario, Canada, with focused attention on the tensions around their ability to manage games and participants (e.g., athletes, coaches) while attempting to safeguard athlete well-being. Methods: Using Relational Coordination Theory (RCT) as a guiding framework and qualitative research method, we highlight the rich accounts of 19 match officials’ perspectives and experiences regarding sport-related concussion (SRC) management and the Blue Card protocol. Results: Four themes were derived from the data, reflecting latent assumptions embedded within the concussion management process, which include: assumptions of trust, respect, and cooperation; assumptions of shared responsibility; assumptions of shared understanding; and assumptions of harassment-free sport. Discussion: Our findings emphasize the need to attend to social relations in concussion management and provide insight into match officials’ fraught experiences on the frontlines of concussion management. We identify factors affecting match official well-being and provide considerations for concussion management initiatives designed to improve athlete safety, such as the Blue Card. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science, in which volunteers work with professional scientists to conduct research, is expanding due to large online datasets. To plan projects, it is important to understand volunteers' motivations for participating. This paper analyzes results from an online survey of nearly 11000 volunteers in Galaxy Zoo, an astronomy citizen science project. Results show that volunteers' primary motivation is a desire to contribute to scientific research. We encourage other citizen science projects to study the motivations of their volunteers, to see whether and how these results may be generalized to inform the field of citizen science. (Contains 11 tables and 6 figures.)

International assessment data paints a complex picture of the engagement and achievement of New Zealand students in science. New Zealand was second only to Finland in the top achievers group in PISA 2006, but it also has one of the widest spreads in student achievement, particularly in relation to Mori and Pasifika students. Thus, the challenges faced by New Zealand students, teachers, schools and policy makers resonate with those from elsewhere. New Zealand has a strong research and development tradition around student ideas in science education, but recently, there has been increased recognition at the policy and practice level of the importance of both engagement and participation linked to student identity. A sociocultural orientation to identity has the potential to generate new ways of thinking about and responding to the challenge of engaging students in science. This orientation involves considering classrooms as sites for students working through the development and performance of science-related identities, or not. In this paper, three suggestions from long-term research studies are made for ways forward in addressing the challenge of increasing student engagement and participation through an expansion of the possibilities for students to express and develop science-related identities. These are reconceptualising assessment, the inclusion of student funds of knowledge and strategies for breaching the classroom walls.

Much of the self-study of teacher education practices literature characterizes self-study as a collaborative activity involving various degrees of cooperation and interaction with others, both the others who are our students and the collegial others who assist us in our inquiries into our own professional practices. However, while many self-studies in teacher education mention using collaborative or team approaches, few seem to have made collaboration itself the key focus of empirical interest in the analysis and reporting of those studies. This paper reports a collective self-study by seven teacher educators at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, that specifically analyzed the contribution made to their teacher education practices and self-understandings by the collaborative-collective process itself. We found that this collective approach to self-study research helped to maintain momentum and focus in our own self-inquiries through a strong sense of accountability to the group, insured greater trustworthiness to the study through multiple perspectives to the data collection and analysis, de-privatized, illuminated, validated, and challenged each other's practices and professional beliefs, and ultimately contributed to the development of a stronger sense of individual and community identity as teacher educators. (Contains 1 table.)

In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the notion of spontaneous focus on form (FonF) (i.e., attention to linguistic forms that arise incidentally during meaningful communication). Previous research has indicated that such FonF is beneficial for L2 learning. However, this research has focused mainly on reactive FonF, with relatively little investigation into pre-emptive FonF. This paper presents findings from a large-scale, classroom-based study that examined the role of both reactive and pre-emptive FonF in second-language development as measured by tailor-made, student-specific post-tests. Data from 54 hours of classroom interaction within seven intact ESL classes at three levels of language proficiency revealed that both reactive and pre-emptive FonF occurred. However, pre-emptive FonF led to higher individualized post-test scores than did reactive FonF. Furthermore, the amount, type, and effectiveness of FonF were strongly related to the learners' level of language proficiency. (Contains 4 notes and 8 tables.)

Most work on threshold concepts has hitherto related to discipline-specific undergraduate education, however, the idea of generic doctoral-level threshold concepts appeared to us to provide a strong and useful framework to support research learning and teaching at the graduate level. The early work regarding research-level threshold concepts is further developed and reported in this paper using research carried out with supervisors into their identification of threshold concepts and research students' crossing of these thresholds. The research was conducted in two stages involving 65 experienced research supervisors across six countries (Australia, England, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand and Trinidad) and across Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and IT and the Sciences. The first stage involved written responses from 26 experienced supervisors related to the learning challenges experienced by research students and their supervisors. The second stage of the research involved in-depth interviews with 39 supervisors regarding student learning challenges and successes at the research level. Responses were analysed, resulting in the identification of six possible generic research threshold concepts, which evidence themselves in the quality and level of the students' work at different stages in that work: argument; theorising; framework; knowledge creation; analysis and interpretation; and paradigm. The data analysis also suggests a number of indicators that signal when learners have crossed conceptual thresholds to gain, articulate and put into practice one or more of these threshold concepts in their research learning. (Contains 2 tables.)

During the past decade three different bridging mathematics courses have been offered at the University of Auckland. A case study approach was used to investigate the effectiveness of these courses: two larger courses and one individual study programme. A different teaching approach, by committed experienced teachers, was used in each course. The focus of this research is on affective change in the students, relating this to their achievement. This paper discusses some of the main findings of this large study. Important themes which emerged from the data analysis were the importance of teachers' acknowledgement of students' past experiences and current feelings about mathematics, dealing effectively with students' differing background knowledge of mathematics, as well as the effective use of contexts in non-routine problems. Interviews showed the variation of student reactions in the less successful demographic groups. The two approaches, which presented mathematics in a new way, had the effect of changing students' views of the nature of mathematics. (Contains 2 tables.)

Increasingly school leaders are being challenged to take a more instructionally focused role in their schools. This paper tracks the leadership challenges through a change process involving an assistant principal and a group of teachers, supported by a consultant, through four phases of an action research project. During the project the participants learned how to use achievement data to improve instruction for their low-achieving students. Initially, the teachers did not believe that they could influence the low literacy achievement of their students and so analyzing achievement data was irrelevant to their practice. Eighteen months later they were using the data to target their instruction more precisely and to test the effectiveness of their teaching practice and make refinements to their programs. The multifaceted challenges involved in leading such an initiative are discussed for each phase, together with conclusions about the realities of instructional leadership and the support that might be needed to undertake it effectively. (Contains 1 footnote.)

In this article, the author describes some of the possible components needed to develop multilevel theory that support the scaling of reading interventions. Scaling can be defined in a number of ways: depth, sustainability, spread, and shift (see Coburn, 2003). The author treats "scaling" in this paper as it has been traditionally defined--to increase the number and types of sites in which the intervention is being studied. The elements of multilevel theory examined include the what, the how, the where, and the when of such studies. The list is not exhaustive, but it points to the need for such theoretical development. Reading research is multilevel by nature because of the naturally occurring nesting in reading data. Few, if any, researchers explicitly leverage this multilevel structure to support theoretical developments in the study of reading interventions. Currently, the multilevel structure of reading data is either ignored or is utilized to reduce bias and better estimate our statistical models. The time is now ripe for the development of more sophisticated theory as reading interventions at scales never seen before begin implementation.

Artificial intelligence systems require large amounts of data to allow them to learn and achieve high performance. That data is increasingly collected in extractive and exploitative ways, which transfer value and power from individuals to AI system owners. Our research focuses on data that is collected from users of digital platforms, through direct and indirect interaction with those platforms, in ways that are not communicated to users, without consent or compensation. This paper presents our findings from a series of interviews and workshops in the Aotearoa New Zealand context to identify common themes and concerns from a variety of perspectives. Reframing this type of interaction as work or labour brings into view an otherwise unrecognised harm of using this data for training AI systems, and illustrates a new class of exploitative data practices that have become normalised in the digital age. We found that participants particularly emphasised moral or ethical justifications for intervention over financial or economic reasons to act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many school reform initiatives now require school leaders to make curriculum and resourcing decisions on the basis of evidence about their likely impact on student achievement. In this paper, we discuss the implications of this policy demand in the context of a descriptive study of schools' capacity to collect, analyze, and use collective achievement data to inform curriculum review and revision. The study of 47 teacher leaders in 26 elementary and middle schools showed that there was extensive assessment of collective achievement in literacy. While most schools' data were adequate to evaluate regular programs in reading, they were less adequate for the evaluation of writing, spelling, and extra reading programs. School leaders' evaluations of program success were not strongly linked to student achievement, and when they were, their judgments were frequently not data-based. When data were used, it was likely to be incorrectly interpreted. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of how reform policies and initiatives can build local capacity for data-based review and revision of teaching programs. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

Background: The emergence of the COVID‐19 and the resulting global pandemic has ushered in far‐reaching changes for countries across the world, not least of which are changes to their education systems. With traditional location‐based exams no longer possible at universities, the uptake of online proctored exams (OPE) has occurred at a pace not seen prior to the pandemic. Students' experiences of online proctored exams during the pandemic are reasonably well‐understood in terms of digital access and ease of use of the technology. However, less is known about students' perceptions of digital confidence and competence to complete an online exam, both of which are important digital equity considerations. Objectives: This study investigates students' digital confidence and competence to undertake online proctored exams to determine whether issues of equity exist for students. Methods: This study reports the results of a survey (N = 761) of one university's students' experiences of end‐of‐semester online proctored exams in New Zealand. Results: Most students were positive about online exams, felt reasonably confident to complete an exam, and had the necessary digital access (i.e., devices, internet) and competence to succeed. However, digital inequalities were found between students' perceptions of digital competence based on ethnicity. While more time learning online equated to increasing self‐reported digital competence for most ethnic groups, this was not the case for Pacific learners. Takeaways: Perceptions of low digital competence can contribute to digital inequalities. Educators can support learners to develop positive perceptions of digital competence by teaching digital literacy skills. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Online proctored exams (OPE) have replaced many traditional exams because of the pandemic.Research on the use of online proctored exams during the pandemic suggests some acceptance among students.Apart from access related issues, little is known about digital inequalities associated with online exams. What this paper adds: Most participants were positive about OPE and felt reasonably confident to successfully complete them.Confident students were more likely to report that the exam software was easy to use.Perceptions of digital competence differed based on ethnicity.Marginalized groups were more likely to experience digital inequalities than other groups. Implications for practice and/or policy: Digital inequality is about more than issues of digital access (i.e., devices, internet).Provide differentiated technical support for students who express low digital competence.Teaching online exam digital literacy skills might increase perceptions of digital competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how migrants are discursively constructed in the years 2007 and 2008 in New Zealand's most-read national newspaper, The New Zealand Herald. This timeframe was selected to investigate how the Global Economic Recession influenced migrant representation in the context of New Zealand. Through a detailed analysis using the Discourse-Historical Approach, the paper examines the series of referential and predicational strategies, as well as the topical themes used in the newspaper discourse to discuss migrants during this period. To reduce the risk of cherry-picking the data, the study presents a detailed five-level data-sampling technique to examine the prevalent discourses. The findings indicate that metaphorical, professional anthroponyms and collective strategies were the most common referential strategies. In addition, regarding predicational strategies, migrants were presented as being a 'double-edged sword' that is benefitting the country in some instances and as a problem being which needs to be dealt with in other instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The consumer acculturation literature argues that reconstituting familiar embodied practices from the culture of origin leads to a comforting sense of home for consumers who move from one cultural context to another. This paper aims to extend this thesis by examining further dimensions in migrant consumers' experiences of home culture consumption. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses data gathered through multi-modal depth interviews with Southeast Asian skilled migrants in New Zealand through the conceptual lens of embodiment. Findings: Building on Dion et al.'s (2011) framework of ethnic embodiment, the analysis uncovers home culture consumption as multi-layered experiences of anchoring, de-stabilisation and estrangement, characterised by convergence and divergence between the embodied dimensions of being-in-the-world, being-in-the-world with others and remembering being-in-the-world. Research limitations/implications: This paper underscores home culture consumption in migration as an ambivalent embodied experience. Further research should investigate how other types of acculturating consumers experience and negotiate the changing meanings of home. Practical implications: Marketers in migrant-receiving and migrant-sending cultural contexts should be sensitised to disjunctures in migrants' embodied experience of consuming home and their role in heightening or mitigating these disjunctures. Originality/value: This paper helps contribute to consumer acculturation theory in two ways. First, the authors show how migrants experience not only comfort and connection but also displacement, in practices of home culture consumption. Second, the authors show how migrant communities do not only encourage cultural maintenance and gatekeeping but also contribute to cultural identity de-stabilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales for people with Learning Disabilities (HoNOS-LD) is an 18-item measure which provides a structured and standardized approach to rating various clinical and psychosocial outcomes and has been in use nationally since 2002. Aims: To revise and improve the HoNOS-LD's utility in contemporary intellectual disability (ID) services whilst retaining its original objectives and five-point severity ratings. Method: ID clinicians were invited to complete an online survey, rating each item on the existing measure for being fit for purpose, identifying issues and suggesting improvements based on their experience of using the HoNOS-LD in practice. Scales were then assessed and revised sequentially; survey responses were used to inform discussion and revisions to the HoNOS-LD by the Advisory Board. Results: A total of 75 individuals replied. Respondents had used HoNOS-LD for an average of 8.0 years (S.D. 5.28 years) and 88% found the scale to be useful in their practice. On average, respondents used HoNOS-LD ratings to inform care 42.4% of the time (S.D. 33.5%). For each scale there was a significant negative correlation between the percentage of positive/very positive respondent ratings and the number of changes proposed. Common changes included simplifying terms, reducing ambiguity and replacing anachronistic language. Conclusion: The changes outlined in this paper are based on the advisory group's expert consensus. These changes are intended to improve reliability and validity but now need empirical testing as well as review by service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentoring programmes in an educational environment can represent a platform for academics to share ideas in order to gain new perspectives and skills in their field of expertise. The aim of this paper is to share findings from an ongoing peer mentoring programme for academic staff in the English department at a New Zealand tertiary institution. The objective of this research is to find out if academic staff consider that having a mentoring programme can be beneficial for them and to what extent it supports their professional development goals. The programme is centred on having English for Academic Purposes lecturers within the department teach their students how to use an experiential learning model in their study. The research method used is qualitative analysis of the data obtained from surveys and interviews with the lecturers. If proven successful in the English department, this peer mentoring programme could be further used institution-wide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores older people's views, experiences and sources of bereavement support following the death of a spouse, family member or other significant individual. Telephone interviews were conducted with 28 bereaved older adults recruited from the Brief Risk Identification Geriatric Health Tool trial participants in three geographically diverse District Health Boards in New Zealand. Analysis adhered to the principles of grounded theory and followed the National Centre for Social Research 'Framework' approach. Findings indicate that family and friends play a fundamental role supporting older bereaved adults, both emotionally and practically. Existing community-based organisations were identified as an important source of support following bereavement. Despite the emotional, financial and practical challenges associated with bereavement, the majority of participants questioned the role of, need for and value of formal bereavement support services. Instead, study participants cited a combination of being older and previous life experiences as factors that had enabled them to cope with these largely 'expected' events. Moreover, they demonstrated considerable resilience in managing the emotional and practical changes associated with loss and bereavement. This study poses a challenge to the argument that the growing secularisation of society has led to an increase in the use of professional bereavement services over more 'traditional' forms of support, such as family, friends and community and religious organisations. The paper highlights the value of adopting a public health-based approach as a way of optimising bereavement support via the use of existing community organisations previously known to older people. This is particularly important in those countries where the provision of bereavement support is limited due to resource constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to test empirically two key measurement perspectives - measurements in the context of a theoretical model that predicts/explains results, and measurements in the context of generating an overall score on performance excellence - of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE) using data from Australasian Business Excellence Award applicants. Design/methodology/approach - Two theoretical models corresponding to each measurement perspective were tested using data (n=118) from the applicants for the New Zealand Businesses Excellence Award (based on the BCPE). The partial least squares method was used to test the validity of the measurement items of the BCPE. Qualitative data were also collected from applicants for the Australian Business Excellence Award. Findings - Most of the measurement items showed low levels of measurement validity under both measurement perspectives; the main reason for this was considered to be due to the design of the BCPE as it is a high level of integration and alignment between the various items and categories. Research limitations/implications - The study is based on a non-probability sample, although this was unavoidable because the desire was to use data on national business excellence award applicants; such data are rarely available for research purposes. Practical implications - The paper shows that it is important for organisations to understand the relationships between the various categories/items. Also, the paper indicates that more research should be undertaken in this area to assist organisations to understand the relationships. Originality/value - The dual measurement perspectives of a BE model (using the same data) has not been tested before, and it is hoped that this study will help academia and the practitioner community to develop more refined performance excellence measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of New Zealand's 1996 adoption of a mixed member proportional (MMP) voting scheme on representation in the legislature, voter turnout, vote volatility and the likelihood of an incumbent party winning re-election. I then consider whether MMP has had any negative consequences for the effectiveness of government policy in relation to fiscal accountability and countercyclical intervention. The data used in the analysis begins from the formation of the party system in New Zealand (in 1890) and extends through the adoption of MMP to the pre-pandemic present (2017). The data set covers 42 elections: 34 before 1996 and 8 after. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an investigation of the temporal rainfall variability in the South Island of New Zealand has been carried out using a high-quality monthly dataset of 152 rain gages with more than 50 years of observation. Possible trends in seasonal and annual rainfall values have been detected by means of the Mann–Kendall test and of a new graphical technique, Şen's method, which allows the trend identification of the low, medium, and high values of a series. As a result, different behaviors emerged in the South Island, with a rainfall increase in the southwest regions and a decrease in northeast areas. Moreover, the comparison of the trend methodologies has revealed different trend results (increasing, decreasing, or trendless time series). In particular, this study shows that Şen's method could be successfully used in the evaluation of peak and low values of data for the trend analysis of seasonal and annual rainfall values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]