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Academic resilience captures academic success despite adversity and thus is an important concept for promoting equity within education. However, our understanding of how and why rates of academic resilience differ between contexts is currently limited by variation in the ways that the construct has been operationalised in quantitative research. Similarly, comparing the strength of protective factors that promote academic resilience is hindered by differing approaches to the measurement of academic resilience. This methodological variation has complicated attempts to reconcile disparate findings about academic resilience. The current study applied six commonly used operationalisations of academic resilience that combined different thresholds of high risk and high achievement, to three international large-scale assessments, to explore how these different operationalisations impacted the findings produced. The context of Aotearoa New Zealand was chosen as a case study to further academic resilience research within this context and investigate how academic resilience manifests in an education system with relatively high levels of average achievement alongside low levels of educational equity. Within international large-scale assessment datasets, prevalence rates differed markedly across subject areas, grade levels, and collection cycles, as a function of the measure of academic resilience employed, while the strength of protective factors was more consistent. Thresholds that were norm-referenced produced more consistent findings across the different datasets compared to thresholds that were criterion-referenced. High levels of missing data prevented the analysis of some datasets, and differences in the way that key constructs were measured undermined the comparability of findings across international large-scale assessments. The findings emphasise the strengths and limitations of utilising international large-scale assessment data for the study of academic resilience, particularly within the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Furthermore, the study highlights that researchers' methodological decisions have important impacts on the conclusions drawn about academic resilience.

Children's learning and cognitive development have a distinct receptivity to the circumstances of childhood. However, not all children have equal opportunities and learning inequities continue to be influenced by the social and economic circumstances of childhood. Examining factors within the environments that children are growing up in, and the associations of these factors with learning, can help to identify leverage points for change, enabling more children to be supported to reach their potential. Specifically, turning attention to the timing and duration of exposure to specific social and economic factors across childhood can provide essential details to determine who is most susceptible to contextual effects and at what ages. This paper presents a systematic review of 75 longitudinal studies of families and children carried out between 2000 and 2021. These studies tracked social and economic circumstances between pregnancy and early adolescence in relation to educational and cognitive outcomes across the lifespan. The results of the included studies were examined and grouped into themes using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings largely suggest that the degree to which educational and cognitive outcomes are affected by specific social and economic circumstances depends on the duration, timing, and mobility across childhood. In particular, findings relating to the developmental timing of exposure, as well as persistent exposure, revealed distinct evidence of the effects of temporality. These findings provide detail into how much and in what instances temporality should be considered--results which can be used to inform avenues for reducing learning disparities.

Students' test-taking motivation confounds test performance. This study examines students' conceptions of tests and test-taking motivation when different test consequences are at play. In a between-subjects experimental design, a sample of 479 New Zealand senior secondary school students were randomly assigned to one of the three vignette consequence conditions (i.e. none, country or self). Students self-reported conceptions of tests and test-taking motivation which were analysed with confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and latent mean analyses across test-consequence conditions. Students' general belief about tests was a positive indicator of their perceived effort expenditure ([beta] = 0.25). Both effort and anxiety increased significantly as consequence increased by medium-to-large effect size (ranges between 0.42 and 1.30). Effort and motivation were notably lower when the country was at stake versus the self at stake condition, raising doubts about the validity of New Zealand rankings in international large-scale assessments.

This study aimed to explore and compare individual student-level and teacher-level teacher expectation effects on student academic achievement in the Chinese junior high school context. The participants were 50 teachers and their 1199 students from 10 junior high schools. With differences in student baseline achievement controlled, hierarchical linear modelling was employed to see if early-year teacher expectations predicted student year-end achievement. Results showed that both student- and teacher-level expectations (relative to achievement) positively predicted student academic achievement. Teacher expectations at the student level showed a stronger influence on student-achievement outcomes. The results also indicated that teachers tended to hold higher expectations for girls than for boys and were more likely to underestimate students who were children of migrant workers.

Teacher expectation models have theorized that expectations are likely to affect student socio-psychological as well as academic outcomes. Effects on socio-psychological outcomes, however, have been less frequently studied. Further, ways in which teacher class-level over- or underestimation of students can contribute to relations with student beliefs have been seldom investigated. In a longitudinal study, relations between student reading achievement and student beliefs were explored, as were these relations for students with high and low expectation teachers. The participants were 31 teachers whose class-level expectations were more than 0.5 SD above or below their 692 students' beginning year achievement. Structural equation modeling showed that reading achievement and class-level teacher expectations predicted student self-reported teacher support and academic competence but not student reading self-concept, even though there were no differences in student reading achievement or beliefs at the beginning of the year. By end-of-year, students of high expectation teachers achieved at higher levels and held more positive beliefs than their underestimated counterparts. When multiple student beliefs were explored in one model, many of the paths between teacher class-level expectations, achievement, and student beliefs were indirect rather than direct. This implies a need for researchers to consider a range of student beliefs and relations with academic outcomes rather than a narrow focus on one belief construct as is common in the literature. The study also has practical implications in showing positive benefits for students when teachers have high class-level expectations.

The summer learning effect has been identified as a major barrier in creating equitable outcomes in the United States, especially in reading and mathematics. Less is known about the effect in other education systems and subject domains. This research draws on a large sample (N = 4390) to examine the summer learning effect in the comparatively under-researched domain of writing in New Zealand. Results indicate a considerable loss among students despite the relatively short summer break. The drop is substantially larger than the overall summer drop found previously across subjects, and for reading and mathematics specifically. Students from minority ethnic groups showed the greatest drops. Although indigenous students progressed at an equivalent rate than their European peers, the summer drop meant that the gap evident at the beginning of the academic year had widened by the beginning of the next year. At the school level, lower-income schools, which were over-represented by ethnic minority students, were also associated with a greater summer drop even after accounting for ethnicity. The growing inequities created by the effect underscore the importance of addressing this issue. Our findings point to the significance of supporting students' literacy developments in and outside of school. They call for greater policy attention that would see an examination of the financial and educational resourcing to support schools and families, but also of the access and resourcing of communities in regard to education, libraries and community services.

Students' test-taking motivation has been found to be a predictor of performance. This study tests whether Shanghai students' conceptions of tests and test-taking motivation differ when the consequence of tests have different foci (i.e., none, country, or personal). A between-subjects experiment with vignette instructions systematically assigned 1,003 Shanghai senior secondary school students to one of the three vignettes. Students' conceptions of tests and test-taking motivation scales were evaluated using factor analyses. Invariance testing suggested invariant relationships between the two constructs across the three groups. Students' general conception of tests meaningfully predicted their reported effort ([beta] = 0.18). Latent mean analyses suggested that students' reported "effort," "anxiety," and "importance" were not significantly different between "country at stakes" and "personal stakes" groups, but higher than when no consequences were attached. This study suggests that Shanghai students' test-taking attitudes may contribute to high effort and consequently high performance on international large-scale assessments.

This study aimed to explore and compare the instructional practices and classroom interactions of teachers within the Chinese junior high school context who had correspondingly high or low expectations for all their students. Eight junior high school teachers and their 32 lessons were observed. Results of classroom observations revealed that high expectation teachers (teachers who had overall high expectations for their students relative to student achievement) made more orientation/focus statements and more statements referring to students' prior knowledge and learning experiences in their teaching compared with low expectation teachers (those with overall low expectations for their students relative to student achievement). High expectation teachers gave more class-level feedback and were more likely to question further and provide explanations when a student gave a correct answer. In situations when a student gave an incorrect answer or could not come up with an answer, high expectation teachers were more likely to give the student another chance by rephrasing/repeating the question, providing hints, or just asking the student to try again. These differences in high and low expectation teachers' instructional behaviours and the socio-emotional environment they created in their classrooms are discussed and implications for classroom teaching and teacher training are proposed.

Boys continue to demonstrate lower average achievement in reading than girls. The influence of teacher gender has been explored among the factors explaining this scenario but with mixed results. Further, although teacher expectations have affected student academic outcomes, and student gender-related stereotypical notions have shaped such expectations, the role of teacher gender within this scenario has been neglected. The current study was conducted with a sample of elementary schools, in New Zealand (a national setting where essentialist gender attitudes have existed and where policies to implement scholastic gender equity have been critiqued as unsuccessful). The influence of teacher gender and of a teacher-student gender match and mismatch on teacher's expectations of their elementary student reading achievement, was tested via hierarchical linear modeling. Male teachers' expectations were found to be lower for students of both genders in reading and negative implications for male teachers and their students' reading achievement were revealed.

This article describes the results of a study that investigated the effect of features of talk that appear to foster higher levels of interaction, within the scope of a larger study (Davies and Meissel in Br Educ Res J 42:342-365, 2016). Students were recruited from seven classrooms across three secondary schools of varying socioeconomic levels within the Auckland region in New Zealand, with four of the classrooms engaging in face-to-face and online discussion in small groups and the other three participating as whole classes. Results indicated a significant increase in the proportion of uptake questions used by students working in small groups for face-to-face group discussions. When placed in online groups (the same groups as the face-to-face groups), uptake questions increased. Classes who worked as a whole class online used significantly more elaborated explanations but, consequently, fewer interactions--less than half as many as the small groups. The results suggest that students using uptake questions fostered higher levels of interactions in both conditions.

To engage more youth in service, we require further research on the characteristics of youth who serve, particularly disadvantaged youth with limited access to formal service opportunities. This study investigated the positive youth development characteristics of New Zealand youth who decided to mentor younger peers in the Stars program for the first time (n = 109), those who returned to mentor for a subsequent year (n = 48), and similar youth not involved in Stars (n = 51) to determine what characteristics differentiate these groups. Returning mentors had the highest levels of social competency and involvement and a strong leadership orientation. New mentors had the second highest levels of leadership orientation but the lowest levels of social competency and involvement. The propensity for leadership in mentors was associated with having many positive adult role models. Strategies to engage more young people in service as cross-age peer mentors are discussed.

This review aimed to illustrate the development in the teacher expectation literature and discuss the major avenues of research in the teacher expectation field from 1989 to 2018. Four analytical themes emerged from a narrative synthesis based on a systematic literature search: (1) influential factors on teacher expectations; (2) mediation mechanism of teacher expectations; (3) moderating factors of teacher expectation effects; (4) teacher expectation effects on student socio-psychological, behavioural, and achievement outcomes. On the whole, most studies confirmed earlier research findings regarding the 4 themes, although there were some studies that found results contradicting earlier work. In addition, new research topics and directions raised in the past 3 decades were identified in this review, especially regarding the mediation of teacher expectations and the socio-psychological and behavioural outcomes of the expectation effects. The review concludes with a set of recommendations for future research directions on teacher expectations.

This study used the Quality Talk and dialogic teaching approach with a group of secondary school teachers (N = 7) to train their facilitation of dialogical discussions by small groups of students. The study used video and audio analysis to assess the teachers' observable behaviours during these discussions, before and after professional development; for example, types of Quality Talk questions asked. The study also used face-to-face interviews, held before and after the professional development, to investigate the teachers' beliefs about learning through discussion. Results show that although the number of high-quality questions from the teachers did not increase, the quality of the questions students asked of each other did improve, and resulted in extended periods of dialogic spells. Positive developments were found for teachers' beliefs about the use of dialogue to foster deeper thinking with their secondary school-aged students.

The "summer learning effect" (SLE) is described as a stall or drop in achievement over summer, especially in schools serving poor or "minority" communities. There has been little research in Europe on the effect, and research internationally has primarily focused on the effect in reading, with minimal focus on writing. This paper describes the extent and nature of the SLE in reading comprehension and writing in second grade classrooms in Germany. The SLE was evident in both subject areas with all students experiencing lower progress rates over summer. In reading, students attending the high-income school progressed significantly more over summer than their low-income peers, while there was no significant difference in writing progress over summer. Literacy logbooks over summer and interviews with a subset of students provided information on how home literacy practices influenced the effect.

This study was carried out in three secondary schools of varying socioeconomic levels within the usual framework of tasks completed by students while studying towards a national assessment. The study examined the change in the nature of the interactions between students in group conversations, in the context of a film unit and a geography unit using Quality Talk. Quality Talk is an interventional approach promoting text comprehension via a critical-reflective thinking approach. The study also sought to determine whether there was a positive intervention effect from the use of Quality Talk, on the students' ability to write from a critical analytical (CA) stance. Differences in the pre- and post-treatment writing achievement of seven intervention and one comparison class were assessed. Analysis revealed a large intervention effect within the intervention classes with marked improvements in students' abilities to talk and write with a CA stance (d = 0.92). The change in behaviour for the students in the intervention classes appeared to be associated with their increased use of authentic questions, uptake questions and high-level questions, which appeared to foster higher levels of dialogic spells, supporting the development of higher levels of CA talk and writing.

Background: There is substantial evidence indicating that various psychological processes are affected by cultural context, but such research is comparatively nascent within New Zealand. As there are four large cultural groups in New Zealand, representing an intersection of individualist, collectivist, indigenous, colonial, and immigrant cultures, New Zealand is an important context in which to investigate the role of culture in such processes. Aims: This study investigated goal orientation and self-efficacy beliefs among students of different cultural backgrounds in New Zealand, associations between motivational beliefs and achievement, and whether any relations differed by cultural background. Sample: Participants were 2,210 students attending three intermediate schools. Methods: Participants responded to a questionnaire at the beginning of the school year to evaluate self-efficacy for mathematics and mastery and performance goal orientation. Participants also completed a standardized mathematics achievement test at the beginning and end of the year. Results: The factor structure was sufficiently invariant by cultural group, but with statistically significant differences in average level of endorsement. Self-efficacy for mathematics predicted marginally higher end-of-year achievement after controlling for beginning-of-year achievement, with a stronger relationship for Maori and Pasifika, but no statistically significant relationship with achievement among Asian students. Conclusions: The questionnaire used was a valid instrument for the four main cultural groups in New Zealand. Differences were found in motivation levels, and Maori and Pasifika were more affected by their self-reported self-efficacy. Teachers may be able to raise students' self-beliefs by conveying high expectations for these students, potentially supporting higher academic outcomes.

Academic resilience captures academic success despite adversity and thus is an important concept for promoting equity within education. However, our understanding of how and why rates of academic resilience differ between contexts is currently limited by variation in the ways that the construct has been operationalised in quantitative research. Similarly, comparing the strength of protective factors that promote academic resilience is hindered by differing approaches to the measurement of academic resilience. This methodological variation has complicated attempts to reconcile disparate findings about academic resilience. The current study applied six commonly used operationalisations of academic resilience that combined different thresholds of high risk and high achievement, to three international large-scale assessments, to explore how these different operationalisations impacted the findings produced. The context of Aotearoa New Zealand was chosen as a case study to further academic resilience research within this context and investigate how academic resilience manifests in an education system with relatively high levels of average achievement alongside low levels of educational equity. Within international large-scale assessment datasets, prevalence rates differed markedly across subject areas, grade levels, and collection cycles, as a function of the measure of academic resilience employed, while the strength of protective factors was more consistent. Thresholds that were norm-referenced produced more consistent findings across the different datasets compared to thresholds that were criterion-referenced. High levels of missing data prevented the analysis of some datasets, and differences in the way that key constructs were measured undermined the comparability of findings across international large-scale assessments. The findings emphasise the strengths and limitations of utilising international large-scale assessment data for the study of academic resilience, particularly within the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Furthermore, the study highlights that researchers' methodological decisions have important impacts on the conclusions drawn about academic resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how a teacher-led cluster of rural schools used evidence of student achievement to improve the quality of learning opportunities for students in mathematics. The teachers began to collect evidence in order to promote constructive dialogue and stimulate action. An inquiry cycle provided feedback to schools through the cluster members. The students' results show that in two terms most of the five schools were able to accelerate progress in basic facts and place value. When the teachers' written intentions are considered alongside these results it appears that emphasising the broader mathematical context of these basics may have been more effective than practising them in isolation.