Education: Journal Articles

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Open Access
Longitudinal relations among teacher-student closeness, cognitive flexibility, intrinsic reading motivation, and reading achievement
(Elsevier BV, 2022) Huang , Jing; SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; Cheung , Him
This study examines the roles of cognitive flexibility and reading motivation in explaining the longitudinal link between teacher-student closeness and reading achievement. The investigation is motivated by the fact that cognitive flexibility and reading motivation have been shown to be correlates of teacher-student relationship and reading achievement, yet their mediating roles are less well understood. The current study uses a sample of 17,342 students (8463 females; mean age = 73.42 months) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study with different ethnic backgrounds. A declining trend of teacher-student closeness from kindergarten to Grade 2 was found. Teacher-student closeness at kindergarten was positively associated with reading achievement at Grade 4 and the effect was mediated by cognitive flexibility and reading motivation at Grade 3. Declining closeness from kindergarten to Grade 2 was not related to the other associations. Consistent with the extended attachment view, these findings highlight the importance of an early supportive teacher-student relationship in promoting flexibility in thinking and interest in reading. This enhances subsequent reading performance in the middle elementary school years.
Open Access
P300 as a correlate of false beliefs and false statements
(Wiley, 2023) Wang Y; SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; Cheung H
Introduction: This study investigates P300 as a component for false belief and false statement processing with and without a communicative context. The purpose is to understand why P300 has been shown to be commonly involved in false belief and lie processing. Methods: Participants were presented with a story in which the protagonist holds a true belief and makes a true statement of it (true belief), holds a false belief and makes a true statement (false belief), or holds a true belief and makes a false statement (false statement) while electroencephalograms were recorded. Results: In Experiment 1, featuring a solitary protagonist, stronger posterior P300 was shown in the false belief condition than the true belief and false statement condition. With the installation of a communicative context by including a second character listening to the protagonist, Experiment 2 showed enhanced frontal P300 in the false statement condition compared to the true belief and false belief condition. A late slow wave was more prominent in the false belief condition than in the other two conditions in Experiment 2. Conclusion: The present results suggest a situation‐dependent nature of P300. The signal captures the discrepancy between belief and reality more readily than that between belief and words under a noncommunicative context. It becomes more sensitive to the discrepancy between belief and words than that between belief and reality in a communicative situation with an audience, which makes any false statement practically a lie.
Open Access
Gendered pathways to socioemotional competencies in very young children
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024) Liu Q; Huang J; Caldwell MP; Cheung SK; Cheung H; Siu, Tik Sze Carrey
Parent–child and teacher–child relationship closeness have been shown to be crucial for children’s development of socioemotional competencies from preschool to school-age stages. However, less is known about the importance of developing close relationships with young infants and toddlers attending childcare group settings for their early socioemotional development. The current study aimed to address this gap and to explore how child gender may influence the associations. Participants included 378 Hong Kong Chinese children (196 girls; M age = 22.05 months, SD = 9.81 months) enrolled in childcare centres, along with their parents and teachers. Parents reported on children’s socioemotional competencies as well as their relationship closeness with children; teachers reported on their relationship closeness with children. Multiple group structural equation modelling was used to analyse the results. The findings showed that both parent–child and teacher–child closeness were positively associated with children’s social competence, while teacher–child closeness was negatively associated with children’s anxiety behaviour. Parents of girls reported greater parent–child closeness, higher levels of social competence, and higher levels of anxiety behaviours compared to parents of boys. Furthermore, teacher–child closeness was significantly associated with social competence exclusively among girls, while parent–child closeness was significantly associated with anxiety behaviours solely among boys. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of child gender in influencing the associations between parent–child closeness, teacher–child closeness, and children’s socioemotional competencies in the earliest years.
Open Access
Infants’ sensitivity to emotion in music and emotion-action understanding
(Public Library of Science (PLoS), online-publication-date) SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; Cheung H; Chao L
Emerging evidence has indicated infants’ early sensitivity to acoustic cues in music. Do they interpret these cues in emotional terms to represent others’ affective states? The present study examined infants’ development of emotional understanding of music with a violation of-expectation paradigm. Twelve- and 20-month-olds were presented with emotionally concordant and discordant music-face displays on alternate trials. The 20-month-olds, but not the 12-month-olds, were surprised by emotional incongruence between musical and facial expressions, suggesting their sensitivity to musical emotion. In a separate non-music task, only the 20-month-olds were able to use an actress’s affective facial displays to predict her subsequent action. Interestingly, for the 20-month-olds, such emotion-action understanding correlated with sensitivity to musical expressions measured in the first task. These two abilities however did not correlate with family income, parental estimation of language and communicative skills, and quality of parent-child interaction. The findings suggest that sensitivity to musical emotion and emotion-action understanding may be supported by a generalised common capacity to represent emotion from social cues, which lays a foundation for later social-communicative development.
Open Access
A longitudinal reciprocal relation between theory of mind and language
(Elsevier BV, 2022) SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; Cheung, H
Ninety-seven Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds were tested three times over 6 months on belief based theory of mind (ToM), general language ability, complement syntax, and verb factivity understanding. These capacities were assessed with carefully designed tasks to minimize overlaps in measurement. Results showed that early general language predicted later performances on the unexpected content and belief-emotion ToM tasks, and early change-of-location predicted later discrimination of strong factive and non-factive verbs but not general language and complementation. The present results provide longitudinal evidence for a reciprocal relation between language and ToM development: General language ability supports the development of belief based ToM; belief-based ToM facilitates the learning of verb semantics specialized in communicating mind-reality (mis)match.
Open Access
So near yet so far away: The colonisation and decolonisation of New Zealand and New Caledonia.
(2024) Small, David
Despite their geographic proximity, New Zealand and New Caledonia experienced from the outset quite different forms of colonialism at the hands of Britain and France. However, the history of the two countries also reveals interesting parallels. This article explores some of these similarities and differences and discusses their implications for decolonisation struggles led by the indigenous Kanak and Māori peoples. The study points to differences in how sovereignty was acquired, identifies similarities in the colonial strategies of initial military conquest and land dispossession, and highlights contrasts between the British assimilationist approach in New Zealand and France's segregationist policies in New Caledonia. The article traces the evolution of colonial relations noting that in both countries, the moderate political aspirations of the colonised peoples during the post-war period were jettisoned by a new generation of radical activists starting in the late 1960s. By the mid-1980s, these movements for decolonisation had gained sufficient support to be able to force concessions from the governments of New Zealand and France. It also notes that in 2023, both countries were confronted by attempts by those in power to call into question fundamental aspects of decolonisation which had been widely believed to have been settled for decades, including the issue of whether ongoing dimensions of colonisation should be addressed. The article argues that, although colonisation in New Zealand and New Caledonia took different forms, the current backlash against efforts for decolonisation is once again presenting similar challenges separately yet simultaneously in both countries.
Open Access
Evaluating the Effects of Metalinguistic and Working Memory Training on Reading Fluency in Chinese and English: A Randomized Controlled Trial
(Frontiers Media SA, online-publication-date) SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; McBride , Catherine; Tse , Chi-Shing; Tong , Xiuhong; Maurer , Urs
Open Access
Deliberating on group sizes and child-adult ratios in infant-toddler care and education: Voices of practitioners and parents from Hong Kong
(2022) SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; Caldwell , Melissa Pearl; Cheung , Sum Kwing; Cheung , Him
Open Access
A Multi-Layered Dialogue: Exploring Froebel’s Influence on Pedagogies of Care with 1-year-olds across Four Countries
(2022) Cooper , Maria; SIU, Tik Sze Carrey; McMullen , Mary Benson; Rockel, Jean; Powell , Sacha
Infant and toddler pedagogy has flourished as a specialized area of practice in early childhood care and education settings, yet it remains an under-researched area. There is also limited empirical research internationally that explores cultural meanings of meaningful provision for this young age group. This ethnographic study explored pedagogies of care with 1-year olds in four cultures—England, United States, New Zealand and Hong Kong—guided by Froebel’s education philosophy and a view of pedagogies of care as embodiments of culture. The researchers employed sociocultural and ecological theoretical perspectives (Darling, 2016) to attend to cultural meanings at the micro, macro and temporal levels in relation to people, contexts and processes. This lens enabled the researchers to resist the positivist tendency to normalize and unify all children’s experiences and maintain the integrity of diverse interpretations. Inspired by Tobin et al.’s (1989, 2009) cross-national research on preschool in three cultures, the researchers utilized a video-cued multivocal and layered interpretation approach to elicit the “voices” of 1-year-olds, their teachers/practitioners and families. This paper focuses on each researcher’s discussion of the ways Froebel’s principles of autonomy in learning and freedom with guidance were seen to unfold. The nuances of how these principles were manifested in pedagogies for infants and toddlers is explored in relation to each country’s curriculum and cultural ideals.
Open Access
Supporting teachers in inclusive practices: Collaboration between special and mainstream schools in Kuwait
(Informa UK Limited, 2013) Al-Manabri, M; Al-Sharhan, A; Elbeheri, G; Jasem, IM; Everatt, John
We discuss a project aimed at improving Kuwaiti mainstream teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and teaching practice related to learning disabilities and inclusion. The project involved special school staff providing mainstream primary school teachers with first-hand experiences of inclusive practices that could be implemented in their own schools. Despite the project’s relatively short duration, and the large number of teachers involved, there was evidence of improvements in teachers’ self-reported attitude/views towards children with LD, as well as improved practice indicators, in the majority of schools. Overall, the value of this project has been that it showed how a special school can become the focus of inclusion work within an educational context in which inclusion is a relatively new and poorly understood concept.
Open Access
What do health care professionals want to know about assisted dying? Setting the research agenda in New Zealand
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023) Young, J; Snelling, J; Beaumont S; Diesfeld, K; White, B; Willmott, L; Robinson J; Ahuriri-Driscoll A; Cheung, G; Dehkhoda, A; Egan R; Jap, J; Karaka-Clarke, TH; Manson, L; McLaren, C; Winters, J
Background: New Zealand recently introduced law permitting terminally ill people to request and receive assisted dying (AD) in specified circumstances. Given the nature and complexity of this new health service, research is vital to determine how AD is operating in practice. Objective: To identify research priorities regarding the implementation and delivery of AD in New Zealand. Methods: Using an adapted research prioritisation methodology, the researchers identified 15 potential AD research topics. A mixed-methods survey of health professionals was undertaken where respondents were asked to rate the 15 topics according to the relative importance for research to be conducted on each issue. Respondents could also suggest additional research areas, and were invited to participate in a follow-up interview. Results: One hundred and nineteen respondents completed the survey. 31% had some experience with AD. The highest rated research topic was the ‘effectiveness of safeguards in the Act to protect people’; the lowest rated topic was research into the ‘experiences of non-provider (e.g., administrative, cleaning) staff where assisted dying is being provided’. Respondents suggested 49 other research topics. Twenty-six interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis of interview data and open-ended survey questions was undertaken. Six research themes were identified: general factors related to the wider health system; the experiences of health care providers at the bedside; medico-legal issues; the impact of AD; experiences on the day of dying; and the overall effectiveness of the AD system. Key issues for stakeholders included safety of the AD service; ensuring access to AD; achieving equity for ‘structurally disadvantaged’ groups; and ensuring the well-being of patients, families/whānau, providers and non-providers. Conclusions: Based on early experiences of the implementation of the AD service, health professionals provide important insights into what research should be prioritised post-legalisation of AD. These findings can be used to shape the research agenda so that research may inform law, policy and best practice.
Open Access
Teacher Collaboration and Innovative Learning Spaces in New Zealand
(2024) Fletcher, Jo; Everatt J; Chang G; Subramaniam Y
The changing architectural design of the spaces where schooling occurs can impact on the types of pedagogical practices that were once solely viewed within the traditional single teacher classroom. Innovative learning environments are being built where there can be multiple teachers with larger cohorts of students. This may provide more opportunities for collaboration amongst teachers which may enhance learning opportunities. This New Zealand study looks at the views of ten primary school teachers in innovative learning environments and the results from a national survey in regard to primary teachers’ and principals’ perceptions on teacher collaboration and innovative learning environments. Specifically, we highlight the views of principals and teachers situated within the New Zealand education system and the range of views they bring to this change to the types of differing structural spaces of learning and teaching. The findings suggest that a continuing challenge for teachers is the level of noise and the wide range of distractions within innovative learning environment. The attitudes and adaptability of teachers to adjust to change, and their opportunities for professional development to prepare for this change are key influential factors.
Open Access
Retelling stories: The validity of an online oral narrative task
(SAGE Publications, 2023) Gillon, Gail; McNeill, Brigid; Scott, Amy; Gath, Megan; Westerveld, M
This study examined the validity of data collected from a novel online story retell task. The task was specifically designed for use by junior school teachers with the support of speech–language therapists or literacy specialists. The assessment task was developed to monitor children's oral language progress in their first year at school as part of the Better Start Literacy Approach for early literacy teaching. Teachers administered the task to 303 5-year-olds in New Zealand at school entry and after 20 weeks and 12 months of schooling. The children listened to a story with pictures via iPad presentation and were then prompted to retell the story. The children's spontaneous language used in their story retell was captured and uploaded digitally via iPad audio recording and analyzed using semi-automated speech recognition and computer software. Their responses to factual and inferential story comprehension questions were also analyzed. The data suggested that the task has good criterion validity. Significant correlations between story retell measures and a standardized measure of children's oral language were found. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task, which took approximately 6 min for teachers to administer, accurately identified children with low oral language ability 81% of the time. Growth curve analysis revealed that the task was useful for monitoring oral language development, including for English as second language learners. Boys showed a slower story comprehension growth trajectory than girls. The Better Start Literacy Approach story retell task shows promise in providing valid data to support teacher judgement of children's oral language development.
Open Access
Language, culture and identity at the nexus of professional learning
(Informa UK Limited, 2017) Fickel, Letitia; Henderson C; Price G
Background: Given the persistent gap among majority and minority students in international measures of student outcomes, there is growing attention and research focused on teacher knowledge, learning and professional development. Culturally responsive practice has been posited as one way to ameliorate disparities in outcomes. Proponents of culturally responsive practice argue that there is a special knowledge base, skills, processes and experiences that teachers need to have that enable them to work successfully with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Purpose and methods: This documentary account describes the understandings gained by a team of professional development facilitators as they reframed their work with schools and teachers to focus on developing culturally responsive practices by placing language, culture and identity at the centre of literacy-focused Professional Learning and Development (PLD). Using an appreciative inquiry framework, they sought to identify and increase the use of existing practices that supported a culturally responsive learning environment. Results: A number of initial lessons were learnt, including the need for PLD facilitators to engage in ongoing and explicit critical reflection on themselves as socio-cultural beings and to become comfortable with leading and engaging in uncomfortable conversations. The co-construction and on-going revision of PLD materials and tools were instrumental in re-centring practice and assumptions about teaching, learning, literacy, as well as challenging existing PLD practices. Conclusions: Although the appreciative inquiry framework was found to be critically important for prompting change, it was the interweaving of multiple frameworks that led to competencies that built capacity for continuous improvement and evidence-based practice. This focus on enhancing the practice of PLD facilitators has important implications for improving student achievement.
Open Access
Wisdom of the Outsiders Within: How Career Technical Education Leaders Can Inform Educational Leadership Preparation
(SAGE Publications, online-publication-date) Willis , Chris; LaVenia, Kristina; Galletta Horner , Christy
This study examines insights from Career and Technical Education (CTE) leaders that help to better inform the preparation of all school leaders. CTE leaders find themselves in the interesting position of being inside the PK-12 system but at the outside edge. This outsider within perspective not only gives CTE leaders a unique understanding of schools but also on the preparation of school leaders. These practitioners helped to identify three key areas of focus for leadership preparation: a new focus on college and career readiness, the importance of instructional leadership, and an expanded understanding of community.
Open Access
Mā te Mātauranga Māori, Ka Hāro te Manu, Ka Manukura: A Journey of Indigenous Reclamation and Celebration in Tertiary Education
(Te Pukenga, 2024) Jones K-L; Cowie, Rahera
Open Access
Developing and validating instruments for measuring English-as-a-second/Foreign-Language (L2) learners’ metaphor awareness
(Informa UK Limited, 2024) Ma, Ting; Zhang , Lawrence Jun; Parr , Judy M.
Studies have shown that raising L2 learners’ metaphor awareness con tributes to the acquisition of figurative language, which fosters students’ development of language skills. However, the instruments measuring metaphor awareness, in the majority of relevant research, did not seem to have undergone proper methodological procedures for checking their validity and reliability, thus compromising the authenticity of the measurement and challenging the interpretation of the results from the measurement. In addition, both theoretical and empirical research tends to frame metaphoric competence within the territory of linguistic and conceptual metaphors, neglecting the communicative functions of metaphor in discourse. As an attempt to fill these research gaps, our study developed three instruments—two tests and a questionnaire— for measuring metaphor awareness in the linguistic, conceptual, and communicative dimensions. Administered to 293 Chinese undergrad uates at intermediate to advanced English proficiency levels, the instru ments demonstrated good validity and reliability, as checked by Rasch analysis. Results showed that the participants were most aware of the communicative functions of metaphor but found it challenging to iden tify metaphorical prepositions, adverb, and adjectives, and establish the correspondences between the source domain and target domain of conventional conceptual metaphors. We conclude the paper by dis cussing pedagogical implications in relation to L2 metaphor awareness measurement and instruction.
Open Access
Exploring international students' perspectives on being ‘international’
(Wiley, 2024) Eulatth Vidal WE; Kamp, Annelies
International student mobility has garnered significant attention in higher education research. Despite this attention, a fundamental question persists in the field: What does it mean to be an ‘international student’, as perceived by the students themselves? This article presents the findings of a phenomenological qualitative study to delve into the lived experiences of 12 undergraduate students from one university in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on elucidating these students' self-perceptions as international students. The study challenges the conventional definition that often emphasizes geographic or visa-related criteria, leading to homogenization. It underscores the diversity among international students, emphasizing that their unique experiences, backgrounds, personal narratives and perspectives play a pivotal role in shaping their multiple identities and sense of self.
Open Access
Developing and validating instruments for measuring English-as-a-second/foreign-language (L2) learners’ metaphor awareness
(2024) Ma, Ting; Zhang , Jun; Parr , Judy M.
Research has shown that metaphor is ubiquitous in English and that knowing and being able to use metaphor relates to higher language proficiency. Meanwhile, learners face challenges in metaphor reception and production. The first step to address these challenges would be measuring to what extent the students can recognise metaphor and are aware of the different dimensions of metaphor. However, instruments for measuring metaphor awareness developed in relevant research did not seem to have been checked for quality, and the functions of metaphor in discourse as an important component of metaphor awareness were neglected. This study thus aimed to develop three instruments for measuring awareness of linguistic forms of metaphor (e.g. flow of information, feeling down), metaphorical concepts commonly used in English and connections between literal and figurative meaning (e.g. spending time is like spending money because time is as precious as money), and communicative functions of metaphor (e.g. to explain abstract concepts). The instruments were administered to 293 Chinese undergraduate English majors at intermediate to advanced English proficiency levels and demonstrated good validity and reliability. The participants had difficulty recognising metaphorical prepositions (e.g. in a bad mood), adverb (waited long), and adjectives (e.g. low credit scores) as metaphorical and establishing connections between the basic meaning and the figurative meaning of conventional metaphors in thought. These could be the areas that language teachers need to focus on in teaching metaphor.
Open Access
Troubling the boundaries of traditional schooling for a rapidly changing future – Looking back and looking forward
(Informa UK Limited, 2024) Teschers, Christoph; Neuhaus T; Vogt M
Rapid technological advancements, globalisation, environmental crises, and ongoing conflicts have contributed to an increasingly quickly changing social, cultural, and work environment for current and future generations. In this paper, we argue that the traditional schooling system and approaches to curriculum and pedagogy that are based on 19th century industrial age models might reach their limit to prepare students sufficiently for the expectations and challenges of life and work in future. While so-called 21st -century education has seen a nominal change in classroom layouts and increased use of teaching technology, we would argue that not much has changed in terms of the underlying structures of schools and the mostly pre-described curriculum schools and teachers must operate under. While current education systems struggle with many challenges from teacher burnouts to increasing student dis-engagement (e.g., rising truancy in New Zealand), we posit that new challenges lie ahead that will further disrupt, if not implode, current approaches to schooling and curriculum. Drawing on theories such as Biesta’s (2022) World-Centred Education and Pinar’s (2023) notion of Currere to reconceptualise curriculum, we would argue that schooling needs to move away from the traditional ‘static map’ of curriculum content to a more dynamic approach to schooling that allows teachers and schools to chart new territory, together with their students, for a rapidly changing future. As guiding compass of sorts for dynamically exploring an uncertain future with students, we propose Teschers’ (2018) educational approach to Schmid’s (2000a) Art of Living as a starting point.