Zealand Students Research Articles

The Recreational Use of Natural Environments by Danish and New Zealand Tertiary Students

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to compare demographic profiles, agents of socialisation on participation in outdoor activities and preferences for spending time in natural areas of New Zealand and Danish physical education students. The data were gathered by questionnaire from 270 Danish and 241 Mew Zealand students. New Zealand students expressed a stronger perception of being an outdoor person and may be linked to the fact that 12% of the Danish students have lived their lives in rural areas in contrast to 30% of the New Zealand students. Further, school and sport clubs were ranked higher by New Zealand students as factors of influence on outdoor life activities. Friends and parents/family were the most influential agencies of socialisation with no differences between nations. More than 92% of the Danish and New Zealand students had previous experiences of longer lasting outdoor trips. The study provide data for ongoing interpretation and create a basis for questions and reflections for the benefit of students in both institutions.

Take-Home Tests: Educational Fast Food for the New Millennium?

AbstractChanges such as a ‘user pays’ philosophy in tertiary education and the student loan scheme have placed pressure on New Zealand academics and students alike. Teachers of adults may need to adjust to the ‘new breed’ of student and the faster paced semesterised education system. It is proposed that focussing on the learner and creating a learning environment that encourages students to assume responsibility for their own learning is more important in the new educational environment.The present paper conceptualises take-home tests as being analogous to an educational fast food - a familiar, made-to-order commodity - that curiously appears to be missing from the educational smorgasbord outside the United States of America. Results of a pilot study using take-home tests in a first year management class at the University of Otago suggested they fit the proposed new mood of education. Students in the self-selected experimental group (n=35) achieved a higher course grade than those in the control group (n=35). The students recommended that take-home tests be used more frequently and they saw them as having ‘learning’ and ‘anxiety reducing’ benefits.

Information skills: How well can New Zealand students find information?

Information skills: How well can New Zealand students find information?

A Visual Arts Curriculum Requires Vision

The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum draft, was launched by the Hon. Dr. Nick Smith, then Education Minister, on 12 May, 1999. It states that; “Dance, drama, music and the visual arts develop the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of human experience. They contribute to our intellectual ability and to our social, cultural, and spiritual understandings. They are an essential element of daily living and of lifelong learning” (Foley, Hong & Thwaites, 1998, p. 8). Despite its promises, the Visual Arts component of the draft curriculum is struggling to meet the “intellectual...social, cultural and spiritual....” needs of New Zealand students and teachers. The aim of this paper is to identify the criteria needed to teach visual arts in New Zealand and decide if the draft document meets these criteria.

Dealing With Diversity: Achievement Gaps in Reading Literacy Among New Zealand Students

Dealing With Diversity: Achievement Gaps in Reading Literacy Among New Zealand Students

Organizing the Present and Planning the Future: Personal Projects of New Zealand Students

A sample of 202 New Zealand students (81 men, 121 women) listed their short- and long-term “personal projects.” Most frequently mentioned were academic success, improved fitness, and financial well-being. Some characteristic differences were noted in the specific concerns of men and women.

New Zealand students: risk behaviours while on holiday

Students are a group who travel widely, and thus are a valid category of tourists in their own right for study. This paper presents findings from what is intended to be a pilot study. The project is designed to examine patterns of holiday-taking behaviours that might create a demand for medical services. This paper reports on ailments suffered by a sample of New Zealand students, and their drug, drink and sexual activities.

Maori, Pakeha and New Zealander: Ethnic and national identity among New Zealand students1

Maori, Pakeha and New Zealander: Ethnic and national identity among New Zealand students¹

AUCKLAND New Zealand's students struggle in debt

AUCKLAND New Zealand's students struggle in debt

New Zealand and Singaporean Attributions and Achievement Perceptions

Several aspects of cross-cultural differences in attributions remain relatively unexplored, including the issue of different criteria for success and failure, different forms of achievement motivation, the likelihood of making attributions, and different perceptions of causes on the dimensions of controllability, stability, and locus. The present study solicited New Zealand (Pakeha/European descent) and Singaporean (Chinese) students' attributions for their own success and failure in examinations. Also assessed were the criteria of success and failure, the likelihood of obtaining success and failure, the importance of achieving success and failure, the relative likelihood of giving an attribution for success or failure, and ratings of ten causes on the dimensions of controllability, locus, and stability. Differences between the cultures were obtained for several of these factors. These differences are related to different values in the two cultures, and have implications for theories of attribution and achievement motivation.

Self-Monitoring, Locus of Control, and Social Encounters of Chinese and New Zealand Students

Characteristics of daily encounters were studied as a function of self-monitoring and locus of control in Chinese and European students. Complementary predictions based on both the individualistic versus collectivistic cultural distinction and self-monitoring theory were supported by the results. The Chinese sample showed higher self-monitoring scores, were more external in their locus of control, made fewer daily contacts that were more task oriented, and involved higher levels of self-disclosure than New Zealand students. Differences in daily encounters were also shown for the interaction between high and low self-monitoring internals (those with an internal locus of control) and externals (those with an external locus of control) that were independent of culture. The implication and qualification of the results were discussed in terms of differences in cultural meaning and value in self-presentation.

Stability of Schoolchildren's Cognitive Style: A Longitudinal Study of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory

Following two studies of the stability of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, one by Clapp produced high stability even though subjects received their second administration 3½ yr. after the first. A study of 64 New Zealand students (17- and 18-yr.-olds) showed high stability over 7 mo. The present study showed similar results for 45 British schoolchildren over 3 years during which time maturity must surely have played a part.

Chapter 7 Gender differences in New Zealand mathematics performance at the secondary-tertiary interface

New Zealand students begin primary school at age 5, secondary school at about age 13. Secondary schooling is for three to five years, with the fifth (final) year being called form 7 or year 12 (Australian equivalent). The most common age of Form 7 students is 17 years. At the end of year 12 the majority (78–80% or some 10,000) of students sit a national examination, Bursaries. A smaller percentage (about 12%) also attempt the prestigious national Scholarships examination. Mathematics is an optional subject for both these examinations and students can choose one or both of the Mathematics with Statistics or Mathematics with Calculus papers. Although there are roughly equal numbers of males and females in this final year of secondary schooling, only 40% of Bursaries mathematics candidates are female, and only 25–28% of Scholarships mathematics candidates. An examination of gender differences in these papers over several years shows a consistent difference in mean performance in favour of boys. The effects of school type (co-educational or single-sex) and school authority (whether a state or private school) are not the same for both papers. It also appears to be gender specific whether or not students will opt to do one or both mathematics papers. A smaller analysis of approximately 400 students at one New Zealand university showed that between 30–34% were female. This analysis was carried out on all students taking certain first-year mathematics courses. At this level however, gender differences in performance were neither as marked nor always in favour of boys.

Self-Monitoring and Ethnic Group Membership

In support of theorising about differences in cultural conditioning with regards to self-presentation in social situations, the self-monitoring scores of 105 Chinese and 124 New Zealand students were compared. As predicted, Chinese reported significantly higher self-monitoring than New Zealanders and the effect was independent of sex and socioeconomic status.

Variation of corneal thickness with age in young New Zealanders.

The central thickness of the left eyes of 1082 New Zealand students aged 5 to 20 years were measured using optical pachometry. No significant variation in corneal thickness was found with increasing age. The mean corneal thickness of the left eye was 540 +/- 25 microns. No significant differences in corneal thickness were found when the effects of sex or cultural groupings were examined. Corneal thickness appears to remain constant between the age of 5 and 20 years, irrespective of sex or cultural grouping.

New Zealand students' awareness of a local environmental issue

Abstract One of the five ‘General Objectives of School Geography' of the Forms 5–7 Geography Syllabus for New Zealand Schools states that: ‘Geography students are encouraged to take a continuing interest in, and gain an appreciation of, the qualities and needs of the environment, seen always in relation to people's social and economic needs and values’. John Renner in his 1979 survey pointed out that: ‘Curriculum development should not take place without field studies of associated predispositions and competencies of pupils’ (Renner, 1979). His investigation with a sample of 352 North Island students disclosed the merits of such studies. However, there have been no substantive New Zealand surveys since. The current survey examines some aspects of students' awareness of a local environmental problem in and around the Tamaki Estuary on the eastern side of the Auckland metropolitan area.

Preliminary Findings of the IEA Reading Literacy Study: New Zealand achievement in the national and international context

Abstract This paper focuses on the preliminary reading literacy test scores for New Zealand, of students in the grade levels where most 9‐ (Standard 3) and 14‐ (Form 4) year‐olds were to be found. In addition to some within country analyses, New Zealand results are compared with the results for the probability samples of students in 32 systems of education which participated in the IEA study of Reading Literacy. Within country comparisons by gender and ethnicity reveal large differences in favour of Pakeha students at both levels, and gender differences in favour of girls particularly at the Standard 3 level. Between country comparisons of results suggest high levels of reading competence among the New Zealand students in the target age groups.

Collegiate Attitudes toward Suicide: New Zealand and United States

Attitudes toward suicide, as assessed by the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), were evaluated in samples of New Zealand ( N = 236) and United States ( N = 248) college students. Substantial differences were found, with New Zealand students attitudinally perceiving to a greater degree a relationship between suicide and mental illness, perceiving suicide as less serious, agreeing with the right to take one's life, and seeing suicide in a more religious context and as a less impulsive, less “normal,” and more moral action.

A Visit to a New Zealand School

If you were to see a picture of New Zealand students and not be aware of the locale, you could easily believe the setting was a Unted States classroom. Meeting them, you notice a difference in accent, but the level of their language development parallels that of American students of the same age. New Zealand students also parallel their American counterparts in their educational development. We noticed no differences between the physical, psychological, and educational development of the New Zealand students and those of a typical group of American students in grades kindergarten through six. Other than in social development, which we will discuss later, Kids are kids is an appropriate summary. American society, with its massive media influence and social pressure, tends to cause its children to mature early. This is seen in dress, behavior, dating, wearing of makeup, and in the appearance of social sophistication. The New Zealand children, in contrast, seem refreshingly naive and much like American children one or two generations ago. They are quite well informed about the history and geography of the United States, including our current events. They are inquisitive about rock stars, films, music, and radio and television programming and stars, but still they are children. During tea and lunch they play on the playground (this was even true at a high school we visited), and they are very courteous and formal in their behavior. Quite respectful of adults, they rise when the principal or a visitor enters their classroom.

Evaluating tertiary teaching: A New Zealand perspective

The purpose of this research was to test the applicability of two American instruments designed to assess tertiary students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness with New Zealand students. The scales were found to have high internal consistency reliability coefficients, most of the items were seen to be appropriate, and every item was considered of importance by at least some of the students. In addition, all but the Workload/Difficulty items clearly differentiated between “good,” “average,” and “poor” lectures. Further analyses generally supported both the factor structure identified in earlier research and the convergent and discriminate validity of the scales from both instruments. This research has provided strong support for the applicability of these American instruments for evaluating effective teaching at a New Zealand university.