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This paper discusses a two-year study at an Australian university in which 154 undergraduate and 51 postgraduate students reflected on their experiences with flexible and personalised assessment where they could choose assessment tasks, submission dates and weightings of their assignments. Through pre- and post-course surveys and a focus group, feelings of empowerment and attitudes towards flexibility were investigated. Students were positive about all aspects of the flexible approach and felt it was beneficial for their learning. Only the postgraduate group showed significant improvement in feelings of empowerment and grades suggesting that more experienced learners may adapt more easily to this model. We argue that empowering learners is not about better grades but about students gaining more input, voice and control in their learning and assessment. Despite the disadvantages of increased workload for teachers and a decision-making burden on students, the potential benefits for students justify consideration of more personalised and flexible assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, student voice has become a popular school reform strategy, with the promise of generating relations of trust, respect, belonging and student empowerment. However, when student voice practices are taken up by schools, student voice may also be associated with less affirmative feelings: it is often accounted for in terms of teacher 'fear', 'resistance' or 'uncertainty' about altered power relations. Such explanations risk individualising and pathologising teachers' responses, rather than recognising the complexities of the institutional conditions of student voice. This article considers the affective politics of student voice: that is, the contestations that attend who gets to name how student voice feels in schools. Working with data from an evaluation study of three Australian primary schools who engage in 'exemplary' student voice practices, we listen to school leaders and facilitating teachers' accounts about the responses of other teachers at their schools to student voice. Parallels are drawn between the construction of some teachers as reluctant, and previous analyses of 'silenced' student voices in schools. We argue that, in order to analyse the enactment of student voice in more nuanced tones, it is necessary to consider the profoundly emotional experience of teaching and learning, the ambivalences of teachers' experiences of student voice and contemporary reconstitutions of teacher subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, school leadership is influenced by neoliberal discourses of accountability and performativity. Many schools seek to balance systemic pressures that narrow outcome expectations with a desire to deliver schooling in the broad interests of the students and communities that they serve. In this case, the principal was appointed to a school under threat of closure. To re-establish he purposefully disrupted traditional arrangements using approaches that disregarded many standard school improvement paradigms. The school improved in enrolments, reputation and student learning. This paper examines how this principal found and created spaces for disruptive change within the local context and the broader policy environment. While the value or ethics of the leadership are not the focus of the paper, it is noted that the autocratic position he assumed was problematic. Despite this, the case provides insight into leadership that resisted the confines of normative pressures to support radical school improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we worked with second-year engineering students at an Australian university to examine previously identified threshold concepts within the theoretical framework of Possible Selves. Using workshops as the context for intensive work with students, students were encouraged to consider their future lives and work, including their engineering fears, expectations, and aspirations. The findings revealed many students to have a poor understanding of the realities of engineering work. Moreover, perceived gaps between self-efficacy and the requirements of engineering work appeared to be motivating if students deemed it possible to reduce the gap, but demotivating if they identified a characteristic over which there was perceived to be no control. The study suggests that these engineering students needed more opportunities to explore both the roles of engineers and their own possible selves. Overall, the findings indicate that higher education students may need encouragement and support to explore potential future roles, and they strengthen calls for further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has been conducted on children's self-talk and its use to regulate thinking and behaviour, but research has typically been conducted on audible self-talk when undertaking specific tasks designed by researchers and in laboratory situations. Addressing the need to study self-talk in the classroom and by students of an age when self-talk is largely internalised, this study investigated the association of self-talk with children's self-regulatory behaviour and academic performance. The findings reported in this paper are based on the data from self-report questionnaires on self-talk completed by eight-to-nine-year-olds, national mathematics achievement test results, and a teacher-completed behaviour rating scale. Based on the previous research, results were somewhat unexpected, including that self-talk may not have a very strong role in children's behavioural self-regulation and calling into question an effect of self-talk on children's learning in the classroom. Possible reasons are provided and the need for future research is acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Students’ motivation is known to be influenced by both internally referenced and externally referenced factors. Internally referenced factors include self-processes (sense of competence and affect), whereas externally referenced factors include significant others (parents, peers and teachers). Using the Facilitating Conditions Questionnaire, the relations of the internal and external factors were examined. By comparing Anglo and Asian origin students in Australia, the study aims to reveal the most prominent external factors that contribute to shaping the self-processes of Asian students (88 male and 110 female) and Anglo students (384 male; 345 female). Confirmatory factor analysis identified seven factors (competence, affect, parent, peer positive, peer negative, teacher and motivation for high marks). The relations between internal and external factors were found to be similar between ethnic and gender subsamples. Parents and teachers were identified as having the strongest impact on self-processes and motivation for high marks. For this sample of students in an Australian education system, their sources of school-related self-processes are similar to those of their Anglo peers’, but their higher affect to learning may be an important cause for academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that self-efficacy and self-concept reflect different underlying processes and both are critical to understanding long-term achievement outcomes. Although both types of self-belief are well established in educational psychology, research comparing and contrasting their relationship with achievement has been surprisingly sparse. This is particularly the case when considering critical developmental periods and high-stakes achievement outcomes. In the current research, we use the longitudinal study of Australian youth which uses the 2003 Australian Programme of International Student Assessment cohort (N = 10,370;M[age] = 15) as the first time wave and follows participants over eight years. Using latent path modelling and controlling for a wide range of background covariates, we found: (a) strong relations between achievement, self-efficacy and self-concept in mathematics at age 15; (b) both self-concept and self-efficacy were independent and similarly strong predictors of tertiary entrance ranks at the end of high school; (c) math self-efficacy was a significant predictor of university entry but math self-concept was not; and (d) math self-concept was a significant predictor of undertaking post-school studies in science, technology, engineering or math, but math self-efficacy was not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to report the results of a longitudinal evaluation of a vocational entrepreneurship education programme (EEP) using entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) measures. An empirical, mixed methods longitudinal and effectuation scale was used to measure ESE scores. Results indicate that participation in the programme had a positive significant effect on the ESE scores of all participants. In particular, the increase in scores for women, participants aged more than 40, and participants who did not have business-owning relatives was greater. We contribute evidence of the value of vocational EEPs and entrepreneurial learning in increasing the ESE of participants, a finding of practical use to vocational entrepreneurship education institutions and programmes, economic policy makers and nascent entrepreneurs. The value of this work lies in its responsiveness to calls in the academic literature for longitudinal evaluation measures of entrepreneurial learning and vocational EEPs and demonstrates to funding bodies the value inherent in such education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the attitudes and self-efficacy of Pakistani and Australian pre-service teachers to teach students with disabilities in regular classrooms. It was hypothesized that there were no significant mean scores differences between the attitudes and self-efficacy of Pakistani and Australian prospective teachers towards inclusion. The sample consisted of 317 individuals enrolled in the teacher education programs from two universities in Pakistan and Australia. Data were collected by using two standardized instruments that measured attitudes and self-efficacy to teach in inclusive classrooms respectively. The results indicated that Pakistani pre-service teachers had higher level of perceived teaching efficacy to teach children with disabilities particularly in relation to manage students' inappropriate behaviour than their Australian counterparts. Three variables: gender, level of training, and previous experience with children with disabilities were found to relate significantly to Pakistani teacher educators' level of perceived teaching efficacy. No variables were found to relate significantly to Australian educators. Results of the study with possible implications to policy makers and educators are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to test the international transferability and structural validity of the Career Futures Inventory (CFI) in a sample of Australian university students (N = 1,566). Exploratory factor analysis of the data from a random half-split of the sample supported a three-factor solution equivalent to the original CFI subscales, Career Optimism, Career Adaptability, and Perceived Knowledge. Confirmatory factor analysis of the data from the remaining random half-split supported the structural validity of a short form, the CFI-9. The subscales of the CFI-9 had acceptable internal consistencies and correlations with measures of academic major satisfaction, career choice satisfaction, and generalized self-efficacy. It was concluded that the properties of the CFI and the CFI-9 were sufficient to explore their application as measures of perceptions of employability. It was suggested that the CFI-9 has potential as a diagnostic screening tool for counseling and educational interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Objectives: In educational contexts, proposed that students develop a tripartite network of efficacy beliefs, comprising their confidence in their own capabilities (i.e., self-efficacy), their confidence in their teacher’s ability (i.e., other-efficacy), and their estimation of their teacher’s confidence in their ability (i.e., relation-inferred self-efficacy). In spite of the potential for school-based physical education (PE) to stimulate leisure-time activity patterns among adolescents, it is noteworthy that this framework has yet to be explored in school PE contexts. Design and methods: In Phase 1, we recruited 62 Australian high school students (aged 11–13) in order to develop instruments designed to assess self-efficacy, other-efficacy, and relation-inferred self-efficacy within PE settings. In Phases 2 and 3, we sought to provide evidence for measurement reliability, validity, and invariance with cross-sectional and prospective data derived from Australian (N = 602, Mage  = 13.54, SD = .76) as well as Singaporean (N = 606; Mage  = 14.10, SD = 1.01) students. Results: Results revealed (a) support for the factorial validity of these measures in both locations, (b) evidence of gender-related and cross-national measurement invariance, (c) positive inter-relationships between students’ tripartite efficacy perceptions that were consistent with theory, and (d) positive correlations with key in-class (e.g., effort, enjoyment) and leisure-time (e.g., physical activity levels) outcomes. Conclusions: Taken together, the results provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of measures derived from these tripartite efficacy instruments, and support their use in future research designed to examine PE engagement. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of the present study was to describe the characteristics of podcast users, compare uptake across courses, examine preferred modes of use and satisfaction, assess the impact of podcasts on lecture attendance, and evaluate reasons for use and non-use. Participants were 273 undergraduate students enrolled in six diverse courses at a large Australian university. Results suggested differences in uptake and satisfaction across courses, with later year students more satisfied than first year students. Although podcast users were older, worked longer hours in paid employment, and attended fewer lectures than those who did not use podcasts, results also suggest that users had more contact with staff and reported higher levels of academic self-efficacy than nonusers. Suggestions for improvements to current podcasting provisions are offered and directions for future research are provided. In particular the need to tap into the use of podcasts for examination revision is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Studies have shown that self-efficacy, aspirational, and other psychosocial influences account for considerable variance in academic achievement through a range of mediational pathways, although no research to date has tested the mediational relationships identified. The present research investigated the structural relations among self-efficacy, academic aspirations, and delinquency, on the academic achievement of 935 students aged 11–18 years from ten schools in two Australian cities. The Children''s Self-Efficacy Scale, Adapted Self-Report Delinquency Scale (Revised), and Children''s Academic Aspirations Scale were administered to participants prior to academic achievement being assessed using mid-year school grades. Structural equation modeling was employed to test three alternative models for the relationships from academic, social, and self-regulatory efficacy on academic achievement. A partial mediation model showed the best overall fit to the data. Academic and self-regulatory efficacy had an indirect negative effect through delinquency and a direct positive effect on academic achievement. Academic and social self-efficacy had positive and negative relationships, respectively, with academic aspiration and academic achievement; however, the relationship between academic aspiration and academic achievement was not significant in the final model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The achievement goals and parenting of a sample of 879 grade 8 - 10 Australian students were examined to distinguish differences between low- and high-achieving students. Structural equation modelling was used to test a theoretical model linking parental warmth and strictness/supervision via mastery goals, self-efficacy, and self-handicapping to achievement. Results validated and extended previous findings concerning achievement goal theory, self-efficacy, self-handicapping and parenting style, supporting the role of self-efficacy in mediating the effects of parental style through a mastery goal orientation to achievement. Low achievement was significantly linked to neglectful parenting perceptions, higher self-handicapping and lower mastery goals and self-efficacy. An authoritative parenting style was found to predict higher achievement via enhanced mastery goals and self-efficacy while protecting against self-handicapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report the construction and validation of a measure of social self-efficacy in a range of social interaction situations commonly experienced by tertiary students, including situations posing special concern to recent arrivals to the Australian educational setting. Participants in the first study were 228 undergraduate students. Among these, 91 were Australia-born with English-speaking-background parents, 90 were also Australia-born but had parents from a non-English-speaking background, and 47 were overseas-born with NESB parents. Item and factor analyses yielded a 20-item, 4-factor Social Self-Efficacy Scale for Students. The 4 factors were absence of social difficulties, social confidence, sharing interests, and friendship initiatives. Evidence of the scale’s satisfactory internal consistency reliability, and its concurrent and construct validity is presented. Indication of satisfactory test-retest reliability was obtained from a second sample of 16 university students. Applications and directions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]