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Korean immigrants have migrated to New Zealand over the past three decades in search of a happier and more balanced life. While they anticipated that their children would be integrated into New Zealand society, they have primarily settled in Korean ethnic enclaves. In this context, younger Korean New Zealanders have been exposed to and influenced by New Zealand's national and Korean ethnic cultures. This study examined success beliefs and well-being among Korean youth in New Zealand with a Third Culture Kid background (TCK K-NZ) in comparison to Korean youth in Korea (K-Korean) and European New Zealand youth (Pākehā). Results indicated that TCK K-NZ youth endorsed extrinsic success similarly to K-Korean youth, but that valuing extrinsic success predicted lowered well-being only for K-Korean youth. Conversely, valuing intrinsic success predicted higher well-being across the three groups. Results also revealed that TCK K-NZ youth's well-being levels were between those of K-Korean and Pākehā youth, potentially influenced by different structural relations between success beliefs and well-being, as well as their position as "third culture kids" in New Zealand. This study contributes to understanding cultures' roles in formulating success beliefs and the relationship between success beliefs and well-being for Korean New Zealander youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer- and self-assessment (PASA) can lead to increased student self-regulation and achievement. However, few studies have examined the content of the feedback students in primary and secondary schools provide themselves and their peers. This study used Hattie and Timperley’s task, process, self-regulation and self feedback categories from theirReview of Educational Researcharticle ‘The power of feedback’ to (1) examine the content of a sample of naturally occurring student-written PASA comments (n= 471 utterances) and (2) explore the feasibility of using this model with student-generated feedback. Students provided primarily task feedback to both themselves and their peers, with self-regulation feedback only found in self-assessment. Students in higher grades tended to provide more task and process feedback, while giving less self feedback during self-assessment and more during peer assessment. More refinement of the model is recommended for both research and professional development purposes to better capture the quality and complexity of student-led feedback comments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study focused on learning difficulties experienced by East Asian International (EAI) students. Participants were 117 EAI students undertaking tertiary study at a major university, all were surveyed and 21 students were interviewed. The findings suggest that language limitations, academic content and learning styles were associated with difficulties in their learning. Difficulties with academic content appeared to act as the major barrier to their academic performance rather than English language. This is contrary to earlier findings, where Asian students often experienced difficulties in tasks that are particularly related to language proficiency. The study also contradicted the popular belief that Asian students are only surface learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer- and self-assessment (PASA) are student-led assessment practices with the potential to positively affect achievement. Case studies of three New Zealand classrooms were examined to explore teacher and student perspectives of and purposes for PASA. Four themes (i.e., improvement, accountability, social interaction, and accuracy) were identified. Teachers cited mainly improvement purposes for PASA, with students primarily focused on accuracy and social interaction concerns. Data indicated that these teachers and students needed deeper understanding of how to use PASA for improvement and self-regulation purposes. This suggests teachers must provide concrete instruction in PASA and carefully manage interpersonal issues for successful implementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

South Africa and New Zealand have similar outcomes-based education curricula and share an assessment philosophy framework that encourages assessment for learning. There are, however, weighty differences between the two countries, which effect the implementation of assessment for learning in South Africa. In particular, South Africa is still a developing country, with significant infrastructural and economic challenges. Another difference is that academic performance in New Zealand, by international measures, is superior to that of South Africa. Simple adoption of a policy similar to that of a developed nation by a developing country is not guaranteed to produce similar effects. This study, using qualitative analysis of interviews with privileged insiders, investigates the realities behind the rhetoric of assessment for learning in New Zealand. The views and experiences of ministry officials, researchers, professional developers, and school users of the Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) Project software are examined. The paper shows that the combination of professional development and assessment tools brought about a fundamental change in the philosophical assessment framework of teachers in NZ. This emphasises the importance of aligning assessment policies, teacher knowledge and infrastructure in schools to support assessment for learning in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Teachers’ understandings of feedback probably influence the type and quality of feedback that they provide. The beliefs of 518 New Zealand practicing teachers about feedback were evaluated with the Teachers’ Conceptions of Feedback (TCoF) inventory and related to practices these teachers considered to be feedback. Nine feedback factors and four practices factors were found and models were statistically invariant between primary and secondary teachers. New Zealand teachers’ understandings of feedback were strongly focused on improving learning instead of enhancing student well-being. Similar factors are expected in other contexts, though agreement rates should reflect local policy priorities and cultural values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Conceptions of learning were investigated in three studies. Study 1 piloted a modified version of Purdie and Hattie''s (2002) Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI-I) with 236 secondary students. Multilog analysis was used to remove items with poor measurement characteristics. Study 2 used a nationally representative sample of 701 New Zealand secondary school students who completed the COLI-II. The measurement model had marginally acceptable fit. Study 3 consisted of 608 secondary students who completed a slightly revised COLI-III and provided standardised academic reading and mathematics achievement data. The Study 2 and 3 samples were found to have configural invariance and the structural model mapping students'' conceptions of learning onto their academic achievement had acceptable fit. The conception that learning is a duty predicted lower achievement and the conception of learning as continuous predicted higher achievement. This is the first study to empirically demonstrate a direct relationship between learning conceptions and academic outcomes in the secondary sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study aimed to investigate how students' conceptions of assessment relate to one another, how students define assessment, and how student conceptions of assessment relate to their definitions of assessment. A nationally representative sample of New Zealand secondary students (N =705) responded to a 45-item Conceptions of Assessment inventory and a list of 12 assessment practices. Well-fitting measurement models were found. The more students agreed that assessment was to help them improve the more they associated assessment with teacher-controlled practices. Further, the more students perceived assessment as irrelevant the more they defined it as interactive–informal practices. Thus, more student-oriented practices were conceived as creating a positive social environment that was irrelevant to learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Teachers' conceptions of assessment can be understood in terms of their agreement or disagreement with four purposes to which assessment may be put, specifically, (a) improvement of teaching and learning, (b) school accountability, (c) student accountability, or (d) treating assessment as irrelevant. A 50-item Teachers' Conceptions of Assessment (COA-III) questionnaire was completed by New Zealand primary school teachers and managers (n=525). The COA-III, based on the four main purpose-defined conceptions of assessment, was analysed with structural equation modelling and showed a close fit of the data to a hierarchical, multi-dimensional model (χ²3217.68; df=1162; RMSEA=.058; TLI=.967). On average, participants agreed with the improvement conceptions and the school accountability conception, while rejecting the view that assessment was irrelevant. However, respondents disagreed that assessment was for student accountability. Improvement, school, and student accountability conceptions were positively correlated. The irrelevance conception was inversely related to the improvement conception and not related to the system accountability conception. Surprisingly, no statistically significant differences were found in mean scale scores for each conception regardless of teacher (age, gender, role, assessment training, or assessment practices) or school (size, location, or socio-economic status) variables. Implications for the use of the COA-III for policy implementation and teacher professional development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]