Search

Workplace stress, burnout, and fatigue are commonplace amongst tertiary educators, and are compounded by the ongoing challenges of teaching and learning during a global pandemic. Amid efforts to identify and understand contributors to educator stress, student-teacher interactions have received relatively little attention. However, educators are often expected to engage in pastoral care when students disclose academic and personal problems. Receiving and responding to self-disclosure can be emotionally taxing, particularly in professional contexts of care, and therefore contribute to educator experiences of stress and burnout. In this study, we examined the relations between student self-disclosure and educator stress and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. Almost all of the 318 tertiary educators received COVID-19 related disclosures from students. Findings show that educators whose students had shared personal problems during COVID-19 were more likely to report high stress and poor wellbeing. Such communication was also associated with higher rates of workplace presenteeism, suggesting that these teachers were likely to push themselves to a level that risks illness. Fortunately, these negative impacts were ameliorated when educators also reported a sense of support in the workplace. The implications for educators and tertiary institutions are discussed, including the provision of educator training and well-resourced student support services.

In this study, we sought to understand assessment-related attitudes and authentic experiences of evaluation anxiety with a sample of first-year university students. We focused on identifying: (a) why students had reported high levels of anxiety on a recent, grade-bearing assessment, and (b) how their attitudes toward assessment type and weighting influenced their views on anxiety and learning. Drawing on social constructivist principles, 31 first-year students in New Zealand participated in a 25-minute interview. Semi-structured interviews included open-ended items about students' experiences with anxiety, followed by a Q-sort task that structured dialogue around assessment attitudes. Results show that evaluation anxiety was reportedly caused by several factors, including students' doubts about their capabilities, concerns about insufficient time and time management, external pressures to be successful, unclear institutional standards for quality, and concerns about performing well on certain types of assessment. Students reported that oral presentations and high-stakes written tasks were more anxiety-inducing for them. Meanwhile, students reported that high-stakes written tasks, low-stakes tests, and low-stakes written tasks helped them learn more effectively than other assessment types and weightings. We discuss the implications of assessment design, including the challenges of evaluating students in a way that facilitates learning and limits unnecessary evaluation anxiety.

Mentoring relationship quality has frequently been associated with improved effectiveness of mentoring interventions for youth. As youth mentoring research has largely been undertaken in community-based, one-to-one mentoring programs in the United States, there have been recent calls to investigate mentoring relationships in specific contexts. Accordingly, this research examines relationship quality within nine mentor-mentee dyads involved in a New Zealand school-based mentoring program that combines one-to-one and group mentoring. This research identifies key features of and perceived influences on mentoring relationship quality using qualitative interviews with program staff and mentor portfolios. The results indicate that high quality relationships were formed during the program, and were primarily facilitated by mentors who demonstrated attunement, critical self-reflection, self-efficacy, and a holistic view of their mentee. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The evaluation models described in the literature may be interpreted as prescriptive and uniform approaches to practice but, in the real world, practitioners are likely to blend aspects of different models to achieve multiple goals. Despite the commonality of pluralistic approaches in evaluation practice, literature on theoretical integration is sparse. This article guides readers through a theoretically integrative evaluation design process and explicates how different theories informed design decisions. The process integrates program theory–driven and utilization-focused evaluation with evaluability assessment and eclectically draws on principles, methods, and tools from other models. This integrative approach to evaluation aims to increase process use for intended users through shared decision-making, organizational learning, and capacity building while simultaneously producing a robust and relevant evaluation design suited to stakeholder needs and the evaluation context. The authors describe the process utilizing a case example to contribute to the literature on theoretically integrative evaluation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of literature has examined the challenges that indigenous students face in higher education. Across Aotearoa New Zealand, the indigenous Mäori population is under- represented at the university level, as are ethnically diverse Pacific students who trace their ancestries to neighbouring Pacific nations. This study relies on focus group interviews with high- achieving Mäori and Pacific students (N = 90) from a large New Zealand university. Using kaupapa Mäori (theory and methodology grounded in a Mäori world view) and Pacific research principles, the study identifies the social factors contributing to indigenous students' educational success. Three broad themes emerged from discussions: family and university role modelling and support; indigenous teaching and learning practices; and resilient abilities to cope with everyday colonialism and racism. A positive indigenous ethnic identity ties these themes together, ultimately serving as the steady factor driving Mäori and Pacific students' achievement motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]