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This article reports on the final phase of a three-phase project and investigates the characteristics of high-achieving students at a university. It also reports student evaluations of a low-cost program aimed at supporting them, assesses their levels of satisfaction, and evaluates the applicability of the program across three institutions in the tertiary sector in New Zealand. Quantitative data were collected from 126 participants prior to the introduction of the program and 55 participants were interviewed. End-of-year data were gathered via a questionnaire and one focus group interview. The findings indicated that the participants appeared to have stronger intrinsic motivation, resilience, and self-belief when compared with participants from other undergraduate groups participating in international studies. Interviewed participants expressed pleasure at being identified as high-achieving, appreciated their involvement in the study, and as a consequence were considering transitioning to postgraduate study. We concluded that this low-cost program was an effective strategy for supporting high-achieving undergraduate students across three different universities' departments and that other tertiary institutions might find the strategy useful.

This article explores the patterns of variation in the responses of talented, low-income students engaged in a program of undergraduate study. For this article, we focused on a subset of data from an earlier study of talented undergraduate students. Our aim was to add to the literature exploring the resilience of people from impoverished backgrounds that complete an undergraduate qualification, despite challenging circumstances. The data were collected from individual interviews with 10 participants, who also completed a demographic survey. Participants had not previously been identified as talented, nor, despite their consistently high achievement, did they consider themselves to be gifted or talented. Phenomenographic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed an outcome space that explained not only what the students had experienced, but also how they had experienced it. Implications for the retention and success of such students are discussed. Although this is a New Zealand study of talented, low-income, undergraduates, our findings may have application elsewhere.

This article reports on a case study of one New Zealand university faculty involved in the second phase of a three-phase study investigating the experiences of talented undergraduate students. Talented undergraduate students are a largely forgotten group in research. The current study sought to investigate who the talented students were, and then what their lived experiences as talented undergraduate students were. The study involved 128 undergraduate students who provided information about their experiences as high achieving students in an undergraduate degree program. Approximately 10% of all students enrolled across five different undergraduate degree programs in the faculty were defined as talented undergraduate students. These students were ethnically diverse and largely older than we had anticipated. The majority had not previously been identified as talented and many had been largely unsuccessful educationally, prior to embarking on their undergraduate studies. Several students experienced challenging personal circumstances, such as financial hardship and extensive family responsibilities. The grit or resilience demonstrated by these students seemed to explain the essence of the phenomenon of being a talented undergraduate student in this faculty.

Facebook is a frequently accessed social networking site with more than one billion active users worldwide. Although there are numerous studies on its impact on teenagers, none have investigated its impact on gifted and talented girls. This study's aim was to understand the social media experiences of talented female student leaders. A qualitative approach, underpinned by the principles of phenomenology, was used. Individual semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with five participants. A modified method for phenomenological analysis was then used to distill the key essence of their experiences. This New Zealand study describes the complex challenges the participants face as users of Facebook and also argues for the value of the phenomenological method as a powerful research tool in such a study.

This study surveyed Chinese middle school (n = 951) teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and examined the relationship of those conceptions to their self-reported teaching practices. Responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. These teachers identified one examination-oriented dimension and four interactive, pedagogical dimensions of excellent teaching and four dimensions of teaching practice. The structural model indicated a high consistency rate (83%) between teachers' conceptions of excellent teaching and the corresponding self-reported practices. Implications for teaching standards, teacher professional development, and examination system are discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)

This paper describes a research project, "Voices from Manukau", that investigated the impact of a joint initiative by a university and an institute of technology in New Zealand. The purpose of the initiative was to increase the participation of students traditionally under represented at tertiary-level study, particularly Maori (indigenous people) and individuals from Pacific Island nations. Many of the participants were adults who had not experienced high levels of success during their compulsory period of education and they lived in low socio-economic areas. We found that participation of under-represented groups increased. The "Manukau" students were as successful as other undergraduate students studying at the university. Of particular interest was the high level of success of Maori and Pacific Island students.

Three organizational learning mediation processes are proposed as mechanisms for organizational change in this article. These include instructional leadership, tight coupling and boundary spanning. Whilst each of these processes has received attention in the research literature, we propose that their power arises from their particular combination rather than the occurrence of each in isolation. We illustrate the ways in which these processes might combine to create an organizational learning environment required for the kind of changes needed to raise student achievement. We do this with reference to a case study of a New Zealand school that dramatically improved the learning outcomes of students in reading. We describe the practices of a new principal, who was relatively inexperienced in school management but experienced in curriculum leadership. The case study illustrates how through her instructional leadership the principal was able to span the boundaries of her organization so that within a relatively short space of time the school became a more tightly coupled system that learnt to improve the learning outcomes of its students.

This study investigated student perceptions of the significance of having a teacher education programme located in a culturally and ethnically diverse community in New Zealand. Four successive student cohorts were interviewed each year of their teacher preparation, and also during their first year of employment. Students identified location as a major source of the programme's strength, both for pragmatic reasons, such as providing access to tertiary study, and for reasons of community dynamics. The students noted a sense of familiarity and community that was a source of unity and strength in shaping their engagement with the institution. They indicated also that the diverse student group was a rich resource in preparing them for teaching careers in diverse urban schools. The evidence presented in the study suggests that attention to location of teacher education programmes may be an important factor in addressing imperatives for teacher educators in today's increasingly multi-ethnic, multicultural, multiracial, multi-religious and multilingual classrooms. (Contains 3 notes.)

This article examines the nature of cultural globalization and its effects as experienced and confronted in a teacher education program that is located in New Zealand's most ethnically diverse and fastest growing city. The students in the program bring a wide range of cultural, social, and experiential perspectives to their tertiary study, and are a crucial future teaching resource for the community within which their educational institution is situated. Through interviews, the students examine the importance of their educational environment, and acknowledge the wealth of resource they have found within their pre-service group in preparing them for teaching careers in which cultural identity and intercultural awareness will be central. Their interpretations of their interactions and activities enable the exploration of how this occurs, as cultural dynamics are played out on a daily basis often at a conscious level in a multicultural context where relations among indigenous, colonizer, and migrant populations interconnect.