Retaining non‐traditional students: lessons learnt from Pasifika students in New Zealand

As New Zealand tertiary education has undergone extensive review processes, debate has centred not only on the need to extend the participation rates of groups previously under‐represented, but also how to retain these under‐represented groups once they are recruited into tertiary programmes. This paper draws on a large‐scale study of the factors that influence successful completion of tertiary qualifications for Pasifika students. Using a diverse range of data sources throughout New Zealand, the study identified a range of factors that impede retention, as well as positive factors that help increase retention. Its findings support the contention that the capacity of educational facilities to retain students is a function of the interface between student and institution, and the institution and the community.     

The effectiveness of Nurture Groups: preliminary research findings

Interest in Nurture Groups continues to grow. As Rebecca Doyle's article in the previous issue of this journal demonstrated, practitioners are enthusiastically exploring nurture-based practice as one approach to the inclusion of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. In this article, Paul Cooper, Professor of Education at the University of Leicester, Ray Arnold and Eve Boyd, both researchers with the Nurture Groups project, provide a report on their research to date. This interim report raises some important questions for policy makers and practitioners as well as indicating ways forward into further enquiry.     

International co-operation in educational research

In the first part of the essay the authors discuss certain issues of international co-operation in educational research: objectives of co-operation; the ideal of universalism; language and culture differences; the organization of co-operation. The discussion draws upon the results of the authors' extensive literature reviews and of their inquiries among researchers, research directors and research financing agencies in several countries. The second part presents the authors' recommendations regarding the future development of international co-operation in educational research, pointing out that its development as a viable scientific discipline is a prerequisite for its successful utilization as an instrument of educational policy-making. It is suggested that three areas of co-operation be given the highest priority in the near future:

-retrieval and dissemination of information relevant to educational research;

-development of research methods and techniques and the training of researchers; and

-critical analysis and synthesis of research results with the aim of producing new, more reliable knowledge.

It is emphasized that the organisation needed in order to establish the proposed co-operation must both have strong support from national governments and enjoy considerable freedom in its implementation of a given policy of co-operation.     

Evaluating the efficacy of a teacher-guided comprehension-oriented learning strategy intervention among students in Grade 4

This study examined the effects of a teacher-led learning-strategy intervention program on fourth-grade students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of rehearsal and comprehension-oriented learning strategies. During 18 program units, teachers taught about learning and various learning strategies, including visualisation, elaboration and categorisation. Strategies were practised in math, language and science classes. Participants were comprised of 82 fourth-grade students in the intervention group and 387 fourth-grade students in the control group. Students’ reported use and perceived effectiveness of learning strategies were assessed before and at least 4 months after intervention using a web-based word-memorisation task and associated reflection questions. The intervention group tended to use more comprehension-oriented learning strategies in post-tests, and the intervention group also showed an increase in perceived effectiveness of comprehension-oriented learning strategies. Still, rehearsal was evaluated as the most effective strategy in both the control group and the intervention group. Explanations for these findings and possible future directions are discussed.

     

Parental Involvement in Math Homework: Links to Children’s Performance and Motivation

The present study examined the longitudinal associations between children’s perceptions of parental involvement in math homework (control and support) and their math performance and motivation (task-persistent homework behavior and math self-concept). Children (n = 512) reported their perceptions concerning parental involvement in sixth-grade math homework. In grades 3 and 6, children completed math tests, evaluated own math self-concept, and their mothers (n = 420) evaluated task persistence during homework. The results showed that low self-concept in math predicted increased parental control, which in turn related to low math performance, task persistence, and math self-concept. Second, perceived parental support was related to increased task persistence during homework. Finally, parental control was especially detrimental for boys’ task persistence and math self-concept.     

Task persistence mediates the effect of children’s literacy skills on mothers’ academic help

This longitudinal study aimed at examining the relationship between children's task persistence, mothers' academic help, and the development of children’s literacy skills (reading and spelling) at the beginning of primary school. The participants were 870 children, 682 mothers, and 53 class teachers. Data were collected three times – at the beginning and the end of Grade 1 and at the end of Grade 2. Better literacy skills predicted higher persistence in completing school tasks and, correspondingly, higher persistence was related to better subsequent skills. Also, lower task persistence at the end of Grade 1 corresponded to more frequent academic help from mothers in Grade 2. Moreover, children’s literacy skills predicted mother’s later academic help via task persistence: the lower the children’s literacy skills were, the less task persistence children exhibited, and the more mothers engaged in academic help later on.