The focus of this study is the cognitive process called mentalisation and how it is woven into "Te Whariki." Employing a qualitative content analysis, we sought to examine the embedded expectations and assumptions evident in the curriculum concerning how mentalisation processes and practices should be employed by teachers. Results showed…

A small, but growing, number of studies explore the connections between process drama pedagogy and the development of empathy. In our view, empathy involves affective and cognitive processes of the heart and the mind. In this article, we report findings from a year-long New Zealand research project with four primary school teachers who integrated…

This article explores how doctoral graduates in Aotearoa New Zealand are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey captured the employment and mobility situations of doctoral graduates from 2019 to early 2021 from six of the eight universities in NZ. The 406 survey responses were analysed using descriptive statistics, as well as drawing on…

Taking into consideration the unique relational position of convenors (Chairs) in PhD oral examinations, this qualitative study explores insights from 55 convenors at a research-intensive university in New Zealand into the ways academic staff developers can better prepare doctoral supervisors and examiners for oral examinations. One striking…

Sensory processing differences measured by self- or parent-report co-segregate with quantitative autistic traits and have potential endophenotypic properties. It is not known to what extent this reflects generalized sensory dysfunction versus more specific associations involving individual senses or autistic trait domains. We combined Bayesian…

Data from international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) of schooled populations indicate that boys have considerably poorer literacy skills than girls. New evidence from a household-based ILSA--Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)--indicates that the gender gap in literacy is negligible, even though…

Qualitative work with students who use prescription medicines for academic purposes is limited. Thus, a more nuanced understanding of tertiary students' experiences is urgently needed. Our study -- which draws on five semi-structured interviews with New Zealand university students, complemented with information from local newspapers, blog entries…

This is the first study to investigate the effects of test methods (while-listening performance and post-listening performance) and gender on measured listening ability and brain activation under test conditions. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to examine three brain regions associated with listening comprehension: the…

In 2020, after New Zealand emerged from its short-lived lockdown and students returned to university campuses, mathematicians Jeanette McLeod and Phil Wilson from the University of Canterbury taught a final-year mathematics course using craft. A part of most lectures included a hands-on craft activity to explore a key concept and to foster…

Guided by the framework of internationalization at home (IaH), this study employed a mixed-methods approach investigating the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among a group of tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Taiwan, facilitated through the means of telecollaboration. The telecollaboration…

This article explores the influential role of planning on recognition-primed decision-making. Considerable prior thinking occurs and there is a need to trace and account for the cognitive processes that precede and guide decisions in dynamic outdoor environments. Seven expert leaders from four countries were interviewed about memorable decisions…

Background: Sport-based youth development (SBYD) programs aim to teach life skills to youth within a physical activity context. An explicit objective of most SBYD programs is that youth learn to apply, or transfer, life skills beyond the sports program. Limited research has been conducted on the cognitive processes that help youth understand how…

Describing unfamiliar faces during or immediately after their presentation in a study phase can produce better recognition memory performance compared with a view-only control condition. We treated descriptions as elaborative information that is part of the study context and investigated how context retrieval influences recognition memory.…

Connections between music and mathematics have been of interest to scholars as far back as the time of Pythagoras. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, the use of songs and chants as aids for memorising information such as number patterns and names of geometrical shapes is common practice in early childhood centres and primary classrooms. While such practices…

This research investigated the interrelations among achievement goals and the underlying reasons for pursuing them. To do so, it utilized the framework of goal complexes, which are regulatory constructs defined at the intersection of aims and reasons. Data from two independent large samples of New Zealand university students showed that across…