Self-determination theory (SDT) and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model of burnout have been identified as important in understanding psychological distress among university students. This study aimed to investigate key factors influencing distress (depression, anxiety, stress and burnout) among students, using stepwise multivariate regression…

The past two decades have witnessed growing interest in Higher Education (HE) achievement standards. Globally, the English Language Teaching (ELT) sector provides students with Direct Entry (DE) English language program (ELP) pathways to university study. It has typically relied on commercially available English language tests to ensure…

Higher education participation has increased worldwide given policies devoted to widening participation for under-represented groups, including the use of alternative entry pathways to university. It is, however, unknown if students admitted via alternative pathways perform well academically. This study uses data for 81,874 students from 16…

The variability effect occurs when learners' exposure to highly variable tasks results in better learning. It was hypothesised that learners who studied high variability worked examples would obtain higher post-test scores compared to learners who studied low variability examples, and learners who self-generated problem solutions for the same high…

The previous two decades have seen much improvement in the first-year experience of students attending university. Yet for a significant proportion of students, coping with university study remains challenging. This is particularly the case for those students entering university with low tertiary admission scores. Although the higher education…

The use of integrated tasks to test English-speaking skills raises questions about the impact of comprehension on test score outcomes, and the impact of stimulus materials on test-taker strategic behaviours. This study analysed speaking performances and verbal report data to examine the strategies used by test takers at different levels of…

Drawing on the expectancy-value model, the present study explored individual and gender differences in university entry and selection of educational pathway (e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] course selection). In particular, we examined the multiplicative effects of expectancy and task values on educational outcomes…