This thesis considers the introduction of middle schooling to the New Zealand education system. It is a case study of a school going through the process of introducing the middle schooling concept. It seeks to identify and explain the considerable challenges that this school faced as it sought to implement this change. This research project began as a study of the factors which hinder and support the implementation of middle schooling structures and practices. It became an analysis of the features of middle schooling that make it such a challenging and problematic innovation. Middle schooling is a set of philosophical concepts, educational practices and structural arrangements for the education of students between the ages of approximately ten and fourteen years. These concepts and practices are based on the premise that students of this age have academic, social, emotional and physical needs which differ from students on either side of this age group. Middle schooling is generally understood to involve integrated curriculum which is delivered through team teaching. This approach to teaching and learning requires high levels of teacher collaboration, flexible workspaces and timetables and high levels of parental support and involvement. Ideally, middle schooling provides a separate school environment for children of this age. A number of school communities in New Zealand have gained government approval to restructure as middle schools and are at various stages in implementing this new form of schooling. The researcher began the study with the intention of developing guidelines to assist school communities to make this transition from the structures and processes of conventional schooling arrangements to those of middle schooling. To this end she initiated a programme of action research in a school that was about to introduce middle schooling arrangements for its middle years students. The innovation began to run into difficulties from an early stage and it became clear that an action research methodology was unsustainable. Instead, the researcher chose to refocus the research problem to a more analytic study of the factors that were impeding the implementation process. The research methodology evolved to that of case study. Observational data were collected in the school over two years. From these data, three factors seemed to be affecting the implementation of the middle schooling changes. These were the way in which leadership was being executed, the attitudes and responses of the teachers and the particularly complex and demanding nature of the middle schooling innovation itself. The data were then re-analysed with respect to these three factors. From this analysis, the researcher came to a number of conclusions about the relative importance and impact of these three factors. In an effort to ascertain whether the experiences of the case school were typical of the difficulties and challenges schools face when implementing middle schooling change, the case findings were cross checked against the experiences of two other schools that were five years or more into the change process. The cross checking found that the experiences of these other schools were very similar to those of the case school. All three found that implementing middle schooling change had been more difficult and demanding than any other innovation they had implemented. This study identified some aspects of leadership and teacher behaviour that may have slowed the implementation process, but these seem to have been secondary to the sheer complexity and challenges involved with this particular form of innovation. An innovation that requires such a shift in values, behaviour, structures and systems from a school community, and one that requires the sustained commitment of the entire staff over an extended period of time, will always prove to be exceptionally challenging. The case study identified five requirements that middle school implementers need to consider in order to implement the concept successfully. Failure to consider any of these requirements is likely to threaten the success of the innovation. The five requirements are: • The need to develop a shared understanding of the concept rationale and principles and how these will be operationalised within the school; • The need to develop a shared understanding of the complex, multi-faceted and integrated nature of the innovation and how this will impact on and influence the implementation process; • The need for strong, visionary, shared leadership; • The need to gain the interest and operational commitment of the entire staff and a high level of interest and commitment from the parent community and to sustain this for the life of the innovation; and • The need to develop supportive and appropriate infrastructure within the school to support the innovation.

e-Learning has the potential to radically change the way we teach and learn in higher education, but there is ongoing debate as to what constitutes effective e-learning environments. This study explores the interrelated areas of e-learning technology and pedagogy within the context of a postgraduate special education and educational psychology programme. The study is framed in a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and covers three successive phases of overlapping activities of teaching, learning and research. The first phase of the research focuses on the design of a community of practice approach to e-learning. The aim is to enable students to develop their identity as members of the professional community by bridging the gap between university-based learning and its real-world application. In the second phase of the research, alternative technology is used to investigate a better alignment of e-learning technology and pedagogy. The findings here show that a community of practice pedagogy is better aligned with a social constructionist e-learning technology. In the third phase of the research an e-learning alignment guide is developed to analyse the changes in e-learning in relation to the interrelated areas of technology, pedagogy and context. The guide is applied to the e-learning case studies in Phases 1 and 2 of this study. The profiles of alignment from these case studies illustrate the complexities and tensions in e-learning and the potential of linking advanced technologies with effective teaching practices to change the way we teach and learn. The key finding of this study is that careful alignment of technology, pedagogy and context is needed to actualise the potential of e-learning in higher education. The e-learning alignment guide developed in this study enables analysis of e-learning environments to provide alignment profiles. Aligning innovative technologies with appropriate pedagogies in different contexts is essential for e-learning to meet the needs of learners in the digital age. The enormous and rapid development of new educational technologies has seriously challenged traditional forms of pedagogy. This study shows that both a scholarship of teaching and learning approach and the use of the e-learning alignment guide can make a positive contribution to designing effective e-learning environments.

This study uses a sociocultural framework to trace the experiences of 24 Chinese international undergraduate students studying business and information sciences in a New Zealand university, using community of practice perspectives recognising the university as a site of complex discourses requiring negotiation of new identities and practices. The students’ expectations, the issues that emerged and the processes of change they went through to meet their goals were investigated from retrospective and longitudinal viewpoints, using semi-structured interviews supported by schematic representations developed by the researcher and photographic representations compiled by participants were. The findings suggest that preparation before departure focused largely on expected English demands, rather than wider matters of academic culture, and this was only partially rectified during prior study in New Zealand. Students thus entered the university unfamiliar with its specific discourses and found conditions for resolving difficulties more limited than previously experienced. The anonymity and extreme time pressure pertaining in large first-year classes led to bewilderment about requirements, threats to the sense of identity as competent students which they had arrived with, and often, failure of courses. Nevertheless, the investment, personal and monetary, which this journey represented provided the incentive to persevere. Most students were resourceful in negotiating a fit between their learning preferences and the affordances of the university, resulting in very different journeys for each of them. Measures adopted included those sanctioned by the university, such as developing skills to meet the demands of academic literacies, and others less valued, such as extreme dependence on teacher consultation. Success was gained through personal agency which proved more important than the university goal of student autonomy. Beyond the academic arena, other activities such as part-time jobs were significant in contributing to a sense of identity as competent and educated adults, and to new viewpoints which contrasted with original cultural norms. They continued to identify as Chinese, but in a “third space” owing something to New Zealand influences. The study concludes that entry criteria should include a component of university preparation. It also recommends measures by which the university might enhance the experiences of such students.

This study uses a sociocultural framework to trace the experiences of 24 Chinese international undergraduate students studying business and information sciences in a New Zealand university, using community of practice perspectives recognising the university as a site of complex discourses requiring negotiation of new identities and practices. The students’ expectations, the issues that emerged and the processes of change they went through to meet their goals were investigated from retrospective and longitudinal viewpoints, using semi-structured interviews supported by schematic representations developed by the researcher and photographic representations compiled by participants were. The findings suggest that preparation before departure focused largely on expected English demands, rather than wider matters of academic culture, and this was only partially rectified during prior study in New Zealand. Students thus entered the university unfamiliar with its specific discourses and found conditions for resolving difficulties more limited than previously experienced. The anonymity and extreme time pressure pertaining in large first-year classes led to bewilderment about requirements, threats to the sense of identity as competent students which they had arrived with, and often, failure of courses. Nevertheless, the investment, personal and monetary, which this journey represented provided the incentive to persevere. Most students were resourceful in negotiating a fit between their learning preferences and the affordances of the university, resulting in very different journeys for each of them. Measures adopted included those sanctioned by the university, such as developing skills to meet the demands of academic literacies, and others less valued, such as extreme dependence on teacher consultation. Success was gained through personal agency which proved more important than the university goal of student autonomy. Beyond the academic arena, other activities such as part-time jobs were significant in contributing to a sense of identity as competent and educated adults, and to new viewpoints which contrasted with original cultural norms. They continued to identify as Chinese, but in a “third space” owing something to New Zealand influences. The study concludes that entry criteria should include a component of university preparation. It also recommends measures by which the university might enhance the experiences of such students.

A prominent idea in the decentralisation and development literature is that decentralisation leads to deeper and stronger community participation. This thesis seeks to examine this argument by investigating the practice of community participation in the Indonesian decentralisation context, focusing on parental participation through access to and control over school financial resources. Drawing on a case study in Depok city, the practice of parental involvement has been explored by identifying the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management. School Committees (SCs), as a mechanism of community involvement provided by the decentralised education policy, were also examined in this research to develop an understanding of parental representation in school management. The study found that the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management have changed and decreased significantly as a result of a new Free School Programme (FSP) introduced by the government in 2009 which freed parents from school operational cost. Prior to FSP, parents actively participated in terms of supplying resources and involvement in school meetings, had some access to financial information, and had limited engagement with school budgeting through representation in SCs. However, the new absence of financial contribution by parents has affected parental participation by transforming it into a weaker form of participation where parents act as mere beneficiaries. The study also revealed that in the Indonesian context, the SCs, as institutional channels for community involvement in education provided by the education decentralisation policy, are not effective in terms of representing and engaging parents in school management. Based on the evidence above, this thesis concluded that in the context of the Indonesian education system, decentralisation has not necessarily enhanced community participation. In this respect, decentralisation is not the only possible answer for achieving a meaningful and empowering parental participation in education. Furthermore, other contextual factors surrounding participation also have to be taken into account. While FSP brings the benefit of allowing students to access education freely, the absence of parental financial contribution has been proved to impact parental participation in a way that is contradictory to one of the purposes of decentralisation policy, which is to engage the community in educational management.

A prominent idea in the decentralisation and development literature is that decentralisation leads to deeper and stronger community participation. This thesis seeks to examine this argument by investigating the practice of community participation in the Indonesian decentralisation context, focusing on parental participation through access to and control over school financial resources. Drawing on a case study in Depok city, the practice of parental involvement has been explored by identifying the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management. School Committees (SCs), as a mechanism of community involvement provided by the decentralised education policy, were also examined in this research to develop an understanding of parental representation in school management. The study found that the characteristics and the extent of parents’ participation in school management have changed and decreased significantly as a result of a new Free School Programme (FSP) introduced by the government in 2009 which freed parents from school operational cost. Prior to FSP, parents actively participated in terms of supplying resources and involvement in school meetings, had some access to financial information, and had limited engagement with school budgeting through representation in SCs. However, the new absence of financial contribution by parents has affected parental participation by transforming it into a weaker form of participation where parents act as mere beneficiaries. The study also revealed that in the Indonesian context, the SCs, as institutional channels for community involvement in education provided by the education decentralisation policy, are not effective in terms of representing and engaging parents in school management. Based on the evidence above, this thesis concluded that in the context of the Indonesian education system, decentralisation has not necessarily enhanced community participation. In this respect, decentralisation is not the only possible answer for achieving a meaningful and empowering parental participation in education. Furthermore, other contextual factors surrounding participation also have to be taken into account. While FSP brings the benefit of allowing students to access education freely, the absence of parental financial contribution has been proved to impact parental participation in a way that is contradictory to one of the purposes of decentralisation policy, which is to engage the community in educational management.

This study investigates the ways that children engage with a repeatedly viewed film in domestic settings. The research questions focus on the children's language, their multimodal behaviours while viewing and the understandings they form about a film. The study aims to provide insights for educators by demonstrating the range and nature of the educationally significant understandings, about film, that children construct. An initial survey of 9 and 10 year olds produced 17 children who nominated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Columbus, 2002) as a favourite film that they had viewed at least 10 times. A video illustrating the research procedures was used to inform and to stimulate discussion with these children, to ensure that they were able to give educated consent. Observations of pairs of children viewing the film in their homes, followed by a series of activities to elicit discussion, created a set of rich data on the children's engagement practices and understandings of the film. Framed within the interpretivist paradigm, social semiotics and a sociocultural model of learning informed the generation and analysis of the data. A viewing practices engagement framework adapted existing frameworks in literature, literacy and critical literacy to better analyse viewing behaviours, responses and understandings. The engagement practice categories (literal, connotative, aesthetic, structural and critical) enabled multimodal and transcribed verbal data to be meaningfully linked. Several analytic approaches (including multimodal analysis and discourse analysis) were used to provide a full description of viewing engagement. The findings revealed variable levels of overt behaviour during viewing which did not relate to levels of understanding about the film. The range of understandings included aspects of characters, narrative, causation in the film and special effects. Discourse analysis revealed a range of viewing positions taken and social languages used, as well as gender differences in the balance of language used to attribute the film’s emotional effects. The findings provide evidence that children construct a range of educationally relevant understandings through their repeated home viewing of favourites, although structural and critical engagement was not well developed in this group. The findings are relevant to children's learning, audience research and the culture of childhood. The study has implications for parents, for primary school teachers and for education policy.

Recent research has challenged the way in which personality and attitude constructs are measured. Alternatives have been offered as to how non-cognitive responses are modeled, the mode of delivery used when administrating such scales, and the impact of technology in measuring personality. Thus, the major purpose of the studies in this thesis concerns two interrelated issues of personality research, namely the way personality responses are best modeled, and the most optimal mode by which personality items are presented and associated modal issues. Three studies are presented. First, recent developments using an ideal point approach to scale construction are outlined, and an empirical study compares modeling personality items based on an ideal point approach (generalized graded unfolding model; GGUM) and a dominance approach (graded response model: GRM). Second, an extensive review of literature pertaining to the mode effect when transferring paper-and-pencil measures to screen was conducted, in addition to a review of the various types of computerized and innovative items and their associated psychometric information. Finally, nine innovative items were developed using various multimedia features (e.g., video, graphics, and audio) to ascertain the advantages of these methods to present items constructed to elicit response behavior underlying ideal point approaches, namely, typical response behavior. It was found that the dominance IRT model continued to produce superior model-data fit for most items, more attention needs to be placed on developing principles for constructing ideal point type items, the web-based version supplied 20% more construct information than the paper version, and innovative items seem to provide more data-model fit for students with lower personality attributes. While the innovative items may require more initial outlay in terms of time and development costs, they have the capacity to provide more information regarding test-takers’ personality levels, potentially using fewer items.

Recent research has challenged the way in which personality and attitude constructs are measured. Alternatives have been offered as to how non-cognitive responses are modeled, the mode of delivery used when administrating such scales, and the impact of technology in measuring personality. Thus, the major purpose of the studies in this thesis concerns two interrelated issues of personality research, namely the way personality responses are best modeled, and the most optimal mode by which personality items are presented and associated modal issues. Three studies are presented. First, recent developments using an ideal point approach to scale construction are outlined, and an empirical study compares modeling personality items based on an ideal point approach (generalized graded unfolding model; GGUM) and a dominance approach (graded response model: GRM). Second, an extensive review of literature pertaining to the mode effect when transferring paper-and-pencil measures to screen was conducted, in addition to a review of the various types of computerized and innovative items and their associated psychometric information. Finally, nine innovative items were developed using various multimedia features (e.g., video, graphics, and audio) to ascertain the advantages of these methods to present items constructed to elicit response behavior underlying ideal point approaches, namely, typical response behavior. It was found that the dominance IRT model continued to produce superior model-data fit for most items, more attention needs to be placed on developing principles for constructing ideal point type items, the web-based version supplied 20% more construct information than the paper version, and innovative items seem to provide more data-model fit for students with lower personality attributes. While the innovative items may require more initial outlay in terms of time and development costs, they have the capacity to provide more information regarding test-takers’ personality levels, potentially using fewer items.

Recent research has challenged the way in which personality and attitude constructs are measured. Alternatives have been offered as to how non-cognitive responses are modeled, the mode of delivery used when administrating such scales, and the impact of technology in measuring personality. Thus, the major purpose of the studies in this thesis concerns two interrelated issues of personality research, namely the way personality responses are best modeled, and the most optimal mode by which personality items are presented and associated modal issues. Three studies are presented. First, recent developments using an ideal point approach to scale construction are outlined, and an empirical study compares modeling personality items based on an ideal point approach (generalized graded unfolding model; GGUM) and a dominance approach (graded response model: GRM). Second, an extensive review of literature pertaining to the mode effect when transferring paper-and-pencil measures to screen was conducted, in addition to a review of the various types of computerized and innovative items and their associated psychometric information. Finally, nine innovative items were developed using various multimedia features (e.g., video, graphics, and audio) to ascertain the advantages of these methods to present items constructed to elicit response behavior underlying ideal point approaches, namely, typical response behavior. It was found that the dominance IRT model continued to produce superior model-data fit for most items, more attention needs to be placed on developing principles for constructing ideal point type items, the web-based version supplied 20% more construct information than the paper version, and innovative items seem to provide more data-model fit for students with lower personality attributes. While the innovative items may require more initial outlay in terms of time and development costs, they have the capacity to provide more information regarding test-takers’ personality levels, potentially using fewer items.