Objective: There remains a need for effective and ethical development in students, for cohesive and connected societies of moral actors. This paper adopts an authentic leadership development in students perspective as a possible complement to discipline expertise. This research explored whether taking leadership roles while studying had a positive…

Prior research has studied preferences for identity- or person-first language among persons with an autism diagnosis. The current study differs from this previous body of research by specifically examining quantitative predictors of language preferences through a social identity theoretical approach, thereby leading to a better understanding of…

This study investigated how domain specificity of academic motivation related to the connection between instructional clarity and academic achievement in science and mathematics. It focused on three aspects of domain-specific academic motivation--self-concept, intrinsic value, and utility value--drawing from the Expectancy-Value Theory model. The…

Mathematical self-concept refers to the perceived ability that one has in being able to do mathematics. While it has been shown to be a significant predictor for how students learn and apply mathematics, little research has been conducted into the relationship between the mathematical self-concept of teachers and their pedagogical practices in the…

Emerging public discourse about making a "tree change", "green change", or "sea change" emphasizes the putative benefits of working and residing in regional Australia. Yet, attracting and retaining workers in the regions is a challenge for policymakers, governments, and industries. The present research involved two…

This exploratory study investigates aspects of sleep quality and some of the potential impacts of sleep complaints for 168 male boarding students from regional and remote communities in Years 7 to 12. An online self-report questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between sleep quality and participants' sense of academic self-perception,…

Rejection sensitivity is a bias toward expecting rejection that can result from negative social experiences and degrade emotional adjustment. In this study, rejection sensitivity was expected to predict patterns of adolescent social anxiety over 5 years when considered alongside other known or expected risk and protective factors: peer rejection…

Skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are promoted by the Australian government as pivotal for Australia's economic prosperity. Research on equity groups suggests that group membership is associated with several factors linked to 'leakage' from the STEM pipeline of school, university and transition to work. In this…

Covariates have been used in mixture IRT models to help explain why examinees are classed into different latent classes. Previous research has considered manifest variables as covariates in a mixture Rasch analysis for prediction of group membership. Latent covariates, however, are more likely to have higher correlations with the latent class…

This study investigates factors that influenced the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject enrolment decisions of Year 12 students in Australia. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to develop a model using Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) data…

I brought together two strands of literature, one investigating the moderate but persistent underachievement of girls in mathematics in most countries, and the other examining the role of self-efficacy and other self-beliefs in predicting behaviour and achievement. I implemented detailed decompositions of the gender mathematics gap, both at the…

In Australia, many students, especially girls, choose not to study advanced mathematics in Year 12 even though their schools offer relevant subjects. Previous studies have rarely examined, using nationally representative samples of Australian students, the extent to which teenage educational experiences and occupational expectations influence…

Research has established that qualities of student-teacher relationships impact children's self-concept, however, the role of teacher and child gender in these relations is unclear. This study used data from 4169 children aged 10-11 years and 3343 teachers from Wave 4 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to examine the relationship…

Recently, students' interest in science has been conceptualized as a network model: the science interest network model (SINM) in which affective, behavioural and cognitive components interact together; building on science interest being a dynamic relational construct. In the current study, we combine the Australian Programme for International…

Mathematics competency is fast becoming an essential requirement in ever greater parts of day-to-day work and life. Thus, creating strategies for improving mathematics learning in students is a major goal of education research. However, doing so requires an ability to look at many aspects of mathematics learning, such as demographics and…