An exploration of teacher and educational psychologists’ support for student test-anxiety in the context of a global pandemic.

Background: Mental health difficulties in children and adolescents are on the rise, with the most common difficulties starting in adolescence, for example, generalised anxiety. Examinations cause a significant amount of stress in adolescents within high-pressured academic environments. Test-anxiety is experienced by 15-22% of students and can cause several difficulties in the build up to high-stake examinations, including poor examination performance and maladaptive cognition. Therefore, understanding the role of educational professionals in supporting students with test-anxiety is essential to improving children and young people’s wellbeing in schools. Aims: The aims of this thesis were firstly, to explore how teachers support student test-anxiety based on the literature available prior to the covid-19 pandemic. Secondly, to explore teacher and educational psychologists’ experiences of supporting test-anxiety in the context of a global pandemic. Phase 1: A systematic literature review was carried out to explore how teachers support students with test-anxiety in schools. 12 studies were included and analysed using framework synthesis. Findings suggest that teacher support for test-anxiety can be cognitive, behavioural, emotional, social, motivational, and environmental. It was recognised that teachers have a role in supporting students across multiple levels, for example, practical supports, motivational supports, study skills, and emotional support. The most common role identified was at a social level which included how teachers develop relationships with students and communicate effectively. Phase 2: Interviews were carried out with seven teachers and seven educational psychologists. Interview data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings suggest that, firstly, teachers provided support during covid-19 that included identifying student need, and academic and emotional support. In addition to this, teachers adapted to a new way of working and experienced a lack of control during covid-19. Reference was also made to the role of parents, peers, and tutors in supporting test-anxiety. Secondly, teachers suggested that support for test-anxiety could be improved in the classroom following covid-19 by increasing teacher knowledge, increasing teacher time and capacity, and considering change within school environments, and the political and educational contexts. Multiple barriers were identified in the context of the pandemic which must be accounted for to improve support in the future. Thirdly, prior to covid-19, educational psychologists used approaches to support schools with test-anxiety using systemic approaches and approaches specific to the EP role. Fourthly, there are multiple challenges that educational psychologists have experienced when working with schools, such as time and capacity issues, that existed prior to covid-19, as well as a lack of experience, and adjustments to remote working and uncertainty in the covid-19 context. Additionally, there are new priorities in schools currently due to gaps in children and young people’s learning, the necessity to plan ahead, and increased levels of generalised anxiety during covid-19. Conclusion: The findings from this research add to the knowledge base of test-anxiety and improve our understanding of the role of educational professionals in supporting test-anxiety in the United Kingdom. The current research extends our knowledge of test-anxiety to a unique context and highlights the challenges faced in schools during covid-19 for a specific cohort of children and young people, teachers, and educational psychologists. The implications of this research and educational psychology practice are considered, and suggestions for future research are discussed

Improving Methods of Selecting Tropical Germplasm for Plant Breeding and Species Evaluation Studies

Tropical forage germplasm centres have now accumulated very large collections of grass and legume species. The current methods of selecting germplasm from these collections, however, are based on limited information and tend to restrict the total germplasm pool from which selections can be made. To improve the selection process, genetic resource centres need to develop research programmes which both improve our understanding of the relative importance of particular plant attributes and the diversity of these attributes within collections

Climatic factors affecting herbicidal activity of sodium trichloracetate in different soils : a thesis submitted to the University of New Zealand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agricultural Science (Horticulture)

Due to the large size of some of the Appendices, they can be viewed only in the print copy held in the Library.Trichloracetic acid (T C A) has long been known as a protein precipitant, but it was not until 1947 that research workers in the U.S.A. found it to be an effecive grass killer. Immediately it was subjected to a considerable amount of ex­perimentation, but it is only since 1950 that any trials have been conducted with this herbicide in New Zealand. Most of this early research was of an observational or emperical nature, and the results obtained were often in­consistent. However, it was soon determined that there was little downward translocation of T C A when foliar applications were made, and that for maximum kill it was essential for the herbicide to come into contact with the grass roots. Best control of couch (Agropyron repens L.), for example, has been obtained when the T C A was sprayed on the upturned sod and light rain fell within a few days after application. Before commerical usage of any newly developed herbicide is recommended on agricultural land it is desirable to know the fate of that herbicide when applied to the soil, whether it will persist and be cumulative so that subsequent crops will be effected, if a short period of residual activity can be expected, or if the compound is rapidly dissipated. To this writer's knowledge, no attempt had been made in New Zealand to undertake a quantitative study of the effects soil type, temperature and rainfall have on the rate of inactivation and distribution of T C A when applied to the soil. Such an investigation therefore seemed pertinent, and more especially because results of similar studies overseas were not in full agreement. The published reports showed that both chemical and biological tests had been employed to determine the concentra­tions, or relative amounts of T C A in the soil, but in no instance had the two methods been employed for the one experi­ment. It was therefore considered that in a future investigation some useful purpose would be served by a comparison of results obtained by both tests. [From Introduction

How is academic motivation in children influenced by emotional regulation?

Children’s academic achievement is influenced by motivation. Motivation, in turn, is affected by emotional regulation and children’s reactions to poor or high achievement. This study investigated academic motivation to gain an understanding of the attributions (effort, ability, difficulty and luck) made by children on their achievements in a maths test among 25 SEN children (i.e., children with emotional, behavioural and social difficulties) and 44 mainstream children. SEN children made more attributions to effort whereas mainstream children made more attributions to ability. Emotional regulation was measured using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Emotional reappraisal (i.e., reinterpreting the meaning of emotional stimuli) and suppression (i.e., a person’s knowledge of their emotions) did not differ between schools. Results highlight differences in expectations of achievement between schools: Mainstream children, unlike SEN children, were more likely to want to hide their paper with the results of the maths test despite achieving higher scores in the test. This research expands knowledge of the difference in achievement attributions between academic contexts. This topic should be studied further to ultimately raise the academic motivations of SEN and mainstream children alike

WHAM Observations of H-alpha from High-Velocity Clouds: Are They Galactic or Extragalactic?

It has been suggested that high velocity clouds may be distributed throughout the Local Group and are therefore not in general associated with the Milky Way galaxy. With the aim of testing this hypothesis, we have made observations in the H-alpha line of high velocity clouds selected as the most likely candidates for being at larger than average distances. We have found H-alpha emission from 4 out of 5 of the observed clouds, suggesting that the clouds under study are being illuminated by a Lyman continuum flux greater than that of the metagalactic ionizing radiation. Therefore, it appears likely that these clouds are in the Galactic halo and not distributed throughout the Local Group.Comment: 12 pages, 5 eps figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Theoretical He I Emissivities in the Case B Approximation

We calculate the He I case B recombination cascade spectrum using improved radiative and collisional data. We present new emissivities over a range of electron temperatures and densities. The differences between our results and the current standard are large enough to have a significant effect not only on the interpretation of observed spectra of a wide variety of objects but also on determinations of the primordial helium abundance.Comment: Accepted to ApJ

Monogamous subvarieties of the nilpotent cone

Let G be a reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k of prime characteristic not 2, whose Lie algebra is denoted g. We call a subvariety X of the nilpotent cone N⊂g monogamous if for every e∈X, the sl2-triples (e,h,f) with f∈X are conjugate under the centraliser CG(e). Building on work by the first two authors, we show there is a unique maximal closed G-stable monogamous subvariety V⊂N and that it is an orbit closure, hence irreducible. We show that V can also be characterised in terms of Serre's G-complete reducibility

The Journey to R4D: An institutional history of an Australian Initiative on Food Security in Africa

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