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Item Life at school in Australia and Japan: the impact of stress and support on bullying and adaptation to school(Australian Association for Research in Education, 2001) Murray-Harvey, Rosalind; Slee, Phillip T; Saebel, Judith; Taki, MitsuruIn this international, comparative study, path analysis was used to examine eight different aspects of Japanese and Australian students' experiences of school life in relation to their effect on adaptation to school. Adaptation was constructed to include information on enjoyment of school, feelings of belonging to school, and relationships with other students. Two separate path models were tested to compare questionnaire data from over 3000 Australian and 6000 Japanese students across Years 5-10. The questionnaire was developed collaboratively by the authors to examine issues of common concern in both countries. Issues that related to the impact on adaptation to school of stress and support: family teachers, peers and school work, as well as bullying were of particular interest. Lack of support and the influential effect of stress were found to exert direct negative effects on adaptation to school, especially for high school students in Japan and Australia. The path results also confirmed the stressful effects of bullying in both countries. The finding of a strong relationship between bullying others and being victimised is discussed in the paper. Finally, the differences and similarities between Japanese and Australian students' perceptions of school life are extrapolated.Item What happens in my university classes that helps me to learn?': Teacher Education Students' Instructional Metacognitive Knowledge(2007) Askell-Williams, Helen; Murray-Harvey, Rosalind; Lawson, Mike JosephItem A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Student Concerns in the Teaching Practicum(Shannon Research Press, 1999-12) Murray-Harvey, Rosalind; Silins, Halia; Saebel, JudithThere is general consensus in the literature that students consider the practicum to be a highly valued component of their teacher education degree. Nevertheless, there are wide ranging concerns reported by students related to their teaching practice. This paper reports on these concerns in the form of a cross-cultural comparison of an Australian and a Singaporean sample of students. Singaporean and Australian students completing their first practicum independently responded to a questionnaire based on the Survey of Practicum Stresses (D'Rozario & Wong, 1996). The psychometric properties of their 7-factor model were tested using the Australian data. This resulted in a 4-factor model, which was confirmed using structural equation procedures. Details of effective but under-employed analysis techniques are presented. This model was employed subsequently to provide cross-cultural comparisons of student concerns in the teaching practicum. Significant differences between the stresses experienced by Singaporean and Australian students point to the need to understand student stress within a cultural context.