Dr Kane Meissel

MSc(Psych, 1st class hons); PhD(Education)

Senior Lecturer

In: Learning, Development and Professional Practice » Faculty of Education and Social Work

Biography

Dr Kane Meissel is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. Kane’s research focuses on the use of advanced quantitative methodologies to identify and reduce educational disparities, as well as promote equity and social justice for traditionally marginalised learners. A particular focus of Kane's research is the identification of specific factors that relate to resilience among under-served learner groups.

Research | Current

In addition to Kane's wider research platform, Kane is the Education Domain lead investigator for Growing Up in New Zealand, a major, multi-disciplinary longitudinal study following almost 7000 New Zealand children from before birth through to adulthood. The study participants reflect the contemporary diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand, and is designed to provide unique, detailed information about what shapes children and young people's early development, and aims to improve the lives of all New Zealand’s children by providing insight into how interventions can be targeted at the earliest opportunity to give every child the best start in life.

Teaching | Current

EDUC 323: Contemporary topics in Educational Psychology

This course helps students learn to:

Engage and think critically about contemporary research in educational psychology
Recognise faulty reasoning and fallacious logic (i.e. fake news!)
Evaluate credibility and bias within published research
Compare and contrast differing points of view within research in educational psychology

EDUC 741: Educational Psychology

This course facilitates critical engagement with current research in educational psychology. Students will develop a deeper understanding of how cognitive, motivational and social factors relate to student learning and outcomes. Students are encouraged to discuss and draw connections with implications for classroom practice, as well as wider social implications (no teaching experience is required).

The assessments are designed to provide a highly scaffolded taste of the process of conducting research in educational psychology, helping to prepare you for independent study.

Teaching | Previous

PSYCH 109 Mind, Brain and Behaviour
PSYCH 204 Social Psychology
PSYCH 208 Producing Psychological Knowledge
PSYCH 319 Psychology and Gender
PSYCH 322 Industrial, Work and Organisational Psychology
PSYCH 326 Lifespan Development
EDUC 117 Teaching and Learning: An Educational Psychological Perspective
EDUC 342 Educational Psychology: A behavioural approach
EDUC 352 Adolescence
EDUC 747 Issues in Adolescent Development

Postgraduate supervision

I supervise in a range of areas across Educational Psychology, with a particular interest in supervising students utilising advanced quantitative methodologies to address equity-related questions within the Educational sector. I am especially interested in hearing from prospective doctoral students interested in working with the Growing Up in New Zealand data, but please note that I am not accepting new students until February 2021.

Students are currently around 9 years old, so the focus is currently mainly on measures of early childhood outcomes and the transition to primary school through to age 8. Possible topics include:

How does language exposure (e.g. bilingualism) relate to socio-emotional and cognitive development as well as school readiness?
How satisfied are parents with the skills developed by ECE providers and how does this relate to perceived school readiness?

In Progress

Degree	Enrolled	Projected Completion	Name of Student	Thesis title
PhD	2013	2017	Rajshree Krishnan	Teacher expectations and student perceptions of mature-aged students in three faculties
PhD	2014	2018	Shengnan Wang	A longitudinal study on teacher expectation: its stability and impact on student achievement
PhD	2016	2019	Esther Yao	Variability in the perceptions and manifestations of adolescent depression.
PhD	2017	2020	Katy Perry	Introducing digital assessment into New Zealand secondary schools – an exploration of its use and impact.
PhD	2017	2020	Anran Zhao	What made PISA outcomes different? A comparison of socioeconomic status, curriculum and students' motivation between New Zealand and China (Shanghai).
PhD	2017	2020	Kirsten Sharman	The role of infant-directing singing in language acquisition of New Zealand children.
MEd	2018	2019	Shaheena Sulaiman	Parent-child interactions and early language and literacy development in bilingual children growing up in New Zealand.
PhD	2018	2021	Idoya Munn	Identification of Twice-Exceptional Students in NZ: Finding our Way.

Completed

Degree	Enrolled	Completed	Name of Student	Thesis title
MEd	2014	2014	Jennifer Supeck	Measuring levels of student engagement in the New Zealand intermediate school mathematics classroom and the implications for raising student achievement.
MEd	2014	2015	Chao Zheng	A Comparative Study of Foreign Language Anxiety of Chinese First Year College Students in China and Those Learning in New Zealand
MEd	2015	2015	Sinead Wilson	Parent and teacher interactional styles and children’s relationships with peers.
MA	2015	2016	Sukriti Bhatnagar	Defining 'evidence-based' programmes in New Zealand educational and youth mentoring sectors.
MPSt	2016	2016	Idoya Munn	Teachers and Twice-exceptional Students in New Zealand: The Search for a Teacher Who “Gets It” .
PhD	2009	2016	Nane Rio	Teacher expectations and ethnicity: Student and teacher perspectives
MA	2016	2016	Zoe Klomp	The influence of NCEA testing on teacher creativity and lesson planning.
MEd	2017	2018	Jonghyun Jun	Parental decision-making about early childhood education.

Distinctions/Honours

Faculty of Education and Social Work Early Career Teaching Excellence Award 2017

UKLA Wiley Research in Literacy Education award for Best Paper 2018

Responsibilities

School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice Postgraduate Committee
Postgraduate Research Approvals and Examinations Subcommittee
Affiliate of Quant-DARE
Faculty Staff-Student Consultative Committee

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Meissel, K., Peterson, E., Thomas, S., & Murray, S. (2019). Intentions and decisions about early childhood education: Understanding the determinants and dynamics of households’ early intentions and decisions about ECE and childcare from birth to age two. Wellington, NZ: Ministry of Social Development. Related URL.
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/46500
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Elizabeth Peterson
Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C., & Meissel, K. (2019). Instructional practices and classroom interactions of high and low expectation teachers in China. Social Psychology of Education10.1007/s11218-019-09507-4
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/48463
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Christine Rubie-Davies, Shengnan Wang
Bullen, P., Deane, K. L., Meissel, K., & Bhatnagar, S. (2019). What constitutes globalised evidence? Cultural tensions and critical reflections of the evidence-based movement in New Zealand. International Journal of Psychology10.1002/ijop.12574
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/47117
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Kelsey Deane, Pat Bullen
Davies, M. J., & Meissel, K. (2018). Secondary Students Use of Dialogical Discussion Practices to Foster Greater Interaction. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 53 (2), 209-225. 10.1007/s40841-018-0119-2
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/46255
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Maree Davies
Morton, S. M. B., Grant, C. C., Walker, C. G., Berry, S. D., Meissel, K., Ly, K., ... Wilson, S. (2018). Growing up in New Zealand: A longitudinal study of New Zealand children and their families. Transition to school. Auckland, New Zealand: Growing Up in New Zealand. Related URL.
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/43140
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Susan Morton, Cameron Grant, Caroline Walker, Emma Marks, Lisa Underwood, Jacinta Fa'alili-Fidow, Avinesh Pillai
Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Meissel, K. (2018). A systematic review of the teacher expectation literature over the past 30 years. EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND EVALUATION, 24 (3-5), 124-179. 10.1080/13803611.2018.1548798
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/46095
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Christine Rubie-Davies, Shengnan Wang
Davies, M., Kiemer, K., & Meissel, K. (2017). Quality Talk and dialogic teaching: An examination of a professional development programme on secondary teachers' facilitation of student talk. British Educational Research Journal, 43 (5), 968-987. 10.1002/berj.3293
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/44473
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Maree Davies
Meissel, K., Meyer, F., Yao, E. S., & Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2017). Subjectivity of teacher judgments: Exploring student characteristics that influence teacher judgments of student ability. Teaching and Teacher Education, 65, 48-60. 10.1016/j.tate.2017.02.021
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/33824
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Esther Yao, Frauke Meyer, Christine Rubie-Davies