Universities worldwide are developing peer mentoring programmes to assist first-year students' transition into university life. Awareness of the mentees' experiences in the mentoring programme -the successes and challenges -contributes to ongoing planning for successful transition for first-year students. Also, understanding the mentors' experiences can contribute to the success of the programme and, more importantly, can lead to strong self efficacy for the mentors. This qualitative study appraises a mentoring programme for first-year undergraduate students from the mentors' perspective. The mentors' experiences, both positive and negative, are discussed and a relational model of mentoring is presented. The results of this inquiry have implications for the development of future mentoring programmes, particularly in terms of mentor recruitment and preparation, if first-year students are to be effectively oriented and supported in their transition to university study.

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This paper describes the conduct of, and acquired understandings from, a study designed to promote the professional growth of a group of beginning primary school teachers through participatory action research. The beginning teachers collaborated with university academic staff during the design and conduct of the study. A key component of the study was the formation of action research cells of participating teachers with each group focusing on particular aspects of teaching, for example, assessment, catering for gifted and talented students, and inclusivity in the classroom teaching program. The overall findings from the study, from the view of the university researchers, are presented and reflected upon in this paper. The implications of using action research for the professional growth of beginning teachers are also discussed.1

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As online environments gain an increasing presence in higher education for both oncampus students and distance learners, there is a need to examine how effective these environments are for student learning. Online environments require essentially different teaching and learning strategies from those used in the traditional face-toface contexts (for on-campus students) or with print-based material (for distance learners). This paper identifies early childhood teacher education students' perceptions of their learning experiences with the advent of an online learning environment. Perceptions of on-campus and distance learners are compared, and implications for teacher education staff interested in providing high quality learning environments within an online space are discussed.Online instruction: teaching and learning mediated by educators, using information and communication technologies as the vehicle for connecting, sharing and collaborating, is gaining an increasing presence in higher education due to its perceived benefits. These benefits include speedy and effective delivery of courses across geographical and time constraints, opportunities for improved pedagogical support, increased access for nontraditional students, and claims of cost savings (Bigum & Rowan, 2004;Natriello, 2005; Oblinger, Barone & Hawkins, 2001). For more than a century many universities have made provision for students and teachers separated by time and place. For these "distance education" students, technology (i.e., voice, video, data or print) is used as a bridge for communication (French, Olrech, Hale & Johnson, 2003, p 220). Traditionally, print resources were mailed to students and communication was slow and cumbersome, however, 3 3 in recent years more sophisticated technologies and delivery methods have been adopted (Finger, McGlasson & Finger, 2007). Universities have enhanced both their on-campus and distance-learning courses with online learning-management systems. "The traditional distinctions between distance education and campus-based institutions are blurring, with hybrid modes or 'distributed learning' where technology-mediated instruction provides greater flexibility for students and teaching staff, emerging as the new standard" (Masi & Winer, 2005, p. 149). Distance learning has become a subset of distributed learning which relies on a range of computing and communications technologies to provide extended opportunities for interaction and learning for all students; it can occur both on campus and off campus -anywhere, at any time (Oblinger, Barone & Hawkins, 2001). With institutional commitment to online instruction comes the need for evaluation and quality control to determine best practices in online learning communities. Furthermore, as flexible delivery increases, it is essential that lecturers identify potential barriers or stumbling blocks their students may encounter (Belcheir & Cucek, 2001). Bigum and Rowan (2004) argue that there has been limited attention given to what these new forms of distribu...

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