Masters Degree Theses
University of Waikato digital theses deposited since 2006. Prior to 2006, digitisation for open access was not mandatory. To identify older hard-copy theses please check Library Search.
Depositing your thesis: University of Waikato Higher Degree and Masters Degree students are required to deposit a digital copy of their completed thesis via the Research Commons thesis deposit form.
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Dogs' scent detection performance with rapidly changing targets
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Scent detection dogs trained to detect one target scent are sometimes needed to detect a different target. Recent studies have demonstrated that scent detection animals can be trained to detect multiple scents simultaneously. ... -
Te Mātāpuna o Te Waihou: When the river speaks: Te Waihou river rights and power-sharing in the currents of cultural inequality.
(The University of Waikato, 2020)National fresh water management in Aotearoa New Zealand is a subject of political contention for hapū that claim customary rights over natural water resources. Waterways continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate under ... -
What about the violent offenders?: The possibilities and problems of prison abolition in New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 2020)This thesis engages with the issues of mass incarceration and violence in the developing field of research on post-prison societies. Rather than restating the abolitionist argument, this thesis seeks to address three key ... -
“You’re not coming out – you’ve been there all along and just no one’s looked”: Māori LGBT+ youth and identity exploration
(The University of Waikato, 2020)This research is a Masters-level project on Māori LGBT-plus (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other) youths’ experience of exploring their gender and sexual identities, highlighting how whānau (loosely, ‘extended ... -
Cue word guided question generation with BERT model fine-tuned on natural question dataset
(The University of Waikato, 2020)This thesis aims to develop an efficient question generator for an automated tutoring system. Given a context passage with an answer, the question generator asks questions to help the reader learn new material. By utilizing ... -
Addressing disparities by listening to Māori whānau: Lessons for Kāhui Ako
(The University of Waikato, 2020)This research involved interviewing five Māori whānau, with children attending four of six schools across a Kāhui Ako, to identify the extent to which their children were enjoying and achieving education success as Māori. A ... -
Let me be understood: A behavioural investigation of effective functional communication skills within a New Zealand special education high school.
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Effective functional communication skills are socially significant behaviours that afford individuals the ability to self-advocate and realise their full range of human rights. The aim of this study was to describe ... -
Turning waste into useful materials: fabrication of titanium alloy matrix composite from the Ti-6Al-4V swarf
(The University of Waikato, 2020)The rapid development of various high-precision technologies in the aerospace, military and civil fields has put forward higher and higher requirements for the performance of materials. Traditional titanium alloys have ... -
Investigating the understanding and implementation of Ka Hikitia, in a New Zealand primary school
(The University of Waikato, 2020)In New Zealand, the education system has underserved Māori learners for many years, with various factors contributing to this underperformance. Many of these factors stem from racism and bias, conscious or unconscious, ... -
Climate change is here: Teachers’ and students’ perceptions about education for It
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Climate change is the greatest threat humans have ever faced. The unprecedented anthropogenic activity impacting on the environment is having catastrophic effects across the globe and could continue for thousands of years. ... -
Just take a second to breathe: Empowering youth through mindfulness at Atawhai 2019
(The University of Waikato, 2020)This research was an evaluation of The Kindness Institute’s 2019 Atawhai programme. It examined the effects that exposure to mindfulness-based skills, Māori cultural practices, mentoring, and the creative arts had on a ... -
Investigating the anti-methanogenic properties of select species of seaweed in New Zealand.
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Enteric methane emissions from ruminants constitute a large proportion of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in New Zealand. The recent increase in enteric methane emissions has driven the development of ... -
The effects of varying intensity cultivation on soil quality in a maize cropping system
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Maize is the primary crop grown on arable land in the Waikato region, predominantly established on Allophanic soils due to their well-drained and resilient properties. Full cultivation (FC) is universally adopted in cropping ... -
Comparing competitive interactions and settlement success among native and non-indigenous species in marine hard bottom communities of colonial ascidians, from the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 2020)The requirement for space in marine hard bottom assemblages is paramount for life. Due to the crowded nature and demand for space in these sessile assemblages, bare space that is freed is quickly occupied. The intense push ... -
Academic migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand: Acculturation experiences of long-term or permanent migrant teaching staff in a tertiary Institute of Technology
(The University of Waikato, 2020)International teaching staff are increasingly sought after by tertiary education providers in their drive to build institutional knowledge and research capacity. While a growing body of research has examined the cultural, ... -
Engaging the parent/whānau community: Methods, benefits, and challenges for senior leaders in small town and rural New Zealand secondary schools
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Engaging parents and whānau (family) in a respectful partnership that develops strong home-school connections and uses effective methods of engagement has the potential to positively affect student outcomes. However, there ... -
Effects of organic matter complexation on partitioning of first-row transition metals into calcite: cave-analogue crystal growth studies
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Speleothems are important archives of terrestrial paleoclimate due to their wide geographical coverage and the ability to date their growth layers using U-Th and U-Pb radiometric dating. Extensive research into various ... -
Enrichment planting of late-successional plant species within restored urban forests
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Successful ecological restoration of early-successional forests should result in highly biodiverse, stable, self-perpetuating ecosystems. This often requires active intervention to transition them to a late-successional ... -
Gonad examination reveals diandry and baseline DNA methylation in the three sexual phenotypes of the New Zealand spotty wrasse, Notolabrus celidotus
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Understanding reproductive plasticity and how sexual phenotypes arise is of great interest to biology, particularly the form and function of sex changing fish. However, there are gaps regarding detailed descriptions of ... -
The spatial variability of elemental and isotopic compositions of carbon and nitrogen within sediments in a subtropical mangrove forest
(The University of Waikato, 2020)Mangrove forests are coastal habitats, which provide numerous ecosystem services in tropical and temperate regions, including burial and storage of Carbon and Nitrogen in the sediments. In New Zealand mangrove coverage is ...
