Page 127 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 5
Abstract
e ability to distinguish secondary school students according to characteristics that contribute to success in university represents important knowledge in the research areas of university readiness and student success in higher education. is study aimed to identify di erent types of students in the last year of secondary school and to investigate if and how these types di ered in academic adjustment and success in university one year later. Latent pro le analysis revealed the existence of ve distinguishable pro les of secondary school students: intellectually highly disengaged (7%); behaviourally and cognitively disengaged (14%); students with overall average engagement (36%); intellectually engaged (22%); and overall highly engaged students (21%). Male students were overrepresented in groups in which students’ intellectual engagement was higher than their behavioural and cognitive engagement. Students doing science coursework were overrepresented in the group of intellectually engaged students and those doing humanities and social sciences coursework were overrepresented in the group of intellectually highly disengaged students. One year later, intellectually highly disengaged students (7%) and students with low behavioural and cognitive engagement (14%) were least successful in university. Students with the highest behavioural and cognitive engagement scores in secondary school adjusted and performed best in university. ese results point to the importance of both behavioural and cognitive engagement. Raising these factors in secondary school students could contribute to better preparation for university education.
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