Page 136 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

the questionnaires in 2014. Girls were overrepresented (56%), re ecting the trend
by which more girls than boys attend the highest levels of secondary education
(Coenen, Meng, & Van der Velden, 2011). In the Netherlands, students choose
in grade 10 whether they wish to take courses in science or humanities and social
sciences, in addition to obligatory subjects such as Dutch and English. e science
track was pursued by 57% of the students in our sample, whereas 43% planned
to graduate from high school in humanities and social sciences. At the end of the questionnaires students were asked if they were willing to provide their e-mail
address, so that they could be contacted one year later for follow-up research.
263 students wrote down their e-mail address and received an e-mail in 2015 that
asked them to ll out an online questionnaire on their current activities and, if
they indicated they were attending university, on their achievement and academic
adjustment. 127 students (48%) completed this questionnaire and 90 (71%) of
those 127 were studying at a university. e responses of these 90 students were
used for the analysis of the second research question, the relationship between the
engagement pro les and achievement and adjustment in university. In this second 5 sample, females were overrepresented (69%), as were students who had pursued
the science track in high school (67%).
5.5.2 Measures
Indicator variables
e indicator variables we used to classify the students were factors belonging to the three dimensions of engagement: two behavioural engagement measures (behavioural engagement and self-e cacy in e ort), four cognitive engagement measures (surface learning, deep learning, metacognition, and self-regulated learning), and three intellectual engagement measures (need for cognition, academic interest, and self-e cacy in understanding). Table 5.1 provides an overview of the variables, including their measurement information and sample items.
Pro les of student engagement
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