Page 159 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 6
behaviour (Borg, 2001). By accounting for teacher beliefs, we seek to understand the bases of their practices, which is necessary information if the goal ultimately is to improve their practices (Nespor, 1987) and thereby enhance students’ university readiness. To our knowledge, little research addresses teachers’ beliefs about their role in preparing students for postsecondary education or their preparation practices in the classroom. is study thus can contribute both to research into the transition to university and to practice. In the theoretical framework, we will discuss current knowledge about aspects of university readiness and about teachers’ beliefs and practices.
6.2 Theoretical framework and research questions
6.2.1 Aspects of university readiness
e transition from secondary school to university is a di cult one for many students. Lowe and Cook (2003) found that in a sample of rst-year students at a university in the United Kingdom one out of four to one out of three students faced considerable di culties in adjusting to postsecondary education. An important reason for adjustment issues concerns the di erence between the heavily regulated secondary school learning environment on the one hand and the university environment that makes a strong appeal to a student’s self-regulation capacities on the other hand, in combination with a signi cant increase in amount and complexity of study content. Much research into rst-year success con rmed that a substantial number of students struggle with time management and self- regulation, especially in the rst semester (e.g., Haggis, 2006; Van der Meer, Jansen, & Torenbeek, 2010). ese adjustment di culties can cause academic problems, such as underachievement or even dropout, and psychological problems, like depression (Leung, 2017; Lowe & Cook, 2003). What also makes the transition challenging is that many secondary school students do not know what to expect or have unrealistic expectations about university in general (Heublein et al., 2017; Smith & Wertlieb, 2005) or about the speci c degree programme they have chosen to pursue (De Buck, 2009), which creates academic and social challenges during the transition, with the accompanying high levels of stress (Friedlander, Reid, Shupak, & Cribbie, 2007).
A better preparation for university during secondary education could make the transition less challenging. To prepare students, teachers need accurate
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