Page 162 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Last, research has shown that university students’ perceptions of their preparation during secondary school, speci cally time management ability and study skills, related positively to their subsequent study behaviour and achievement in the rst year of university (Jansen & Suhre, 2010). ese studies, however, do not provide much detailed information about what teachers exactly do when preparing students for university, which is why this study aims to map these teacher behaviours and categorise them within Conley’s framework. By doing so, we can also see to what extent teachers’ beliefs about important aspects of university readiness align with their university preparation practices. e second research question is:
2. How do teachers contribute to their students’ university readiness?
6.2.3 The connection between beliefs and practices
Teachers who believe college preparation is part of their role likely pay more
attention to it in the classroom, because teachers’ beliefs in uence their teaching
decisions and practices (e.g., Pajares, 1992). For this study, we use Calderhead’s
(1996) description of beliefs as suppositions, commitments and ideologies. e development of teacher beliefs is a long-term, on-going process that starts during
the teacher’s time as a student (Lortie, 1975) and continues to be in uenced by
personal experiences, prior work experiences, and professional development 6 (Ertmer, 2005). Beliefs regarding college preparation in particular might be shaped
by the teacher’s own college experiences (Friedrichsen, 2002). In the vast research conducted to understand teacher beliefs and their link to teacher behaviour, some research uncovered a strong relationship between teacher beliefs and practices (Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987; Pajares, 1992), but studies have also highlighted some inconsistencies (Ertmer, 2005), usually due to contextual factors that prevent teachers from translating their beliefs into practice (Fang, 1996). ese contextual factors might include time constraints, curriculum requirements, or external pressures such as having to prepare students for examinations (Ertmer, 2005; Friedrichsen, 2002). To gain insight into the connection between teachers’ role perception and their practices regarding university preparation, we ask the following two questions:
3. What are teachers’ beliefs about their role in the process of preparing students for university?
4. Do teachers experience barriers that hinder them from attending to university preparation, and if so, what are these barriers, and how might they be overcome?
Teachers’ beliefs and practices
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