Page 168 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

in the teacher’s eld. Compared with asking students about their plans for future study, which half of the teachers did, it seemed that quite some teachers tended to leave the initiative to the students to talk about their future a er secondary school and the associated possibilities. For example, economics teacher T12 explicitly noted: “\[Giving information about degree programmes\] is usually demand- driven, so if students come to me with questions I answer them. You don’t do it on your own initiative.” A mathematics teacher (T11) explained what this interaction usually looks like: “Students approach me very o en, like ‘what do you think about this \[degree programme\], and what do you think about this one?’ ey ask me mainly about science degree programmes. ey ask what I know about them, what they have to do, what the access criteria are, that’s mostly it.”
Half of all teachers sought to promote students’ research skills and an attitude of inquiry. Some teachers gave examples of relatively minor e orts, such as letting students practice developing good research questions, whereas others mentioned more substantial notions, such as when a chemistry teacher (T50) revealed: “What we are currently doing as a team of teachers – well, we’ve only been doing it for a year now – is to shape the transition in a better way and to set up a research line through the curriculum from grade 7 up to 12.”
A little less than half tried to promote students’ thinking skills, o en in 6 relation to analytical and critical thinking skills. Dutch teacher T3 pointed out:
“Especially when you are working with texts, that we don’t only pay attention to
what does it say and what’s it about, but also what does it mean, and do we agree,
and is the writer’s statement correct?”
Two behaviours were each mentioned by 44 per cent of teachers: promoting
study skills and giving information about studying at university in general. To promote study skills, teachers mostly dealt with planning skills and how to study large amounts of text, such as by showing students how to write a good summary, as economics teacher T34 explained: “Making a good summary is not that easy. It’s more than just taking over the structure of the book and copying. So, I say: ‘Later on \[in university\] you cannot make summaries like these. You will have to ask yourself: what do I know and what not, to which aspects do I have to pay attention, what is the common thread.’” Another common preparation practice was to provide students with information about studying at university in general, to give them an idea of what to expect. Usually, teachers would integrate this kind of information into their everyday teaching. English teacher T24 provided an exemplary quote: “When students complain about the amount of subject matter
Teachers’ beliefs and practices
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