Page 174 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

suggested by a perceived obstacle for university preparation that 34 per cent of teachers mentioned: students’ lack of interest or ability.
Our third research question asked about teachers’ beliefs regarding their role in preparing students for university. Two-thirds of the respondents believed university preparation was their job, when asked explicitly. However, we also found vast di erences among teachers regarding their role perceptions. Some teachers held strong opinions that university preparation was a crucial goal of secondary school, beyond preparing students for the national examinations; a handful of teachers even referred to the examinations as a burden that they would rather eliminate. However, other teachers did not regard university preparation as one of their tasks, because they thought it was equivalent to examination preparation: ey assumed that graduation from secondary school implied the student was equipped for university success.
Finally, we investigated if teachers experienced barriers to preparing
students for university and how such barriers might be overcome. At least one third
of teachers cited nal examinations, lack of time, not knowing what universities
expect, and students’ lack of interest or ability. eir solutions matched the barriers:
ey wished for more coordination and collaboration with universities and more
information on current degree programmes. Moreover, they wanted more time in 6 general for university preparation, which related to the barriers of both a lack of
time in general and the need to devote substantial time to preparing for the nal examinations. e desire to pay attention to developing a more positive attitude
in students matches the issue of students’ lack of interest. Previous research has
also shown that teachers’ beliefs about a lack of student ability and motivation
can prevent those teachers from implementing certain learning or instructional
approaches. Roehrig and Lu (2004) and Wallace and Kang (2004) cited this
point as the most common constraint to uses of inquiry instruction and complex
laboratory assignments. Final examinations and students’ lack of interest and
ability were barriers that the science teachers in Friedrichsen’s (2002) study also
mentioned when talking about college preparation.
Two other themes emerged from the data as in uences on university preparation: background factors and knowledge. Relevant background factors were the teacher’s own experiences with the transition to university and/or having children that attended university. e in uence of these factors on whether and how teachers attend to university preparation likely re ects the absence of speci c guidelines for university preparation, as well as its absence from the national
Teachers’ beliefs and practices
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