Page 20 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Introduction
demotivated (e.g., Heublein et al., 2017). Research thus con rms the importance 1 of these four keys for readiness for postsecondary education, and it is clear that
secondary school students di er substantially in these keys, and consequently in
their level of college readiness (Kless, Soland, & Santiago, 2013).
In this thesis, we look at several factors of university readiness that can be assigned to these four keys, e.g., students’ cognitive engagement with learning (cognitive strategies) and their use of metacognitive and self-regulated learning strategies (learning skills and techniques). Moreover, we focus on many motivational aspects, such as academic interest and academic self-e cacy, which Conley also classi es under learning skills and techniques (Conley, 2012).
Important to bear in mind is that like Conley’s model of readiness, this thesis focuses on the academic side of the transition. While acknowledging that social and emotional aspects also play an in uential role in the process of making the transition from secondary school to university (e.g., Pitmann & Richmond, 2008; Wintre & Ya e, 2000), this is beyond our current scope. In addition to the need to demarcate the research project, an important reason to focus on the academic side of the transition is that research consistently showed that academic adjustment is a more important predictor of postsecondary success than social adjustment (Rienties, Beausaert, Grohnert, Niemantsverdriet, & Kommers, 2012). Furthermore, our interest lies in student characteristics, which means that we do not take into account learning environment characteristics, although these also play a role in the transition. Torenbeek (2011) found, for example, that if the learning environment in university was slightly more student-centered (e.g., active involvement, many assignments) than in secondary school, students were more successful.
1.5 Theoretical background: Theories and constructs
It becomes clear that hardly any research in Europe speci cally focuses on university readiness. Due to this limitation in available research, the theoretical framework that underlies this thesis mainly draws on research on rst-year student success – in addition to the transition theory and the model of college readiness discussed above. Two main student success theories are discussed below, followed by an overview of individual constructs that (may) impact secondary school students’ university readiness and university students’ achievement and persistence in the rst year.
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