Page 200 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Although interesting for future research, investigating di erences between
elds or programmes was not the intention of this study and the sample was not
su ciently large to do so. Looking at the relatively high GPA, and the relatively
small variance of measures as self-e cacy and academic adjustment that we
found, it seems likely that the sample was biased towards the better performing
students. We know from research on response bias that it is a familiar problem
that higher-achieving students are more inclined to complete surveys than their lower-achieving peers (Sax, Gilmartin, & Bryant, 2003). erefore, it is important
to validate these results with a larger and more diverse sample. In this regard,
especially the absence of a link between self-e cacy and academic adjustment
would be worthwhile to re-investigate. If the variance between both factors would
be increased the model may behave di erently. ird, we measured all variables
at one point in time, which makes it impossible to detect causal relationships
and to map processes. Many of the proposed linkages in the conceptual model
could arguably be turned around, e.g., academic adjustment could in uence self-
e cacy. To determine causal relationships, it would be worthwhile to conduct
more longitudinal research that starts measuring motivational and behavioural
variables in secondary school and investigates how they relate to adjustment and
student success outcomes later in university, like we did in Chapter 5. Moreover,
to build on the results of this chapter as well as on the ndings reported in Chapter
6 on teachers’ university preparation practices, research should investigate
whether secondary school teachers’ practices that aim to contribute to students’ development of self-regulation are e ective. Moreover, study choice is crucial; 7 students who are dissatis ed with their chosen programme are at a high risk to
quit. Researchers could provide a clear image of what teachers and advisors in secondary schools on the one hand and universities on the other hand currently are doing to help students make suitable choices and how they could improve those choice processes.
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