Page 212 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

very hard but lacks this curiosity and urge to gain knowledge. From our results in Chapters 4 and 5 we could also tie background factors to these types of students: e curious but disengaged pro le is a typical pattern of male students taking science coursework in secondary school, whereas the engaged but less curious pro le more o en ts girls who are taking a humanities/social sciences track. As these pro les already become clear in secondary school, secondary schools could contribute to students’ university readiness by making sure students get more ‘balanced’; i.e., that the curious but disengaged are challenged in such a way that they would have to put in more e ort into their schoolwork and learn how to learn and that the engaged but less curious gain genuine academic interest.
Research question 2: What role do secondary school teachers play in preparing
students for university?
Chapter 6 focused on secondary school teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding
university readiness. Interestingly, teachers’ beliefs on what it takes to be ready
for university were in line with our results as discussed above: ey most o en
mentioned learning skills and attributes such as perseverance as necessary
attributes for success at university. is can be summarised as behavioural and
cognitive engagement factors, but teachers also o en referred to intellectual
engagement, or, in their words, curiosity. Nonetheless, most teachers did not pay
much attention to the development of these attributes, even if they considered them
as important readiness aspects. Fewer than half of all teachers paid attention to
developing students’ study skills and only ve per cent tried to stimulate students’
curiosity. What teachers mainly did by way of university preparation consisted
of answering students’ questions and providing information about studying at
university and about speci c degree programmes. Neither were most teachers 8 consciously occupied with university preparation; it was not a goal that o en
crossed their minds. e current role of teachers in their students’ preparation for university is then a small, implicit one. When explicitly asked, however, most teachers claimed to nd this preparation very important as well as to be willing to do more about it. eir role could be made more substantial and explicit, if only more awareness of the need to better prepare students for university were to be created within secondary schools. Furthermore, there are important barriers to be broken down, such as the (perceived) clash between university preparation and examination requirements and the lack of knowledge about what universities expect from rst-year students.
Conclusion and discussion
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