Page 234 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

need for cognition, academic interest, and frequency of academic activities, which in turn raise students’ self-e cacy in their university success, which impacts their self-regulation skills. Moreover, this project may also directly enhance students’ self-regulation skills, because it is a form of authentic inquiry and thus requires self-regulation skills. Following from this, it can thus be advised that teachers in the upper grades of secondary school make a joint e ort to create a culture among both students and teachers that takes this research project very seriously. Furthermore, it would be bene cial to establish a set of agreed-upon guidelines for the design of this project and its evaluation and adhere to this structure, in such a way that it can actually be seen as a bridge to university, as Huijgen (2014) also proposed.
8.5.2 Taking the humanities and social sciences seriously
Fi y-nine per cent of secondary school students choose their coursework in the
upper grades of secondary school based on the eld in which they intend to pursue
a degree programme in higher education (Onderwijsraad, 2011). is means that
students who are interested in studying a language are likely to choose a culture
and society track, that many students who plan to pursue an economics degree
opt for economics and society, that students interested in the eld related to
health and biology will choose nature and health, and that students who envision
a future in the hard sciences are most likely to take on the nature and technology
track. However, in paragraph 8.2.2 we discussed the issue that science coursework
in secondary school seems to o er students a better preparation than humanities
and social sciences coursework for all degrees in university. is is problematic,
as one of the aims of the implementation of the four tracks in secondary school in
1998 was that students would be better prepared for higher education by making 8 it obligatory for them to take up subjects that together comprise a coherent whole
of coursework related to the higher education degree students will pursue a er graduation (Onderwijsraad, 2011). Following from this, taking on humanities and social sciences coursework in secondary school should prepare students optimally for a humanities or social sciences degree in higher education. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case, so in this paragraph, we will describe possible measures that could help to restore this situation.
First of all, changing the structure of the four tracks does not seem desirable. In 2011, the Council of Education investigated the possibilities of going back to zero, three, or two tracks, but concluded that there were no solid reasons for doing
Conclusion and discussion
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