Page 235 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 8
so: A er conducting quantitative research among secondary school students and qualitative research among school directors, they reported that reducing the number of tracks would not lead to substantially di erent choice patterns by students nor would it increase the e ciency of the organisation of education (Onderwijsraad, 2011). In fact, the interviewed school directors pointed to the value of the four-track structure as a good preparation for higher education. Following from this, we would like to argue that it is not so much the structure as the content of the tracks that leads to a suboptimal preparation for humanities and social sciences degree programmes.
One explanation why secondary school science students perform better in university than humanities/social sciences students may be that better achieving students at the end of grade 8 choose a science track. is process of self-selection then leads the weaker students to choose a humanities/social sciences track, triggered by the image of this track as being easier than a science track (e.g., Visser, 2014). is is especially the case for the culture and society track. is negative image may even discourage overall high achieving students who are interested in culture and languages to choose this track, maybe because teachers or parents say this track would be a waste of their academic talent. eir arguments may well emanate from the fact that a science track provides access to more degree programmes – including humanities and social sciences programmes that hardly have any speci c requirements. Also, they could arise from the fear that humanities and social sciences tracks will not provide them with su cient challenge. e rst important step, therefore, is to improve the image of humanities and social sciences coursework and emphasise that, although di erent from science coursework, it is by no means less valuable. is is di cult, as the value of these elds is o en put up for debate in society, and for considerable time, it has actively been promoted by organisations such as VHTO, Platform Bètatechniek, and Techniekpact to opt for a science track. is was due to the demand for more highly educated science professionals and the global issue that girls, compared to boys, were less inclined to choose science, even in the case of similar achievement in science subjects (e.g., Wang, Eccles, & Kenny, 2013). ese initiatives seem to have been successful, as the number of students choosing science increased (CBS, 2017b). is inevitably led to (image) loss for the humanities and social sciences. What should we do then? As the need for science professionals remains, students should de nitely not be discouraged from choosing science, on the condition however, that they are genuinely more interested in science subjects than in humanities/social sciences,
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