Page 243 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 8
than their professionally-educated counterparts, although at the same time we must emphasise that these notions are not based on systematic research on di erences between professionally and university-educated teachers in their ways of teaching, but based on the di erences between professional and university education that we believe impact someone’s teaching. Moreover, we do not intend to overgeneralise: Some professionally educated teachers may be perfectly capable of contributing to the development of characteristics in students that are part of university readiness, whereas some university educated teachers may nd it di cult to do so. Nonetheless, university preparation may be easier for university-educated teachers.
First, some aspects that are part of university readiness, such as intellectual engagement (academic interest, need for cognition) and the academic attitude (the inquiry-based way of reasoning, critical thinking) are typical ways of being and thinking that need to be modelled. Teachers who have spent at least ve years (three bachelor and two master years) in university have been immersed in this modus, which will probably turn it into a characteristic mode of being, also in the classroom. is may include things like asking yourself questions, critically reviewing sources before you use them, correctly citing sources, and converting a random wondering into a research question. ese habitudes may not come as natural for teachers who completed a professional education teacher degree. Furthermore, university-educated teachers are more likely to be connected to the academic world, e.g., they are more likely to keep themselves updated on new research in their elds, which they can subsequently share with their students. Besides, they will know where to nd academic knowledge and how to do research. is implies that they will also be more capable of supervising students in their research project in the last year of secondary school. Moreover, looking back to the implementations discussed above that may contribute to university readiness, university-educated teachers may nd it easier to provide students with the academic rigor that students will encounter at university, discuss the content and value of their subject area as an academic eld, create authentic inquiry-based assignments, and use adapted primary literature in the classroom.
Apart from this bene t regarding modelling the academic attitude and sharing and teaching academic knowledge and skills, it will also be easier for university-educated teachers to manage students’ expectations regarding university and tell them about degree programmes in their eld. Even though these teachers, in particular the older ones, may not be up-to-date anymore about the current teaching methods and range of degree programmes, they can
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