Page 33 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 1
self-e cacy: understanding (e.g., being con dent that you can understand university-level content). Based on these nine indicator factors we applied latent pro le analysis to test what the optimal number of groups was. Five groups were identi ed in the data. A year later, a er having collected data of part of the grade 12 participants a er they had entered university, we compared these ve groups on academic adjustment and academic achievement (GPA and EC). e meaningful di erences we found are discussed in this study. is study represents important knowledge, since not much research has linked student characteristics in secondary school to university outcomes. Furthermore, with this information about students, teachers could speci cally address certain factors that contribute to university readiness.
1.7.4 Chapter 6: Secondary school teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding university preparation
A er having found out more about factors that contribute to a successful transition to university in the previous three studies, a question that kept lingering was whether teachers in pre-university education were actually paying attention to preparing students for university. Previous research showed that perceived study skills preparation in secondary school concerning time management and learning skills had a positive e ect on university students’ study behaviour (Jansen & Suhre, 2010) and that students found their secondary school teachers helpful as to preparation for postsecondary education (Reid & Moore, 2008; Smith & Zhang, 2008). Moreover, the vast majority of teachers in pre-university education have attended university themselves, so they should have a clear image of what studying at university is like, which would help students form realistic expectations. But what attitudes, characteristics, skills, and knowledge do teachers believe students need in order to be ready for university? Do they explicitly deal with trying to develop these characteristics in their students? If they do, then how do they do this? Do they believe that this is part of their job? Are there any barriers that hinder them in preparing their students for university? In this study, we sought to answer these questions and painted a picture of teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding university preparation. Fi y teachers in the upper grades of pre-university students were interviewed. Transcripts of the interviews were systematically analysed by means of framework analysis. e framework we used to categorise teachers’ beliefs on university readiness attributes and university preparation practices was the four-key model of college readiness developed by Conley (2008). is resulted
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