Page 67 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

Chapter 3
Ability
From the indicators of ability, secondary school GPA was the most important predictor of GPA, EC, and persistence in Dutch and Flemish university education. All 16 studies that included secondary school GPA found positive e ects. ere were no studies with a professional education sample that included secondary school GPA. Secondary school mathematics GPA showed positive relationships with the three outcome variables as well, in two Dutch university studies. Intelligence did not have such a consistent e ect: One Dutch university study found a positive e ect on GPA and EC, but a Flemish study with a mixed university and professional education sample found no signi cant relationship with persistence.
Demographic characteristics
All Dutch and Flemish studies with a professional education sample (six studies) showed that female students performed better than male students. In studies using a university sample, only one study found a signi cant e ect of gender on GPA (whereas four studies found no e ect), three studies found an e ect on EC (whereas six studies found no e ect), and two studies found an e ect on persistence (whereas three studies did not). Flemish studies more o en found an e ect of gender than Dutch studies, always in favour of female students. For age, only investigated by four Dutch studies, one non-signi cant relationship and one negative relationship with GPA were found in university samples. Regarding credits, one non-signi cant and two negative relationships were found in university samples. A study with a professional sample found no relationship with credits. Hence, when signi cant e ects were found for age, they were in favour of younger students. Two Flemish studies showed positive relationships between SES and GPA, EC, and one positive and one non-signi cant relationship with persistence. In two Dutch university studies, two non-signi cant results were found for GPA, in addition to one positive relationship with EC. For ethnic background, two Dutch studies found that majority students had a signi cantly higher GPA and obtained more credits, whereas one Dutch study found no signi cant relationships with GPA and EC.
Prior education
A student’s level of prior education was positively related to GPA and EC in two Dutch university studies, meaning that students who entered university
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