Scope of project

The starting point for this section of the project is the recognition that university educators need to try and understand the differences between school and university, with particular regard to how they can best orient their students towards continued and enhanced learning in their first year of tertiary study. There are experiences and difficulties in the transition from different secondary school teaching and learning environments which require a fine-grained analysis, and re-evaluation of data collected in other situations. There is also much disagreement across faculties, and even between academics in the same discipline, as to the end product of the transition. There is a need to establish a clear consensus about the skills and attributes required by successful tertiary students for their particular discipline, and how those requirements differ from the entry attributes of first year students. Identification, classification, description and documentation are required. A successful transition requires a goal to aim for.

In this stage of the project, a more fine-grained analysis is undertaken, which adds more concrete qualitative and quantitative information to the evidence gathered in Stage I, especially by:

• analysing research published nationally and internationally on student transition, attrition and performance, including that based on different theoretical models centred on different discipline areas and student categories, and exploring its relevance in the Australian context;
• incorporating interviews and other indicators of personal experience which provide ‘first-hand’ testimony on transition problems, and allow students to reflect at length on both their experiences and the kinds of programs which would best serve them;
• identifying general and specific transition factors related to the different teaching and learning environments;
• matching for cohorts of Monash students data on their personal characteristics and their secondary and university academic performance to enable the influence of various factors to be measured and tested statistically; and
• tracking a representative set of students through the various stages of their first year on campus, rather than relying on ‘snapshots’ of quite different cohorts at those various stages, and also analysing data on their expectations and first year experiences (from questionnaires).

Such an investigation and analysis of a more complex set of influential factors, which can be generalised across the tertiary sector, will assist in identifying more accurately the relevant and key problems of students undergoing transition, and the specific institutional practices and procedures which best overcome them. Accordingly, this project’s Stage II significantly augments earlier studies as well as the information gathered in Stage I, and it provides Stage III with the kinds of information needed to verify key factors on a larger scale and thus identify and measure institutional best practice. In the longer term, this analysis and information is also essential in the design and implementation of comprehensive strategies for managing transition in a variety of tertiary environments.

At the very least, the transition from school to university involves adjusting to different learning environments and assessment systems, different perspectives on discipline-based knowledge, and different teaching practices. The divergence between school and university is likely to increase as middle and senior high school curricula, teaching methods and learning outcomes develop under the momentum of innovations in ‘learning areas’ models and other strategies for enhanced learning.

Much of the research into transition suggests that the objective of appropriate strategies should not be to make transition seamless, but to make it intelligible. Secondary school students commonly express a strong desire for a meaningful ‘transition experience’, and expect significant changes in their learning experiences to accompany tertiary study. These students expect to be active partners in the adjustment to university learning, and therefore programs to assist them can and should be based in the first instance on enhancing and confirming their responsibilities and skills as independent learners. With a wider range of data on specific student experience of transition, universities will be better placed to make confident predictions about transition issues and to develop better strategies for addressing them.

Related studies which have informed this project and activities at Monash highlight the following general transition problems:

• the differences between learning objectives and strategies for enhancing learning in secondary school and university, particularly strategies for recognising and developing specific intellectual and learning skills;
• a lack of immediate goals for students who have just achieved the goal of university entrance (a goal that for many was both long term and emotionally highly significant), leading to a lack of motivation and direction;
• unfulfilled university expectations of competence in and familiarity with specific content and core conceptual and theoretical understandings within different disciplines;
• an inability to translate skills and study habits into the tertiary environment during the transition process;
• lack of preparation for, and knowledge of, differences between school and university academic standards, study expectations and subject content;
• inappropriate or inaccurate expectations of university education developed by and among Year Twelve students and Year Twelve teachers;
• inappropriate or inaccurate expectations of student life, workloads and study habits among Year Twelve students;
• lack of transparency and clarity in university assessment objectives;
• the impact of part-time work, domestic responsibilities, social independence and managing income on adjustment to university study;
• inappropriate or inaccurate expectations among university teachers of entering students, or a failure to adequately specify expectations in such tools as assessment criteria and the provision of course information;
• poor university recognition of ‘non-traditional’ or ‘new’ academic skills stressed in senior high school learning (for example in information technology, visual comprehension, the analysis of representations, or collaborative learning,);
• the role of social factors (such as gender, cultural and ethnic background and urban/rural location) in transition and in expectations of university study; and
• significant changes in the social climate of learning, especially the provision of informal learning opportunities and interactions between students, peers and teachers.

Peel’s research with over 900 final-year secondary students at 26 different Victorian schools in 1996 indicated the following additional issues as potential factors in transition for a cohort expecting to enter university in 1997:

• inadequate preparation for the independent learning expectations and demands of tertiary study, exacerbated at particular schools and among some students by a teacher- or tutor-dependent and risk-averse learning process in years eleven and twelve;
• a significant information gap between universities, secondary teachers and secondary students concerning course structures and academic expectations, leading to inaccurate expectations of vocational and career outcomes identified with particular courses and subjects, or to inaccurate assessment of flexibility in course selection;
• a significant information gap in perceptions of appropriate introductory materials and activities, with universities pursuing a range of technology-intensive information strategies, while secondary students and teachers tend to stress the importance of interactive discussion between university teachers and students, university counsellors and course advisers, secondary teachers and students, and parents;
• increasing distance between the tightly-organised, supportive and pastoral environment of the senior school and the more fragmented, self-reliant environment of the university;
• secondary student expectations of, and desire for, a significant experience of social, academic and intellectual transition, their association of tertiary entry with fundamental life changes, and their expectation that tertiary institutions will somehow deliver these life changes; and
• significant differences between schools, to some degree independent of the social composition of the student body, in all of the above factors, based on:
• school-based strategies for explaining and predicting ‘transition problems’ or incorporating student performance beyond the secondary school in the definition of the school’s responsibilities;
• the degree to which independent learning is fostered or not fostered in senior years;
• the status and function of careers and post-secondary destinations counselling; and
• the forging and maintaining of links with individual university faculties, departments and teachers.

Peel’s 1997 research on this same cohort used detailed questionnaires and focus groups to assess the extent to which these factors, and the general transition problems outlined in the literature, affected student performance and adjustment in a range of tertiary environments during 1997. Because he tracked students from Year twelve into university, Peel is able to shed light on the particular issue of whether varying levels of preparation, expectations and experience of university (through various institution- and faculty-based school information and liaison strategies) have measurable impacts on the transition experience and on successful adjustment to university teaching and learning. Moreover, the research also tests a range of hypotheses concerning the links between successful and unsuccessful transition and: different secondary school environments; different faculties and campuses within tertiary institutions; and different tertiary institutions. This research will provide an important adjunct to Stage II of this study, and its relevant findings¾ detailed in Chapter 8¾ have played a major role in revising and defining our conclusions and recommendations.

In addition to the above, ongoing research by Dr Ian Macdonald and other researchers at the Faculty of Education at Monash has indicated that:

• tertiary teaching staff generally have a very poor understanding of fundamental teaching issues, and commonly have an undeserved complacency about their teaching skills;
• tertiary teachers commonly have unrealistic expectations of their students and maintain a 'golden halo' attitude toward the glory days of the past (usually their own peer group);
• lecturers in charge of courses rarely take tutorial or practical classes, and have little awareness of how students are coping with the courses they devise and deliver until final examination results come in;
• tertiary institutions sometimes have a culture that promotes research far above teaching in its importance to an academic's career, leading to a dismissive attitude to teaching skills ('if you can't research you can always teach...'), and a 'blame the victim' approach to first year students' inability to cope with tertiary study;
• research into the teaching of a subject area is regarded as of inferior status to research into the area itself, with the result that few academics attempt to improve their teaching in any substantive or effective way;
• despite policy statements of universities most academic staff do not believe teaching skill is a significant issue in promotion;
• there is a lack of awareness of the importance to the funding of departments (and hence their research opportunities) of attracting and retaining able students; and
• in many faculties postgraduate students with no teaching training are being used to run tutorial classes, although these classes have been found to be the most important learning environment for undergraduate students. In some cases these post graduate students--uncertain about course direction and content, poorly paid, educationally uninformed and with little understanding of their role in the learning of the students--carry the brunt of the teaching burden.

Macdonald considers that there are two distinct but complementary actions that can be taken to assist student transition to university: improvement in university subject design and teaching approaches, and greater attention to students’ independent learning skills and general capacity to cope with the current university situation.

In combination with the enormous general literature reviewed in the next chapter, these studies show the wide range of factors which institutions must taken into account when identifying the kinds of transition problems most likely to be experience by their students. Moreover general and especially longitudinal studies demonstrate the striking diversity of students’ experiences. We can identify widely shared problems, and general practices which are likely to be useful in easing them. We can also identify particular groups of first-year students who are likely to suffer general problems more acutely and to experience specific barriers to successful transition, and the more specific strategies suited to those students. At the same time no general strategy can hope to encompass the great range of individual needs and it is important for institutions to consider how to focus on individuals transitions irrespective of their group characteristics.

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