Transition: From a school perspective

This paper considers transition and the transformation process from the perspective of the school. The paper suggests that a ‘Transition Charter’ is a useful way to smooth students’ passage to university. Introduction The vast majority of Haileybury College students move from school to study at first year university level. Just as it is important for students and their parents how well they perform in Year 12, it is also important how well they perform in first year at university. This is common for many secondary schools in Australia, so the issues facing Haileybury mirror those facing many schools. Research has now told us much about first year university performance. We know that despite the sorting process involved at university selection, a very large number of students have an unhappy first year experience. This occurs for virtually all universities and comes even where selection criteria are high, and is a widespread factor at first year study across courses and institutions. (Mclnnes and James, 1995). Students can have an “unhappy year” for several reasons n they cannot relate to the course or institution and drop out or fail and leave (about 15%); n they do not have a successful first year of study passing in at least 75% of their units (about 30-40%); n they do not have a level of performance comparable to their level of performance at school (70-80%); or n they succeed academically, but are personally unhappy, lonely or alienated. Fortunately the longer term university experience is much different, and many students come to perform well at university and enjoy their time there. But they often have an unhappy beginning, particularly in first semester. There are many views, and some research as to why this occurs (Pargetter et al 1999, Clarke et al Peel, Tinto, 1993 and HEFCE, 1997). It is probably due to some combination of the following factors: i) personal, social and community issues relating to young adults sorting out their personal lives, relationships with parents, living, studying and travel arrangements, and coping with social pressures and problems; ii) lack of information about the nature of university life and university study, lack of preparation for the university experience and for self-management, a failure to come to grips with the new institution; iii) mismatch between student and course, or between student interest and ability with choice of subjects, iv) loss of the support network which was so important in Year 12 consisting of school, friends and parents; and v) an inability to adjust to the learning requirements at university compared with those typically required in Year 12 at school. Many of these issues are well known, and have always been problematic for students. Some have in recent times had a greater impact with changes in senior secondary education, higher school retention rates, mass higher education and changed expectations at university and changing social conditions. Universities are becoming increasingly aware of these transition issues, and many institutions and course management groups have made very important moves to support students across the transition. (Transition offices have been established at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, and at other institutions. A number of conferences on transition have been held in Australia, such as “Transition to Active Learning”, jointly hosted by the Queensland Institute of Technology and the University of Melbourne at Ormond College, University of Melbourne, 3-5 July 1996. Ongoing interaction between Monash University and the school sector 1995-, and websites such as www.adm.monash.edu.au/transition! , and www.sc.edu/fre (University of South Carolina)). Generally there are good student support services, assisting in ways from study advice and subject selection, through personal counselling and support, to assistance with housing, legal, medical and financial matters. There are many attempts to orientate students into institutions and courses, to form new networks and find new friends, to cope with the operation of the institutions, the courses and the subjects, and to adjust to the requirements of managing the student experience. These occur at multiple levels, from institutional services, through student unions and organisations, to course advice, tutors and support staff. In more recent times there have been increasing efforts by institutions to try to have their expectations and requirements provide some connections with the experiences of the last year at school, for example the work in progress at Monash University through their learning and teaching plan. At least there is an awareness of issues such as assessment criteria, drafting and submission requirements, and standard of presentation and the authenticity of work that is submitted. While it would be untrue to think that universities have done all they could in these directions, there is now much more awareness of the issues and some significant attempts to address some of them. This is also in the context of universities taking teaching and learning more seriously, and rewarding excellence in teaching and intervening when unacceptable levels of teaching performance occurs. Nonetheless there is still a lack of training of the university teachers, and still a lack of adequate support and scrutiny of teaching performance. What seems clear from transition research from within the university context, where a charter of good practice is laid down for a course or a discipline or an institution, there is clear evidence that if that charter was followed in practice, the transition experience of first year students would be significantly enhanced (Pargetter et al 1999). Where does this leave schools in the transition process? From recent research we now know some more about transition performance (Work in progress at Monash University on qualitative measures of first year performance and the development of a transition index (1999): n we know that on average there is a direct correlation between Year 12 performance and first year university performance n we know that with female outcomes being superior in first year performance is about the same as in Year 12 performance n we know that there is significant variation in first year performance according to school of origin that cannot be reduced to either gender factors or Year 12 performance factors. Consequently it would seem that what happens at school matters, and that this is not simply a matter pertaining to Year 12 performance and gender factors. This suggests that a school could in an analogous way to the university level, develop a charter of good practice in preparing students for university study and for the transition beyond school. This kind of strategy though is speculative, as systematic research has not been carried out to support the principles of the charter. The project started by Monash University to provide to schools information about the performance of their students makes systematic research on this question possible. Information is in the form of a transition index which reports the average percentage of units passed in the first year of study for students entering Monash University coming from a school for a particular year, and which includes some benchmarking data to allow schools to evaluate this performance comparatively. The availability of such an index each year, together with local school data, will allow a school to evaluate the components of a charter and to compare transition performance. Here are some charter points which prima facie relate to the five factors which were identified as affecting successful transition. They also in large mirror features identified in the university charter for good transition practice. It will take research over the next five or so years to test whether this suggested charter is on the right track. a) Awareness. Some years ago it was common to present Year 12 students with the view that they were at the last great hurdle, and that university study would be easier, less work and more fun. This practice has pretty well stopped. Students need to be aware that there will be serious transition issues for them to face, that they will have trouble organising their own lives, they may be lonely, and they will need to take positive action to ensure they are prepared for and cope with change. It is also important that parents are aware of these matters, and that they do not adopt the “thank God it’s over” approach to finishing Year 12. They need preparation for continuing their support of their adult student sons and daughters, and instructions about how to provide that support. b) Early orientation. It is important that students are comfortable in and operate effectively in a university environment. This has two elements. First, during the secondary years there should be systematic opportunities to perform tasks and operate in ways typically associated with university study. Each study area has its own character, but some exposure to lectures, tutorials, library use, organisational tools, lab reports and time management would be obvious examples. This would involve access to a variety of learning spaces within the school. As Year 12 is a busy year and a pressure year, these activities need to start in early secondary years. Secondly, visits to universities, awareness of programs at universities and general familiarisation with a university campus should be part of the secondary program. It would be desirable to visit a number of campuses, perhaps a number of times. These visits should be systematic and relate to activities which have a positive value in their own right. Library research, special events, Junior University and use of university facilities for school functions would provide such opportunities. c) Course advice. It is important to ensure that the quality and completeness of course and careers advice is optimal. Again it is best achieved