“I miss being spoon-fed”. A comparison of transition from school to university education from the perspective of undergraduate pharmacy students

Background: The transition from school to university can be challenging and there is increasing concern among academics that students are inadequately prepared for entry to university courses.Aims: To investigate students’ views on transition from school to university education.Method: A focus group was conducted with first-year students and analysed using thematic analysis. Students were invited to participate in an electronic questionnaire; responses were analysed via SPSS for Windows. The Mann– Whitney U test was utilised with p<0.05 set as significant.Results: A response rate of 60% (88/147) was obtained for the questionnaire. Differences included staff-student interactions, learning methods, examination preparation and feedback provision. Many (85%) agreed that the main emphasis in school was on examination preparation; 29.6% considered this to be the case at university (z=-8.315; p<0.05). Most students (95.4%) considered the feedback they received at school helped improve performance; this decreased to 50% when asked about feedback at university (z=-8.326; p<0.05).Conclusion: Students appear to be insufficiently prepared for the demands of higher education. They desire various aspects of their university educational experience to be more akin to that of school, including: a greater level of individual attention, increased access to teaching staff, and further clarification and transparency about the standard required to pass exams. Further work can now be done by academic staff to aid the transition and improve the learning experience.

Letter regarding a special service held by DeVeaux School to re-inter the body of Mrs. Maria Woodruff

Letter (2 page typed form letter with a handwritten note from Don Loker) regarding a special service held by DeVeaux School to re-inter the body of Mrs. Maria Woodruff, the first wife of Judge Samuel DeVeaux. Her body was originally buried at DeVeaux School in Niagara Falls, New York. The location of the ceremony was the cemetery in St. Davids, Ontario. Maria died on April 23, 1815 at the age of 19. This notice was sent by Rev. Alec Pudwell, chaplain of DeVeaux School, Niagara Falls, New York, May 6, 1963.

From school to work. 'De la escuela al trabajo'.

Proyecto educativo indicado para el nivel de Educación Secundaria. El cuaderno propone conocer los vínculos entre la escuela y el mundo del trabajo para así facilitar la inserción laboral de los alumnos que acaban los estudios. Para ello se estructura en cinco fichas, que proponen a partir de unos objetivos a conseguir, unas actividades. Las fichas están orientadas a desarrollar la autoestima y la confianza en el alumnado. Este proyecto pone al alcance de los estudiantes unas herramientas básicas para enfrontarse al mundo laboral y les da la oportunidad de ponerlas en práctica, aunque sólo sea de manera fictícia.

Managing the transition from school to university: a challenging or stressful experience?

Times of transition are stressful for most people. In this study, the aim was to investigate the stress reported by students as they commenced university, and to investigate whether stress levels, use of coping strategies, the availability of social support, and mood and anxiety differed among students who had moved house to commence university and those who had not. Results from 551 students indicate that 88% of them rated the level of commencing stress above the mid-point on a 5-pt Likert scale but there was no difference between students living at home and those not so, neither did these groups differ on their perceptions of available social support nor their use of coping strategies to deal with commencing university. There were however, gender differences on the use of appraisal of the stressor with females utilizing appraisal more so than males. Students who changed residence to study reported higher levels of depressive symptoms but not of anxiety symptoms. The strain of moving house and a deterioration in living conditions predicted scores on the stress of commencing university. These results are discussed in tenns of student welfare.

From learning to earning : the school-to-work transition of Australian graduates

Aims to investigate the transition of graduates from school-to-work through the triagulation of three data sets. A 3-stage model based on what graduates "want", "do" and "get" in their first job was designed. Findings revealed causality between the three stages.

Numeracy test item readability during transition from pre-school to school

A key test used in Australia to assess the mathematical knowledge of young children uses illustrations of objects such as coins and three-dimensional shapes. This study explored the effects of giving 104 kindergarten children, aged 4-5 years, the questions with either moveable objects or illustrations. It
was found that children who were categorized by their teachers as having “higher levels of numeracy” scored well on test questions using either illustrations or objects, while children who were categorized as having “lower levels of numeracy” scored higher with objects than with illustrations. This result could have implications for consideration of test item readability in relation to graphicacy.

Connecting literacy learning outside of school to the Australian Curriculum in the middle years

The complexity of teacher’s work is manifest in the divergent use of digital technologies in and out of school. This paper explores the logical step of connecting students’ out-of-school mediated literacy learning to the content descriptors of the Australian Curriculum. The study uses published evidence from four previous studies of young people to demonstrate the diverse ways that out-of-school practices can be linked to literacy learning in the Australian Curriculum. We frame this linking of informal literacy learning to the Australian Curriculum by highlighting the ‘funds of knowledge’ children bring through the school gate. 

Constellations of Disadvantage and Policy Dilemmas in Youth Transitions from School to Work in Bulgaria

In the past years there has been a growing concern in Europe with the drawbacks in youth transition from education to employment and social participation more generally (European Commission (EC) 2001

From school to work: A comprehensive model of work-related motivation in the transition to working life.

Motivation is a core concept to understand work related outcomes and vocational pursuits. However, existing research mostly focused on specific aspects of motivation, such as goals or self-efficacy beliefs, while falling short of adequately addressing more complex and integrative notions of motivation. Advancing the current state of research, we draw from Motivational Systems Theory and a model of proactive motivation to propose a comprehensive model of work-related motivation. Specifically, we define motivation as a system of mutually related factors consisting of goals, emotions, and personal agency beliefs, comprised by capability beliefs and context evaluations. Adapting this model of motivation to the school-to-work transition, we postulate that this motivational system is affected by different social, personal, and environmental variables, for example social support, the presence of role-models, personality traits, and scholastic achievement. We further expect that students with more autonomous work-related goals, expectations of more positive emotional experiences in their future working life, fewer perceived barriers to their career development, and higher work-related self-efficacy beliefs would be more successful in their transition from school to work. We also propose that goal-directed engagement acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between motivation and a successful transition. Finally, we hypothesize that work-related motivation while in school will have meaningful effects on positive outcomes while in vocational training, as represented by more work engagement, higher career commitment, job satisfaction, and lower intentions to quit training. In sum, we advance the point that the adaptation of a broader concept of work-related motivation in the school-to-work transition would result in more powerful predictions of success in this transition and would enhance scientific research and interventions in career development and counselling practice.

The role of chance events in the school-to-work transition: The influence of demographic, personality and career development variables

Chance events are considered important in career development, yet little empirical research is available on their predictors and consequences. The present study investigated socio-demographic (gender, nationality, school-type), personality (openness, locus of control) and career development variables (career decidedness, career planning) in relation to perceived chance events with a retrospective (N = 229, eleventh grade), and 1-year longitudinal prospective study (N = 245, eighth/ninth grade) among Swiss adolescents. The results showed that the majority of both groups reported a significant influence of chance events on their transition from compulsory school to vocational education or high school. Importance of chance events related to socio-demographics and personality but not career preparation. Career preparation and chance events predicted subjective career success in terms of wish correspondence and overall satisfaction with transition outcome among the younger cohort. Implications include the necessity to integrate both thorough career preparation and chance events in theory and counseling practice.