Week 4-Educational Transitions Flashcards
What did Cheng et al. (2015) say about change?
“Change is something that happens to people, and they may or may not agree with it. Whereas change can happen quickly, making an effective transition when faced with change can often take longer.” (i.e., effective adapting can be a long process)
What are educational transitions? (Perry & Allard, 2003)
“Educational transition can be understood as the internal process in the mind which takes place when students undergo change and pass from the familiar to the unknown, responding to cultural, social and cognitive challenges.”
What is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory?
■ Chronosystem: The pattern of environmental events and transitions over the life course, which may help to explain the dynamic nature of transitions.
■ As a learner increases in independence, the levels of complexity in terms of their interactions with the world increase in complexity (i.e., your world gets bigger with more people in your life).
■ Each transition contains more risk to the individual; but also more possibilities (i.e., no one chases you up at university so it is all down to you).
■ Any number of these interactions could then become a confound (surprise)
What are educational transitions? (Part 1)
-Developmental stages and key milestones, are prominent across educational transitions i.e., universal for everyone (Gottfredson, 1981).
-Most young people experience several significant transitions from and to different educational experiences (Ginzberg et al., 1951).
-Transition points/life stages of children or young people are most defined by age (Ginzberg et al., 1951).
-Adult transitions tend to be fuzzier and related to institutional transitions e.g. parenthood (Hall, 2002).
-Educational institutions mark the transition of the graduates with pomp and
circumstance (Akos et al., 2004).
What are educational transitions? (Part 2)
-Not an individualised process (i.e., not unique) - affect more than just the person undergoing transition.
-Students adapt to and acquire schools (or universities) way of thinking and feeling and behaving (Fabian, 2000).
-”Readiness” - Does the individual have the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to adjust and be ready for the learning task (Hughes et al., 2015).
-Each transition means a change to normalised routine, patterns of
behaviour alongside shifts in identities and relationships (for neurodivergent individuals this could be a huge challenge).
What are some factors involved in Successful school transitions? (Weldy, 1991)
- Communication e.g., applying through UCAS
- Cooperation e.g., lecturers come up to talk we come up to listen
- Consensus e.g., uni decided we matched their qualifications
- Commitment (showing up to uni and working hard)
What is the school starting age in different areas of Europe? (Eurydice, 2013)
■Age 4 - Northern Ireland
■Age 5 - United Kingdom
■Age 6 - 18/27 EU countries Plus Norway, Iceland and Turkey
■Age 7- Sweden Finland Lithuania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia
What is the School starting age in Poland (Herbst & Strawiński, 2016)
-In 2008 the government voted to lower school starting age from 7 to 6.
-Three groups of children: six-year-olds compulsorily enrolled, six-year-olds voluntarily enrolled, and seven-year-olds compulsorily enrolled.
-Found six-year-olds started with lower skills than seven-year-olds, however younger pupils catch up to average level.
-Those enrolled in the compulsory term, made up a 1/3 of the original differences.
-For reading, this difference became non-significant, and for maths, students caught up more quickly than reading.
How does a persons birth month affect starting school?
■Most schools use a single cut-off date usually at the start of September.
■Some schools have two or three cut-off dates, usually December March and August.
■Hence, a class could contain children almost one year different in age.
What have studies found when investigating the impact of birth month with starting school?
■Using PISA data in France and Spain, where students start in January, Pedraja et al., (2015) found that students were significantly more likely to repeat a grade if they were born September – December.
■Dhuey, et al., (2019) used school data from Florida, compared students born in September versus August. They found that the difference remains around 0.2 standard deviations difference in test scores even when a wide range of factors (including redshirting (keeping someone back intentionally so they have a greater advantage when they start) and SES: socioeconomic status?) are controlled for.
Is there an optimum age for starting school?
-Most longitudinal studies find these differences reduce and even disappear
over time. However there are many cofounding factors including:
■ Number of siblings (helps with development of language)
■ Socio-economic status (can mean less time spent with children)
■ Time spent in kindergarten / nursery/ childcare
■ Parental education
■ Range and balance of ages within the class
-Boereboom and Tymms (2018) concluded that for students in New Zealand the optimal school starting age varied according to each individual child (i.e., successful educational transitions are different to the individual).
What were children’s viewpoints on starting school?
■Focus group study with 105 Canadian children discussed starting school – children talked about starting school in terms of growing up and getting bigger (Di Santo & Berman, 2012) (this was also evident if children had an older sibling).
■Australian study asking children what was important when starting school children identified knowing the rules and the physical environment (Dobson et al.,).
What is the move to secondary school like?
- The international starting age for secondary school ranges between 11 and 14 depending on the country (World Bank, 2016).
- Limited access to secondary education in some developing nations persists especially for girls and those in extreme poverty (so successful educational transitions are removed for some).
- The secondary school environment is much larger than primary school and there is more responsibility given to students to manage their academic work and navigate their way around (Coffey, 2013).
What are some of the main changes in high school?
■Larger environment
■Multiple teachers
■Transition to “big” school
■Puberty
■Homework
■Exams
What is adolescense characterised by? (Styne & Grumbach, 2002; Martin et al., 2015).
Adolescence is characterized by substantial biological, cognitive, social-cognitive, and social-organizational changes that mark the beginning of the transition to emerging adulthood and which have significant educational implications e.g., puberty
What are the stages of secondary school associated with?
–Year seven (11/12) is associated with excitement.
– Year eight (12/13) with mundane routine and a dip in motivation + puberty.
– Years nine to eleven (13-19) with preparing for examinations.
What factors are important for the transition to secondary school?
■Waters et al., (2014) examined secondary transition in Australia and found that support from peers was the strongest predictor of children’s positive expectations of transition, but the presence of parents (in terms of being around before and after school) was the most powerful predictor of a positive transition experience.
■Friendships are important in the transition to secondary school as nervous feelings that children have can be relieved by having friends and friends and can help instil a sense of belonging in the new environment (Darrah, 2013).
What did interviews and focus group data reveal about worries in secondary schools?
-Students express concerns about getting to class on time usual workloads finding correct rooms, opening locks and lockers, drug use, office referrals and ensuring personal safety (Akos, 2002).
-Teachers worry about students maturity levels effects of peer pressure, adolescent physical development, reduced parent involvement and a lack of basic skills (Arth, 1990; Schumacher, 1998).
-Parents worry about all of the above in addition to the social concerns of having an adolescent child (Akos & Galassi, 2004).
What have homework studies found?
-15 year old Chinese students complete at least 14 hours of homework per week compared to 3 hours for 15 year old Finnish students (this is based on the whole country however). This is due to the fact that Finnish children have longer school days
■ There is only a weak relationship (if any) between homework and achievement at junior school (Cooper & Valentine, 2001; Kohn, 2006).
■ Homework is consistently positively associated with academic achievement particularly school performance at secondary school (Cooper et al., 2006).
■ Parents, teachers and (to a lesser extent) students report that homework is designed to build a sense of personal responsibility and study skills (Xu & Yuan, 2003).
■ Students can find homework engaging when it is authentic and centres on solving real-world problems (Shernoff et al., 2003).
■ Homework does not affect all students equally. The practice of homework “appears to further disadvantage the already disadvantaged” (Kralovec & Buell, 2000, p. 70) e.g., due to lack of technology resources at home.
Give some examples of student quotes
■“Now I understand the expression ‘not enough hours in a day.’ In a day, I want to be able to do homework/study, have time with friends and family, and do activities that are important to me. I don’t always feel I have enough time for this, and I feel pressured” (difficulties with balance)
■“I’m stressed because I have so many pointless, mundane assignments that take up large amounts of time without actually learning anything in class. I don’t mind working if I’m actually learning something.” (feels education isn’t beneficial to self).
