Abstract
Transition pedagogy has had a major impact on the first year experience for higher education students in Australia. Similarly, there has been a significant focus on transitioning students from their final year of study to employment. Considerably fewer studies have sought to understand the “middle child”; the years in between the first and final year of study. Staff at a metropolitan Australian university noticed an increase in students struggling with university life after the first year of their program, with students purposefully withdrawing from courses or their program entirely. This article reports on focus groups held with staff and feedback via a student survey. Findings suggest the challenges faced by students in second year are multi-faceted, and curriculum and delivery should be intentionally designed to support students through a series of transitions throughout the university journey.
Highlights
A positive first year experience is vital for students to engage in their studies and progress through their program
Students Unprepared for Study Beyond First Year Participants spoke about their belief that students were unprepared and unwilling to take responsibility for their learning and they attributed this to the “hand holding” they believed occurred in the student’s first year of study
This study provides some support for this proposition, but the authors note that many students did not utilise formal support programs available and seemed unaware of the curriculum design affordances made by first year courses to aid their transition into university
Summary
A positive first year experience is vital for students to engage in their studies and progress through their program. It is a mandate for universities to ensure a duty of care and improve student retention. Transition pedagogy (Kift & Nelson, 2005) has reshaped the first year experience profoundly improving the success of students who have engaged with university from all walks of life. The purpose of this article is to report on a research project that sought to understand concerns raised by program directors at a large public Australian university. Transition pedagogy is a framework for the deliberate and scaffolded development of curriculum to support the success of first year university students from diverse backgrounds.
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