The transition to the academic environment: between difficulties and coping strategies

Abstract

After numerous reforms or attempts at reform, after much publicized efforts for change in education, Miroiu (1998) considers that Romanian education still operates according to an intellectualist model, according to which the most valuable mental faculty in education is the rational one. Faced with problems of school maladjustment, school failure or even school dropout that ruled out the involvement of cognitive factors, schools began to consider the possibility that these issues may be the consequence of subjective factors related to motivation, emotional balance or the ability to cope. In this context, there is the question of cultivating such skills in students that, on the one hand, reduce the likelihood of maladaptive behaviour and, on the other, help shape a balanced, creative and autonomous personality. Our study is based on the desire to investigate the possible relationship between the level of students’ adaptation to the academic environment and their academic performance record. We used the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), an instrument created to measure the level of adaptation of students to the university environment. The general scores obtained by the students from the 1st year and from the 3rd year are analysed in a comparative way.