Discussions of student transition from the study of languages in UK high schools to the study of languages at university usually focus on the vertical transition, comparing the differences in curricula and approach to languages taken in each sector. Whilst acknowledging that this aspect of the student transition is important, this article explores the transition in a broader disciplinary context by raising questions about how other subjects students have studied before entering higher education may help or hinder the transition. As (...) well as drawing on relevant literature in the Arts and Humanities field, we also discuss the findings of a case study, which investigated the views of students and teachers in one English university and one English high school. (shrink)

This article continues the debate about the transition from school to university begun in the international forum in volume 2 of this journal and developed in the thoughtful response from Michael Marland in volume 2. It examines some of the many points made there in relation to students’ own views. Interested colleagues at different institutions were invited to issue a short questionnaire to first-year undergraduates studying English, to discover how well prepared they felt for specified aspects of this transition. Some (...) of the outcomes have discipline-specific implications, but others may be applied more widely. The article focuses on students’ responses to the different teaching methods used, the amount of reading required of them, and essay writing. It identifies areas where the transition is fairly smooth, but highlights others where student responses suggest that all those involved, including policy makers and politicians, need to rethink. (shrink)

This article considers the transition from school to university in Music and Music Technology, continuing the discussion of transitional issues which began in Volume 2 of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. The focus of the article is a survey of undergraduates, examining areas that were key to their first experience of studying for a degree, such as entry qualifications, course choice, career prospects, difficult aspects of the course and aspects they felt well-prepared for. These data were supplemented with teacher (...) and lecturer interviews and a university staff questionnaire. The findings demonstrate that student perceptions of undergraduate music study are sometimes at odds with those of the university staff. In the light of the changing nature, interests and needs of these students, it is timely to rethink both what it is intended to achieve and how this is going to be assessed. (shrink)

Attitudes of university teachers to learning support for first-year students are likely to influence whether the first year is a positive experience. In this study, teachers in the first year of a Bachelor of Arts programme were asked about their perceptions of the importance of supporting first-year students, the adequacy of current practices, and the problems facing first-year students in the Faculty. Responses indicated a general recognition of the need for first-year students to develop as independent learners and the need (...) for adequate orientation and good communication with students. However, there were indications that some teachers assume that first-year teaching does not require any special strategies or techniques and that more needs to be done to ensure that students are supported to develop as independent and autonomous learners. (shrink)

This article feeds into the discussion of transitional issues begun in Volume 2 of Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. It draws on research into A-level students' expectations of university English and how these compare to the experiences of first-year students, university lecturers and A-level teachers. The data presented are drawn from innovative focus group sessions which gave pre-higher education and first-year university students a range of exercises to encourage them to focus on their expectations and experiences of studying English. (...) These data were supplemented with teacher and lecturer interviews. The article concentrates on students' expectations of independent study and the experience of reading. The findings show that there is a mismatch between student expectations and the realities of university study. It is hoped that the outcomes of this research will contribute to a more informed transition from school to university by informing students' expectations before they enter university. (shrink)

This article reviews the five contributions to the Forum on ‘Access and transition to higher education’ in Volume 2 of this journal, and considers the needs of all potential undergraduate students–especially those from backgrounds from which students have rarely come, including the most disadvantaged. The article reflects upon secondary school curricula and pastoral care provision, and also on the need for more specific tuition in key skills in the courses offered by universities.

This article addresses the complex issue of lecturers’ subject knowledge and teaching. It explores the subject knowledge models of Banks, Leach and Moon and of Grossman, Wilson and Shulman . The article then delineates how these can be used in the development of robust teaching models of the subject. It also suggests how these models can be used to develop a scholarly view of teaching and how this may impact on student transition and development. The article emerges from a study (...) of teaching and learning in English Literature departments within the UK higher education sector, but it draws conclusions and offers recommendations applicable to teaching across the Arts and Humanities in and beyond the UK context. (shrink)

This article considers the transition from A-level to degree-level study from the schoolteacher’s point of view. It highlights the conflicting subject philosophies that exist at A level, and the resistance to the revised English of Curriculum 2000 that has been apparent in debates about the nature of English Literature post-16. Its main argument is that teachers of English in higher education need to be alert to these issues in order to understand the difficulties that first-year students often experience, recognizing that (...) the ‘problem of transition’ is as much a problem of epistemology as of pedagogy. (shrink)