The aim of the Field Study described in this Report
was to examine the nature of primary-secondary transition
as perceived by students themselves. Twelve students from
four A.C.T. primary schools were interviewed prior to their
entry to one or other of two high schools, and subsequent
interviews were conducted at intervals during the students'
first six months in high school. Further information was
obtained from interviews with their parents and from formal
and informal assessments made by their primary and
secondary teachers. To place the trends revealed in the
interviews in a wider context, surveys were administered
at the beginning and end of the six months' period to all
Year 7 students in both high schools.
A major emphasis of the Study was an investigation of
how students cope with new tasks, social and academic, at
a time when there is a potentially stressful conjunction
of early adolescence and major educational transition.
Such coping is conceptualised as the individual matching
his resources against the demands made by a new situation.
The initial appraisal by students of the new situation
was a general perception of high school as either benign or
threatening. The more differentiated, or secondary,
appraisal was influenced by further information and
experiences; and re-appraisal was characterised, after a
further lapse of time, by either a reinforcement or reversal
of original perceptions.
It was found that upon moving to the more complex
institutional setting of high school some students had
difficulty in adjusting to a more formal organisation and
a more demanding curriculum. The students' response to
high school included such coping strategies as hostility,
withdrawal or active striving to meet the challenge of a
new school. Some students who showed a marked inability
to cope with one or more of the tasks, social or
academic, of high school were deemed to have experienced
adaptive failure.
A key factor in adjustment to high school, and one
that was at least as important as academic achievement,
was that of interpersonal relationships. Success in
relating to both teachers and peers was found to be a
crucial factor for students, whether bright or less
bright, and it was found that students of limited academic
achievement could find compensation if they perceived
their "person environment" as benign.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219321 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Sen, Veronica, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Teacher Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Veronica Sen |
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