Preparing school/college students for success in

university study

Dr Harriet JonesUniversity of East Anglia

Students are not prepared for university

What skills to they lack?

What can be done about it?

Universities are designing basic skills courses for undergraduates, to teach alongside the normal undergraduate subject-specific teaching.

Is this a problem?

This is not what universities are for.

Students arrive at university keen to be stretched and challenged.They are finding themselves having to take lessons in basic writing and numeracy.

This lack of skills is not confined to state schools.Higher grades at A level are no indication of skills.

Schools could help develop skills needed for success at university

Knowing skills are for their next stage in life may help

Skills...

What are the most basic things students should be able to do before coming to university?

Reading

Reading speedKathryn Bigelow has become the first woman to win the best directing Oscar, as her Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker took six prizes, including best film. "It's the moment of a lifetime," said Bigelow - only the fifth woman to be nominated in Academy Awards history. She praised her fellow nominees "who have inspired me for decades", and paid tribute to those in the military. Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock won the top acting Oscars for their roles in Crazy Heart and The Blind Side. Bridges, playing a hard-living country singer, beat George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner and Britain's Colin Firth to win with his fifth Academy Award nomination. "Thank you mum and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession," said a delighted Bridges, 60. "This is honouring them as much as it is me.“

From the BBC news web site

Checking your reading speed

Kathryn Bigelow has become the first woman to win the (10) best directing Oscar, as her Iraq war drama The Hurt (20) Locker took six prizes, including best film. "It's the moment (30) of a lifetime," said Bigelow - only the fifth woman to (40) be nominated in Academy Awards history. She praised her fellow (50) nominees "who have inspired me for decades", and paid tribute (60) to those in the military. Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock (70) won the top acting Oscars for their roles in Crazy (80) Heart and The Blind Side. Bridges, playing a hard-living (90) country singer, beat George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner and (100) Britain's Colin Firth to win with his fifth Academy Award (110) nomination. "Thank you mum and dad for turning me on (120) to such a groovy profession," said a delighted Bridges, 60. (130) "This is honouring them as much as it is me.“ (140)

Working out your reading speed

Take the number you got to multiply it by three.

This is the number of words you are reading in one minute.

Deciding why you are reading

1. To build up knowledge of a topic.2. To build up an understanding of special

terminology.3. To be aware of the writing style used in a specific

field.4. To weigh up what different writers say about a

topic.5. To evaluate the credibility of a text source.6. To develop your own ideas – to think critically

about texts.

Writing

How to construct a paragraph:

1. It needs to have a topic sentence.

2. The information needs to be in a logical order.

3. The sentences must have a clear focus with correct grammar and punctuation.

4. Connectives need to be used to show evaluation and analysis.

5. The final sentence needs to link into the next paragraph.

Insects have jointed appendages, such as legs and mouth parts, which enable sophisticated movement and handling food. Insects have wings which allow them to fly. The success of insects is down to their ability to fly, their ability to live in terrestrial environments and their life cycle which can include a significant change in what the insect looks like, called metamorphosis. Adults specialise in dispersal and reproduction while the juvenile stage specialises in feeding and growth. Worms have no appendages and cannot live in environments without moisture. Some go through a metamorphosis, where the adult specialises in growth and reproduction while the juvenile specialises in dispersal. Insects and worms have a body which is divided up into segments. This enables specialisation along the length of the body and more controlled movement.

An exercise to teach paragraph structure:

Universities should not be teaching basic writing skills.

Universities are there to help students develop argumentative and persuasive writing skills, supporting a view point with evidence from primary sources.

Writing at university

Maths and numeracy

Students should be able to:

Make an estimate of the answer without a calculator.Rearrange equations without using the triangle method.Have confidence to take a problem based around words and translate it into equations.Have confidence to tackle unfamiliar problems.

Lots of universities have set up their own web-based maths tutorials to improve levels of maths and numeracy.

Many students assessed on arrival show low levels of numeracy

For maths and numeracy.......

Standard qualifications do not always reflect ability in the numerical and mathematical skills required by universities.

It is very hard to judge the numerical ability of students from their GSCE and A level grades.

Maths skills

What would help universities......

School pupils need to revisit basic numeracy throughout their time at school and be able to:

- work without calculators so that they understand numbers.- rearrange equations without using the triangle method so they understand what an equation means.

Learning skills

Using sources of information – assessing the value of different sources, extracting information and using it effectively.

Acknowledging sources – knowing when and where to reference.

Extracting information - from written and verbal information, making notes and revision notes.

Do things on their own – independent learning. If they don’t understand they need to look things up.

What universities value most

Independent learning

A drive to discover

A thirst for knowledge and understanding

UEA and Wymondham High School have put together a programme which helps students prepare for university learning.

www.preuniversityskills.com

PreUniversity skills – eight one-hour lessons for teachers to teach in school

A CPD course

-trains teachers to teach the course

Next training session is in Birmingham on 18th June

Most of the skills covered by this programme link in with general studies.

Schools are teaching the PreUniversity Skills programme in general studies, tutor time, between AS and A2 etc....

Skills are valued by universities and employers, and also benefit A level studies.

Teaching skills in schools...

In summary......

Students need a better preparation for university than is currently being delivered.

University skills can be taught alongside other sixth form studies.

Students need to arrive at university with an appreciation of what will be expected of them and ideally some sort of strategy.