From Hero to Zero … and back? The journey of first year access students in mainstream programmes

M.M.Vosloo and S. BlignautASSAf Mind the Gap, 21-22 October 2010

2

Cognitive gaps?

Matric (average of group):84% Maths, 70% Science, 75% English

NBT:Half Proficient AL, ~60% Intermediate M, QL

Conceptual understanding: very diverseLacks basic fractions, do not respond to remedial teachingBasics but not modeling, making a formulaProficient in procedures but complacentProficient and critical thinkers

Lacked:Vocabulary to reason about complicated shapesConcept of proof, logical argumentationSpatial reasoning skillsAppreciation of the need for rigour

Conceptual; LS MeansCurrent effect: F(6, 75)=3.0683, p=.00969

Effective hypothesis decompositionVertical bars denote 0.95 confidence intervals

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Conceptual

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

June A

vera

ge

Assessment: Ukuqonda Institute

3

Affective

Skills

Knowledge, cognitive

Theoretical framework

Schooling University Employment

PassReady

PassReady

Gap

LanguageStudy methods

Approach to learningTime management

IdentityAgency

Social integrationResilience

Fail

National Benchmark Tests

Matric Results

Na

rra

tive

s,

Se

ns

eM

ak

erT

M

Knowledge

Conceptual understanding

Academic literacy

First testsHalf-year results

Evaluation of conceptual understanding

4

Skills and affect

Language: ~10 percentage points for written, slightly less for spoken

Study methods: working: 63%, had to adapt 55%, not working 46%

Vision:half needed glasses (new or different), lost ~3 percentage points where those who didn’t gained ~5 percentage points

Living arrangements:university residence, relatives or alone ~6 to 8 percentage points compared to private residence or commune

Don’t want to disappoint: Myself ~8 percentage points

Numbers refer to average June performance

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Background characteristics

Sasol bursars2/3 from large town, suburb, city11% have one parent deceased8% private res, commune28% with parents, relativesFinancial security, skill masteryFirst language

61% lectures ,59% written materials

Language difficultylectures 2%, materials 5%

Sasol Inzalo Foundation bursars2/3 from township, small town, rural village18% have one, 8% both parents deceased39% private res, commune11% with parents, relativesMaking a differenceFirst language

30% lectures, 22% written materials

Language difficulty lectures 20% materials 24%

2%7%

13%

53%

25% One or more of my familyhave a post-grad

One or more of my familyhave a degree

First person to study beyondMatric

Other

No answer

10%

34%

39%

11%2% 3%

One or more of my family havea post-grad

One or more of my family havea degree

First person to study beyondMatric

Other

No answer

First person gone to school

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Difficulties experienced in school

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Experienced no serious difficulties

Fitting in

Participating in sports was hard

Concentrating on an empty stomach

Other children made fun of me

Getting good enough grades

Making and keeping friends was hard

Physical conditions at my school

Talking to teachers and askingquestions

Teachers did not like me

Sasol Foundation Others (as seen by Sasol bursars) Others (as seen by Foundation bursars)

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University is totally different from High School the system here makes me feel stupid i'm really not used to struggling this much and worse of it time wont wait for me,never thought i'll struggle to get a passing mark.Having sleepless night meant passing with really good marks but now i even fail after those sleepless nights,it's really heart breaking to experience this. ”

“At school math was great. I had always attained the highest marks in the grade and had even participated in external math competitions. Now I couldn’t even pass.”

“I am a shadow of my former glories”“I am a small fish in a big ocean” “I have fallen prey to some of universities greatest blood sucking demons”

I had no time for those legendary parties that I had heard so much about. School math had in no way prepared me for university math. But now that I know what to expect I know I’ll do better next semester. Provided that by some miracle I managed to pass math last semester and get to keep this bursary.”

“I know my mother wont be able to pay for my fees and Sasol Inzalo opened another door for me by giving me this chance of studying at one of the best universities in our country,this made me feel so proud of myself and my family is really proud of me and they just don't believe me when i tell them about how i'm not coping because to them i'm their little daughter who is so smart who never brought a disappointing (report)results who always find a way to be a top student.”

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“You feel like the waves are just gobbling you up. I saw many of my close friends and classmates deregister or decide to drop everything because they say they cant cope and they say that they'll come back next year and repeat the same course. I mean whats the use of you repeating the whole thing all over again! Things wont change they'll still be the same, rather suck it up, pull your socks up and find a solution because when that thing strikes again in your later life you cant give yourself a year to solve it or to come in terms with it, do it now or forever hold you peace.”

“But I told myself …”“I suddenly remembered …”“I began to wonder how did I come so far off track the path I thought I was on?”“I’ve learnt that …"“Life as a first year student is so unpredictable the experience is so amazing ,life changing

one thing you don’t want to miss in life .I’ve been through stress, complaining crying you can name them all but that’s first semester and I am done with it! All I said was “WITS pushes me to the edge it doesn’t give me the edge” but now it’s the second semester, the last block of the year as a first year student and I keep on telling myself “WITS doesn’t owe me anything , I am the one who have to earn my Degrees.”

“ Passing the majority of my subjects has helped me to believe in myself again. I have a zeal to study again. It seems that I have brought to life a part of me that was once dead. I have found through observing other successful that success lies in your hunger for it. When you really want something you do not allow anything to stand in your way““The week before starting the second semester. I wrote down ideas that could help me

archive academic excellence. Things I might have been told before but never really believed in. One can imagine that on my list of ideas I would write things like “time management” and techniques on “working hard”, well I didn’t. On a paper I wrote things that made me happy and sad over the first 6months on the year. To my surprise, I found that nothing made me happy anymore. I realized that I was in a sphere of negativity. This was a shocking discovery to me. All my life I’ve been studying hard to get to University, study Mining engineering and get a bursary. I had all that but I was not happy!”

“The second semester has brought new confidence in me, a new fighting spirit in me has been unleashed; things were not going my way but i had a new spirit inside me that wanted to fight and that felt that i belong where i was (at university) and that i was destined to be an Industrial engineer. I feet like this is my chance to make my parents proud and to take control of my life and not accept failure and defeat. ”

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Effectiveness of interventions

Psychosocial supportStarted with on-campus, switched to anonymous counseling support

Peer mentoringPiloted using non-Inzalo senior students; also in university residences

Topics covered in workbook surfaced in turn-around stories

Planning to strengthen these structures for students in private residences and communes

Winter seminarNew approach to solving problems a turning point in approach to studies

Return of self-confidence

Positive identity impact, not only acquired skills

Made friends and started new support networks

Investigating different formats to achieve similar result at lower cost ….

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Other interventions

Language: ~10 percentage points for written, slightly less for spoken

Study methods: working: 63%, had to adapt 55%, not working 46%

Vision:half needed glasses (new or different), lost ~3 percentage points where those who didn’t gained ~5 percentage points

Living arrangements:university residence, relatives or alone ~6 to 8 percentage points compared to private residence or commune

Numbers refer to average June performance

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Advice from one of the students

A list of things what you should tell to prospective engineering students before they decide to go study at a University: (I only did some of it, I wish I did more of these things before I studied Engineering....)

• Studies in engineering is hard work, work from day one. (...and choose your friends wisely...friends who understand that you are a Engineering student and not a BA student...other engineering students and theology students make the best friends

• Be curious and explore certain areas in science, maths and engineering, you will be rewarded at University. (I wish I knew this...especially with the maths...huge gap between Matric and University.)

• See if engineering is your thing, work for a couple of weeks at a Engineering company. You will know for sure if it is your thing. (Working at Tuiniqua Consulting Engineers for 8 months was fun...I really miss it now.)

• I you live near at University while still in High school... make use of it, go sneak in a few classes. Nobody is going to notice, there is many students in a class. Stellenbosch University is easy to sneak in as a prospective student, it is part of the town :-). That way you can get a taste of engineering before you study. Lots of students freak out the first time the step in class. (I wish I had the privilege to live near a University when I was still in school.)

• ...and please do not compare yourself to other students. Believe in yourself.

• Remember do not give up...you chose engineering...stay positive :-)

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Concluding remarks

Increased diversity in every classroom poses a challenge

Struggling students may be in the wrong course (for them)

Penalties for struggling in the first semester are harsh Especially as experience shows that many students find their feet only in the second semester

Interventions have unintended and unexpected effects in addition to the original objective

A range of support mechanisms are needed as positive change is triggered differently for different students

Access students can be successful in main stream courses, if they are supported through the “dark night

of the soul” they are likely to experience in the first year

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Sasol Inzalo Foundation thanks:

Cynthia Kurtz

Ukuqonda Institute

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“It’s a rough ride, but I still keep riding! ~ Anonymous The first semester for me was a total different ball game to what I’m used to. Everything was so different, the school, the lectures, being away from home and finding new good friends. Studying and keeping up with the University "teaching" phase was so difficult for me. The tutorials, consulting with lectures and dealing with how everything was done. I thought University was going to be challenging, but I always thought if I could study hard and do things the way they were done at High school, I would make it. My first test at the University was such a nightmare. I failed the test, I could not believe it!!!.. I called my mom, crying. I was so disappointed in myself. I felt like I had disappointed everyone, myself, my parents, and my sponsor too. I went to school and repeated the same mistakes again, the reason I’m saying that is because I failed the next test too. This time I made up my mind that I had to deregister the course. Maybe I was not good enough for this Engineering Degree. Maybe just because I was good in Maths and Science in high school didn’t mean I could do it at University. I started losing hope in myself, feeling like a failure and giving up on everything. The next morning I was having an interview with the study trust founder, I was so scared. I didn’t know how I would explain to him that I’m failing; I’m not what they were looking for in this bursary. As I walked into the small office, he smiled at me. I stood up, not even sure I was worthy to seat on the chair placed there for me. He told me to seat down. Asked me how I was. I smiled at him, told him I’m fine because it’s an ordinary reply to the question. He asked me how where things going, I hesitated to answer the question, just seemed like a trick question. I told him things are not going so well, I told him I have been failing my tests and I was even considering leaving the course. He opened his laptop, read out my grade 12 results loudly to me, he then looked at me and said “you were chosen over thousands of applicants for this bursary, we believed in you and we still do”. He then reached into his brief case and took out a paper with words of inspiration. As I was about to leave, he smiled at me and said “I understand, and I know you will work harder”. I walked out that room knowing I could survive, I can pass, I can make it….. A month or two later from that conversation, I was writing my June exams. Some exams I wrote well and others I didn’t. I then realized I started a new learning technique a bit too late. I had not given myself the opportunity to see what the problem was, but I spend the time studying the wrong way, or the way I used to study at High School. I cannot make up for the mistakes made from the first semester; I can only learn from them and improve on them. Sometimes I feel I don’t deserve to be where I am, but sometimes I just know it’s where I’m supposed to be and I’m grateful to God for that. “