STUDENT TRANSITION

Student's Successful Transition To The High School Environment



Student's Successful Transition To The High School Environment

Section 1-(literature review)

The most general definition of change is simply difference or alteration. Most people have either recently had or know of a family member or friend who has recently had a major change in their work or personal life. Some people even manage changes for their staff and organization. Either way, most people have some idea of the challenges and opportunities of coping with change and the process known as transition. Transitions impact each and every one of us, sometimes up to 20 times in our life span after key life-events. Coping with change is no new concept; it has been a fundamental issue to our continued existence for centuries. Luckily, most humans have evolved some sort of mechanism for adapting to distress and changes. Small changes can be triumphed over by learning. Large changes may test our individuality and entail letting abandoning profoundly held expectations. Transitions help us to make critical changes in how we vision the planet and act accordingly to our new world, good or bad. Since most changes occur suddenly and often take up to several years to work through, the largest part of individuals is not aware of the process. Transitions present key opportunities for personal progression. Nevertheless, they also entail areas of concern that can convert such opportunities into perils that can go wrong. We cannot shun change but we can learn how to maximize its benefits for our work and personal life.

One change that encompasses both of these areas of in our lives is the transition from high school to university. Throughout the last half of the twentieth century, numerous reasons have led teenagers to become progressively more aware of the importance of post-secondary education. Changes in the market, most markedly the growth of information technology and service industries and the decline of manufacturing and heavy industry, have toughened the idea that attending college is the key to a good job and a successful future. Universities and colleges have also become more prominent due to social changes and policy initiatives such as the bill of rights, student financial aid programs, and affirmative action admissions policies, all of which emphasize issues of like educational equality and encourage numerous previously underrepresented groups to consider higher education now more than ever . Another aspect elevating students' awareness of higher education is the media. From magazines to trendy television shows, young people are regularly showered with images of college and university life. Lastly, colleges themselves have devoted much more resources to aggressively recruiting prospective students using everything from mail pamphlets to high school visits.

All of these forces have combined to form our perceptions and often our expectations about colleges and universities. These beliefs about college can translate into how prospective students view postsecondary life and most importantly, how they react to the transition once they enter a college or university. This paper will examine my personal experience of transition into University ...