Transition from high school to university: First-year students’ reading experiences

Reading & Writing

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Transition from high school to university: First-year students’ reading experiences
 
Creator Chimenya, Ulita M.
 
Subject — transition; first-year students; reading challenges; reading practice; critical literacy; additional platforms; reading discussions; reading workshops.
Description Background: Various studies have established that the transition from high school to university for first-year students is problematic. Research confirms that most students experience challenges with reading for meaning due to underdeveloped reading abilities.Objectives: This article investigates the first-year students’ transition from high school to university, focusing on their reading engagement as they shift from reading in schools to reading at university. The article draws from a bigger study conducted at a South African university, which focused on teaching reading strategies among first-year multilingual students.Method: A qualitative approach was used in the study. Two lecturers and 48 first-year extended degree students were purposively selected. Theoretically, the article draws on academic literacy to establish how first-year students’ transition from high school to university can be further improved by creating space for them to actively participate in additional reading platforms to enhance their reading abilities.Results: Among other factors, the article established that first-year students experience challenges with transition due to the following reasons: the complexities and more demanding nature of academic texts, the heavy workload at university, independent learning, and time management.Conclusion: The results reveal that the current interventions to assist first-year students regarding academic reading are inadequate, which means more strategies should be put in place to achieve a successful transition to university space by first-year students.Contribution: Additional reading platforms meant to introduce first-year students to various academic literacy conventions and facilitate a successful transition from high school to university are suggested.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor University of Johannesburg Faculty of Education Department of Education and Curriculum Studies
Date 2025-06-03
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative Approach
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/rw.v16i1.517
 
Source Reading & Writing; Vol 16, No 1 (2025); 10 pages 2308-1422 2079-8245
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/517/1381 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/517/1382 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/517/1383 https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/517/1384
 
Coverage University of Johannesburg; Gauteng 21st Century 54; Female; African
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Ulita M. Chimenya https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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