Transition to secondary school: relationship between changes in academic achievement and general adjustment

[摘要] English: Adolescence is a time of immense physical, cognitive and emotional development. Thistransition from childhood to adulthood begins with the onset of puberty. Puberty alsocoincides with the transition many learners have to make from primary to secondaryschool. This transition confronts adolescents with new educational environments andchallenges. Some adolescent learners experience a great deal of stress during this periodand are thus not able to maintain the same level of academic achievement as they did inprimary school. Other learners, however, appear to make the transition with very littledifficulty. These learners are able to maintain or even improve upon their previous levelof academic achievement. These differing experiences during the transitional period maybe due to differences in the learners' adjustment. Learners' study habits and attitudesserve as important coping mechanisms within the changing educational environment.Specific attention was also given to the role of the family, peers, school and academicskills during the transition from primary to secondary school.The sample consisted of 137 grade eight learners from four secondary schools in thegreater Bloemfontein area. The learners were divided into two groups on the basis ofwhether their academic achievement had improved or decreased from the end of gradeseven to the middle of grade eight. These two groups were then compared with respect totheir adjustment and general study orientation. The effects of gender, language andresidential status upon adjustment and general study orientation were also investigated.Attention was also given to the interaction between changes in academic achievementand each of the above-mentioned independent variables. The statistical analysis of thedata was performed by employing a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Ananalysis of variance (ANOVA) or post hoc t-test (Scheffé) was then used to determinethe direction of any differences that were indicated by the MANOVA.Significant differences were found to exist between male and female learners with regardto their general study orientation and certain aspects of their adjustment. Differenceswere also found to exist between English, Afrikaans and other language speakinglearners with respect to their adjustment and general study orientation. Although nosignificant differences were found with regard to changes in academic achievementdifferences were found to exist with respect to the interaction between change inacademic achievement and language. Differences seem to exist between the adjustmentand general study orientation of learners from different language groups whoexperienced an increase in academic achievement and those who experienced a decreasein academic achievement. Differences also seem to exist within the same language groupwith regard to changes in academic achievement. Based on these findings varioussuggestions for future research and development were made.

[发布机构] University of the Free State