The Four Transitions

Abstract

The four transitions we are considering here are: movement from a pure to an applied disciplinary context, from an international to a British national context, from full-time work to full-time work and part-time study, and from an historically under-represented background in higher education to an academic setting. The first of these transitions refers to students who, having taken a first degree in a non-applied subject such as physics or philosophy, then undertake a higher degree with an applied orientation. Movement is from a disciplinary base with an agreed set of methodologies and approaches to a new practice-based orientation. The group of students we chose for this strand were participants on a PGCE and were therefore training to be teachers; all of whom already had a first degree in a non-applied discipline. The second refers to the gap between an international student’s expectations about learning, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment and British higher education approaches to these matters. The third transition involves the addition of part-time study responsibilities to full-time work. Students may encounter a number of problems in making this transition, including those related to time, energy and commitment. And the fourth transition refers to those students who are undertaking Master’s-level study, but whose previous study and life patterns are different from those associated with ‘standard’ routes into postgraduate study.