8th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference

Dealing with diversity

Call for Paper/Proposal Submission form

Section 1: Personal Details

Title: (Prof/Dr/Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Dr First Name: Branka

Surname: Spehar

Position: Senior Lecturer

Organisation: School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales

Address: Sydney

State: NSW Postcode: 2052 Country: Australia

Phone (W): +61 2 9385 1463 Fax: +61 2 9385-3641

Email:

Section 2: Conference Papers/Poster Sessions/Roundtable discussions

Session Title: First Year Experience

ڤ I wish to submit a paper on one or more of the following general areas:

q  Transition and adjustment for diverse student populations
q  Strategies and innovations in teaching and learning for diverse student populations
q  Diversity of student populations / q  Support systems and programs for diverse student populations
q  Policy directions
q  Program management and coordination

ڤ I wish to submit a Nuts and Bolts Discussion

ڤ I wish to submit a Poster Session

ڤ I wish to submit a Roundtable Discussion

X I wish to submit a Poster

ڤ Other - Please specify ______

Section 3: AV Equipment Required

ڤ Data projection
ڤ Overhead projector and screen / ڤ VHS player and monitor
ڤ 35 mm slide projector and screen / ڤ Audio cassette player
ڤ CD player

Section 4: Agreement

I allow these papers to be published both on the Internet and also in the conference proceedings

Signature: _Branka Spehar______Date: __22/03/2004______

Transition to university success among first year psychology and biology students at the UNSW: gender, language background and mode of delivery

Branka Spehar1, Gail Huon1, Paul Adam2 & Will Rifkin3

1 School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052

2 School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052

3 Science Communication Program, Faculty of Science, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052

Our project investigated success in transition to university, at both the point of initial contact with the university and at the end of the first session of study, in a large sample of first year students at the University of New South Wales enrolled in First Year Psychology and Biology classes. Given the heterogeneity of students and their backgrounds, we examined similarities and differences in their reported first year experience related to gender, language background and discipline (Psychology vs. Biology). In addition, we examined whether differences in students’ experiences were associated with the overall mode of delivery of course material that students were engaged with. We found that language background (whether English was a first language) was the most significant predictor of transition success at both the beginning and at the end of first session. Gender, studying with other students and the use of some, but not all web-based study resources emerged as additional significant predictors of transition success as measured at the end of session. Some discipline-related differences were observed.

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