Transitions to University
Welcome to the Transitions to University materials pack!
This materials pack consists of plans for four lessons; they have been designed by university staff, with the support of secondary school teachers and pupils, with the aim of giving young people a more concrete and realistic idea of what to expect from university. The lessons do this by introducing interactive tasks, which are built around podcast excerpts from interviews with secondary school and university learners and staff.
Ultimately, we hope that it will enable young people to make a more informed decision about what the option of university really entails, and therefore whether going down that path is right for them, by encouraging them to think critically about the stories and experiences of others.
How do I use it?
The lessons have been designed with utmost flexibility in mind: there are many options available to teachers as to how they can be used.
- The lessons can be used in any order
- You can choose to complete all four lessons, or if you think that one or two of the lessons are going to be particularly relevant for your learners, then each can be used as a stand-alone entity.
- You could use a lesson as directed to fill a whole class, or you could extract specific activities to stand alone, if you only have a shorter period of time (e.g. 15 minutes) available.
- Even if planning to work through a lesson in full, you may still choose to select only some of the podcast excerpts for each lesson, instead of using them all, if you feel that this makes the most sense. You may pick and choose from those that are available, selecting the ones that you think will be of greatest interest / relevance to your learners (we have indicated next to each excerpt the duration in seconds, to give you a sense of timing).
- You should of course feel free to adapt the suggested tasks in any way you see fit for your own learner cohorts.
We suggest that these lessons could work well in Health and Wellbeing classes; assemblies; additional sessions which are dedicated to preparing those learners who are interested in moving onto university; or indeed other curricular areas as you see fit.
We have designed these materials largely with upper-secondary learners in mind, although we feel that they could also be of some interest to younger learners too, should teachers be exploring post-secondary options with these cohorts.
Lesson One
→ Excited or daunted - how are you feeling about university?
In this lesson, we hear from pupils and teachers about common attitudes / beliefs that young people have about university, as well as from university students and staff.
Lesson Two
→ Feeling (un)prepared for university…?
This lesson makes clear some of the very universal concerns that young people have around feeling prepared for university, and talks about some solutions / reassurances. In this lesson, we hear from students and staff at university, about how best to prepare for making the transition to university.
Lesson Three
→ A day in the life of a university student - getting to know what university is really like.
This episode aims to demystify the university experience, by talking about some of the typical day-to-day experiences that students encounter. We hear from university students and staff.
Lesson Four
→ How can I get the most out of the university experience?
This episode aims to arm young people with information about how they can make their time at university work best for them; they’ll be hearing from university students and staff, who are offering advice based on the benefit of their own experiences and expertise.
Glossary
Here are some key terms that are used in the podcast excerpts, with brief definitions:
Asynchronous learning: a situation where students can engage with educational content and materials at their leisure (contrasts with “synchronous learning”, where teachers and students work together at a designated time)
Course convenor: the member of university staff who organises and leads a specific course (note that this terminology might be slightly different at each university)
Distributed practice: this is a strategic way of learning and revising, which is based on the idea of “little and often” (e.g. studying a subject for one hour every day, over the course of a few weeks / months)
Impostor syndrome: the experience of feeling unsure of yourself and that you are unworthy of being in a particular situation / position / place.
Lecture: a type of class at university, usually involving a large group of students, where the focus is on the lecturer delivering information on a given topic.
Lecturer: the member of university staff who is delivering a lecture
Moodle: a virtual learning platform used by some universities.
Seminar: a type of class at university, usually involving quite a small group of students (i.e. typically no more than 20), where the focus is on interacting with the seminar tutor and the other students, to discuss a specific topic in great depth.
Top Up: a course which helps prepare young people for going to university.
Transitions to Glasgow / T2G: a preparatory course run by the University of Glasgow, to help incoming students adjust to all aspects of university life.
Tutor / Seminar tutor: the member of university staff who is leading the seminar group discussion
University societies: these are clubs / groups that students who share a common interest / hobby can participate in.
We would love to hear your feedback!
Once you’ve used these materials, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Please feel free to share your feedback here.
Contact us
If you have any questions about these lesson plans, then you are welcome to get in touch with the designers: