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Transitions into higher education : gendered implications for academic self-concept.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>09/2003
<mark>Journal</mark>Oxford Review of Education
Issue number3
Volume29
Number of pages16
Pages (from-to)331-346
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of the transition into higher education upon facets of students' academic self-concept. Drawing upon data collected from undergraduate students at three universities in the north of England it considers the question: does moving from a relatively small pond (sixth form or college) where many students are likely to feel like fairly 'big fish', to a larger pond (university) where most students are likely to feel like much 'smaller fish', affect academic self-concepts? Results suggest that self-concept changes are gender-specific. Overall, female students displayed a significant decline in academic self-concepts in some domains over the transition into higher education, whilst the self-concept levels of the men did not change significantly. A number of possibilities are explored to explain the gendered nature of this finding.