Learning to be a university student: reflective practice and study strategies of future teachers

Every change in human life brings along an adaptation process. University transition includes most turbulent developmental periods of life as these years stand for the last stage of adolescence and can be considered as a critical transitional period both socially and biologically. In addition to the general confusion of adolescence, this period includes many problems such as leaving home and family, choosing friends and groups, being a candidate for a profession and finding a job. While making the transition to the academic life, students have to find their own identity, adopt and reconcile the values of the local and childhood period socially, the national and universal values of the society, adapt to the values of the society, and reach social maturity. Studying and learning in higher education often requires students to change old study habits and methods of retaining information. Numerous studies discuss that while many students successfully make this transition, others experience difficulties in adjusting to the academic and social requirements of the new environment (Zanniello, 1976; Kember 2001; Christie et al. 2008; Perry and Allard, 2003). According to Martins and Metzger (2017), it might be extremely difficult for these students to analyse learning challenges properly as information about future study challenges might not be useful to some students as in most cases they will be described as scientific concepts which the students themselves have not yet acquired and which are therefore hardly comprehensible. This chapter identifies and discusses the reasons affecting the transition of first year students into university life by pointing out the importance of initial orientation at higher education and it examines the understanding of learning strategies as procedures that the learner chooses to follow in order to have a more meaningful learning experience.