Enabling learners starts with knowing them - Student attitudes, aspiration and anxiety towards science and maths learning in an Australian pre-university enabling program

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mimi

Pre-university enabling programs in Australia support students who are underprepared or disadvantaged to reach university study, yet educators need to understand learners’ evolving needs beyond academic gaps. This study surveys students entering the OnTrack enabling program on attitudes, emotions, and aspirations toward science and mathematics, linking responses to perceptions of prior learning experiences. Findings show a mismatch between expectations for future study and realities of degree choices and career aims. The paper recommends social and emotional learning and targeted teacher training to address affective needs and protect satisfaction, expectations, and retention.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages28

Reading Time1 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background

Study Focus and Rationale

Learner attitudes, emotions, aspirations

Link to past learning experiences

Mismatch between expectations and outcomes

Implications and Recommendations

Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 58, Number 1, April 2018 Enabling learners starts with knowing them: Student attitudes, aspiration and anxiety towards science and maths learning in an Australian pre-university enabling program Joanne G. Lisciandro, Angela Jones, Peter Geerlings Murdoch University Pre-university enabling programs provide an important pathway to university for underprepared and disadvantaged students. In order to adequately prepare students for their university journey, enabling educators need to understand and respond to the evolving needs of their learners; not only their academic disparity, but also their past learning experiences and perceptions towards particular subjects. In the current study, students entering an Australian enabling program,‘OnTrack’, were surveyed on their attitudes, emotions and aspirations towards the study of science and mathematics. Responses were associated with student perceptions of their past science and maths learning experiences. There was incongruity between student expectations of what future study would entail and the realities of their degree choicesand career aspirations. This study suggests the need for social and emotional learning and teacher training. Greater attention should be given to both student’s affective needs and their understanding of future course content during their enabling education experience to 14 Joanne G. Lisciandro, Angela Jones, Peter Geerling redress negative emotional learning experiences and safeguard student expectations, satisfaction, and retention in the future. Keywords: enabling program, affective domain, attitudes, emotion, science, mathematics Introduction Background Over the past several decades, Australian universities have undergone significant transformation. Historically, a university education was reserved for the elite minority, however contemporary universities now provide more accessible tertiary qualifications for an increased proportion of the community and from a broader socio-cultural spectrum. This was, in part, driven by the Federal Government’s widening participation agenda (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent & Scales, 2008) and the rise of non-traditional pathways to access university, including government-assisted enabling programs (Gale & Tranter, 2011). The Higher Education Support Act (2003), defines an enabling course as ‘a course of instruction provided to a person for the purpose of enabling the person to undertake a course leading to a higher education award’(DotAG, 2003, p. 215) . For universities, this describes pre-university courses originally designed to prepare mature-age and disadvantaged student groups for degree-level courses. However, an increasing number of students of school-leaving age are now also entering universities via enabling programs. Interestingly, these younger people include those who have not completed secondary schooling due to socio-cultural reasons (Ross & Gray, 2005), and those that Hodges, Bedford, Hartley, Klinger, Murray, O’Rourke and Schofield (2013, p. 16) suggest are ‘becoming somewhat strategic and selecting enabling programs as a legitimate pathway for Higher Education’. Indeed, enrolments in OnTrack, the principal enabling program at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, have increased steadily and considerably since its inception in 2008 (Lisciandro & Gibbs, 2016) . In parallel with increasing enrolments, the aspirations and undergraduate study choices of OnTrack pathway students also Enabling learners starts with knowing them 15 diversified over time, with a higher proportion of students choosing to undertake undergraduate study in a variety of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, instead of predominantly the arts and social sciences (Lisciandro & Gibbs, 2014) . This is paradoxical given recent national trends indicating declining numbers of students pursuing STEM-related careers and tertiary study more b

FAQs

What enabling program context does the study focus on?

The study examines OnTrack, an Australian pre-university enabling program at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.

How were students’ attitudes and emotions studied?

Students entering OnTrack were surveyed about their attitudes, emotions, and aspirations toward studying science and mathematics.

What key mismatch does the study identify?

It finds incongruity between what students expected future study to involve and the realities of their degree choices and career aspirations.

What does the study recommend to address the findings?

It suggests strengthening social and emotional learning and teacher training, with greater attention to students’ affective needs and understanding of future course content.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mimi