Abstract:
In response to the 2008 Bradley Review recommendations Murdoch University designed an educational program to provide an alternative entry pathway for low-SES Year 12 students who may not qualify for university entry through the conventional Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR). This program, TLC110 (TLC), developed at the university's Teaching and Learning Centre, is an intervention that attempts to engage Year 12 high school students at a transitional stage of cognitive development in order to: a) determine their readiness to move to the next level of their cognitive thinking; b) facilitate that process through collaborative learning; c) support and nurture university aspirations, and d) provide a direct transition pathway from secondary to higher education that does not require additional post-secondary training and assessment. This paper describes the TLC program, and considers the theories of Lev Vygotsky, Mikhail Bahktin and Homi Bhabha, which influenced the intervention. Furthermore, it outlines the progress of TLC graduates in completing their first year university units; it compares the academic performance of TLC-entry students with their ATAR-entry counterparts during the same period; and it compares the retention and progression rates of both of these cohorts. Using comparative (de-identified) university enrolment and performance data from the years 2011 to 2013, this paper will show that TLC students have: the capability to achieve university entry; the academic ability to perform favourably when compared with ATAR entry students, and the perseverance to advance to the second year of university study.