Do teaching and assessment methods at post-16 adequately prepare students for independent learning in Higher Education? Are students’ prior perceptions of assessment and feedback at University accurate and does this impact upon transition and retention? If it does impact, what can be done to help ease transition? Some researchers have conjectured that post-16 students experience difficulties early on in higher education partly because of the differences in teaching and assessment methods between school/college and university, and that school does not adequately prepare students for university. This research set out to identify if assessment and feedback methods within compulsory and post-16 education adequately prepare students for independent learning in Higher Education. Or, whether the preparation in schools is too narrow for the demands of higher education, giving students little or no emphasis on teamwork or independence of approach (Hibbert, 2006) The research, now in its second year, has been conducted in two phases. The first phase involved the collection of data from questionnaires sent out to Y13 (final year) students across eight schools in South Yorkshire and the East Midlands in the United Kingdom to ascertain their perceptions of assessment and feedback. This data was analysed and used to inform phase two of the research in which qualitative and quantitative data has been collected from Year 1 and Year 2 undergraduate students within the schools of education at Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University to identify the differences in their experiences from school to University. The data has been analysed to draw conclusions on the needs for the transition relating to assessment and feedback. The findings from the two data sets are compared, and statistical analysis performed on the numerical data, alongside a rich seam of qualitative data allowing the voices of the participants to be heard in conjunction with the numerical evidence. It is hoped that the data will provide some indications as to where guidance can be focussed in order that universities can ease the transition from school to university for students in terms of assessment and feedback. This paper will focus on prior experience and expectations of assessment and feedback and its subsequent impact on students' learning experience as they make the transition into higher education from school.

Methodology Phase 1 involved the use of questionnaires that were sent to secondary schools across the East Midlands for Year 13 (final secondary year) students to complete. The data from these questionnaires was collated and analysed and used to inform Phase 2. Phase 2 has involved a questionnaire, using an electronic system, which has been sent out to all Year 1 and 2 undergraduate students in the Schools of Education at 2 Universities. This is to be followed up with focus groups and interviews after data analysis. All data collated and analysed will be used during the presentation.

Data from phase 1 indicates that students' perceptions of assessment and feedback of University do not correlate to what they will receive when they start their undergraduate courses across a range of courses and qualifications. They expect regular formative feedback, and regular assessment, but have no shared conception of what form that feedback might take, or how it might be distributed to them. Data from the initial pilot indicates that undergraduate students feel they get less help and guidance at university than they did at school. Students felt also that this was to enable them to become more independent learners, but also indicated that they struggled with assessment and feedback because of this and similar issues, especially in their first year at university. A more detailed analysis of the full data set from both phases of the research will be presented at the conference.