A Preliminary Study On The Adaptation Of Freshmen To Higher Vocational Education

While getting into colleges means a new opportunity for personal betterment,to have life settled in a new environment can also be alien and challenging for many of the newly enrolled students.Many of them are struggling between their ideal life and the reality,and some are challenged with their study,daily life,interpersonal relationship,and the college's new environment.Such a transition from high school to college can be stressful.The capacity to cope with mental stress not only has an immediate impact to students' physiological development,its impact will also work on throughout students' whole life.It is vital,as an educator of higher institute of vocational education,to assist our newly enrolled students to become adaptable,and accommodate to college life.Meanwhile,to enhance college's mental health education is also an important part for students' betterment.Since 2000,Chinese educational ministry has been implementing a series of policies to boost the development of vocational colleges.The graduate rate of vocational college takes up more than 40% of total number in higher education.A vocational college normally provides a shorter time of study,and expects students to complete within 3 years;whereas a study program offered at university normally takes 4 years to complete.Most students admitted into vocational institute are with lower national college entrance marks,and have been living in less developed areas or rural areas for many years.Many first-year students may have began to experience feelings of low mood,loneliness,being pessimistic etc after getting into college and fail to cope with stress and challenges in new environment.It will have a long lasting and detrimental impact on students' physiology if they have been exposed to stress and pressure for long without being taken good care of.The escalating negative emotions may also cause students slow in reaction,have anxiety disorder,depressions,etc.The author uses a number of questionnaires in the case study which focuses on students' developments in physiology,study,daily life,interpersonal relationship,and accommodation to new environment in their first year of vocational college.The study shows students who have siblings at home are more competent with interpersonal relationship compared to these who are from the single-child family.Students from other provinces are much self-motivated in their study compared to students from Chongqing and Province of Sichuan.The study also shows male students adapt and accommodate to college's new environment much faster than female students do.The paper analyses causes of students' stress,and lists out some effective strategies and methods to assistnew students to become more adaptive to the college's new life.The article will provide reference for further intervention and will also promote the mental-health development for newly enrolled students.