Academic transition shock: How first-year public health students navigate unfamiliar learning demands in computer science education.

Background: Public health students often enter training with learning strategies optimized for memorization and recall that prove inadequate when confronted with unfamiliar cognitive demands. This study explored how first-year public health students experience and navigate academic transition when encountering an introductory computer science course that challenges their established learning approaches. Methods: A qualitative interview study was conducted with 10 first-year public health students enrolled in a mandatory computer science course. Semi-structured interviews explored students' expectations, experiences of difficulty, emotional responses, and adaptive strategies. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four interconnected themes emerged: expectation shock and the collapse of familiar patterns, encountering unfamiliar dimensions of difficulty, developing adaptive responses through trial and necessity, and reframing academic competence from recall to reasoning. Students initially relied on memorization-based strategies that had proven successful in prior education, but programming tasks exposed the inadequacy of these approaches. Through iterative engagement with unfamiliar demands, students gradually developed reasoning-oriented strategies, increased tolerance for ambiguity, and reconceptualized learning as an iterative process rather than accurate reproduction of information. Conclusions: Academic transitions that challenge students' implicit learning assumptions can serve important developmental functions by exposing limitations in established approaches and creating conditions where cognitive adaptation becomes necessary. Public health curricula may benefit from intentionally incorporating early learning experiences that resist memorization-based strategies, helping students develop adaptive learning capabilities before encountering high-stakes fieldwork and practice contexts where flexible problem-solving is essential.