Developing National Student Engagement Surveys for Chinese Secondary and Higher Education: Effective Practice for an Era of Mass Schooling.

The project includes implementation of IU-developed surveys that measure student engagement in China's diverse institutions of higher education. Known as “NSSE-China”, this longitudinal research project was initiated by me in 2007 in collaboration with Tsinghua University in China. Based on National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), launched in 1999 and housed at Indiana University, the NSSE-China instrument asks college students to report their perception of institutional environment, their participation in programs and activities institutions provide, interactions with faculty and other students, time-on-tasks, as well as background characteristics and learning outcomes. 

The first stage of the project involves large-scale quantitative data collection and analysis. The NSSE instrument was translated into the Chinese language and adapted to the Chinese context by a research team that I led which included Yan Luo, my postdoctoral colleague and Associate Professor of Tsinghua University and IU doctoral student Yuhao Cen in the fall of 2007. The instrument was pretested in China with pilot surveys in six institutions in Beijing in the winter of 2007 and with cognitive interviews in five institutions of various types and in different regions in China during the summer of 2008. The national survey administration was conducted in June 2009 among 27 voluntarily participating institutions. The second stage of the project examines across diverse institutional contexts the impact on student learning of student engagement,the time and energy students devote to educationally purposeful activities. In China, I expect the new survey to become an indispensable research tool to help clarify the role and experiences of students in Chinese universities and what responsibilities and obligations Chinese universities have to create for their students the most effective learning environments.

The significance of focusing on student engagement is that it provides institutions with an alternative way to conceptualize quality – from the point of view of student experience. China is grappling with how to envision the purposes of higher education. For example, is a university education an individual investment or do universities play a role in the larger development of Chinese society? As a comparative educator, I believe these questions are relevant to educational policies worldwide. Chinese approaches to engaging their students and articulating the purposes of universities reflect and contribute to global debates regarding educational reform. In the third stage, the objective of comparing student engagement and the politics of cross-national policy attraction in China, the U.S., Australia, and Canada is to be achieved.  This longitudinal project was originally supported by IU seed money given for faculty research support, and is now supported by Ford Foundation China Research Grant (This grant is being run through Tsinghua University.  I am a co-PI with lead Professor Jinghuan Shi. The grant runs to 2012.)

Sample Survey Instrument: Sample Page 1; Sample Page 2

Selected Publications

• Luo, Y., Ross, H. and Cen, Y. 2009. “Viewing the Development of the NSSE-China Survey Tool from an International Comparative Perspective: Cultural Adaption and Reliability” [Guoji bijiao shiye zhong de gaodeng jiaoyu celiang NSSE-China gongju de kaifa wenhua shiying yu xinxiaodu baogao]. Fudan Education Forum. 7(5): 12-18.
• Ross, H., Luo, Y. and Cen, Y. 2008. “A Comparison of Educational Quality: Student Engagement in U.S. and China” [Tsinghua daxue he meiguo daxue zai xuexi guocheng zhibiao shang de bijiao: Yi zhong gaodeng jiaoyu zhiliang guan]. Tsinghua Journal of Education. 29 (2), 36-42.

Invited Talks and Presentations

• H. Ross. 2010. Chair and Discussant. “Assessing Student Engagement Internationally: Responding to Local and Global Discourse on Raising Educational Quality.” Annual meeting of Comparative and International Education Society, Chicago, March 1.
• H. Ross, Z. Zhou, and Y. Cen. 2009. “Assessing Student Engagement in China: Responding to Local and Global Discourse on Raising Educational Quality.”  3rd China Goes Global Conference, Harvard University, October 1.
• H. Ross. 2009. “Student Engagement in China, an Evaluation of NSSE-China.” Invited address, Ford Foundation-Tsinghua University NSSE-China workshop, Tsinghua University, Beijing, April 23.
• H. Ross. 2008.  “Student Engagement in Chinese Higher Education, Comparative Data.” Keynote speaker, International Symposium on Assessment and Evaluation in Chinese Higher Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing, June 13.
• H. Ross. 2008. “NSSE in China: Assessing Quality Education from the Student Perspective.” Annual meeting of Comparative and International Education Society, New York City, March.
• H. Ross. 2008. Chair. “Student Engagement and E(quality) Education in Chinese Higher Education.” Comparative and International Education Society, New York City, March.
• H. Ross. 2007. Chair and Discussant. "Quality Assurance and Education." World Congress of Comparative Education Societies triennial meeting, Sarajevo, B-H, September 3.

Media Coverage: The Chronicle of Higher Education. August 9, 2010.