Educational Improvement: Fundamentals, Comparative Perspectives, and International Cases

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Education is one of the recurring themes in human societies. Under different historical, cultural and social backgrounds, it has been conceptualized with different missions. How education should function under specific contexts and how it can better fulfill its missions are topics that researchers have always focused on. Looking back at human history, educational reforms have often been an inseparable part of social transformations. Sometimes radical revolutions were employed to achieve educational changes in different systems, which also served larger social transformation goals.

However, with the initial educational establishment globally, educational improvement, as a concept of peaceful incrementalism, is increasingly appreciated. Unlike radical educational reform, educational improvement is based on existing social foundations and organizational structures, aiming at gradually promoting educational advancement by providing more practical solutions to educational problems. Educational improvement takes tangible and explicit progress as the main goal, and the progress is expected to be sustainable, rather than being achieved overnight or once and for all. Educational improvement serves as an alternative approach of “advancement in education at individual, institutional, systematic, national and/or global levels” (Li, 2021).

Since the 21st century, Educational Improvement Science, as an emerging interdisciplinary field that combines the strengths from both improvement science and educational science, has become a new paradigm for exploring and advancing educational issues in many countries. With three methodological principles, i.e., discipline-guided, systems-thinking, and evidence-based, Educational Improvement Science examines theoretical, practical, and applied issues in education, covering various aspects of learning, teaching, and schooling, e.g., macro-level educational missions and goals, formulation and implementation of educational policies, educational equity, educational governance, school characteristics, as well as micro-level learning processes, classroom teaching, teacher research groups, and so forth. It can also involve comparisons between levels, organizations, systems, and even countries. In recent years, a number of high-quality academic papers on educational improvement have emerged in the world, and numerous academic initiatives on educational improvement have been globally carried out. In 2020, the Tsinghua Journal of Education published two consecutive, special columns on Educational Improvement, marking the first systematic publication of theoretical explorations and practical frameworks for the field of Educational Improvement Science in China. In terms of disciplinary development, more than dozens of higher education institutions worldwide have established and offered related degree programs in Educational Improvement Science, such as the Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Improvement, with courses introduced to graduate students. The Faculty of Education at East China Normal University serves as a good example in China, which has set up the Graduate Frontier Course on Educational Improvement with an International Perspective, and a teaching-research community has been formed there to carry out regular seminars around the theme of educational improvement.

With a case study approach based on international and comparative perspectives, this panel session is designed to demonstrate, showcase and discuss educational improvement from macro-, meso- and micro levels in international perspectives. We conceptualize the panel from fundamental ideas and interdisciplinary discussions of the new field with a lens of global vision. The first paper critically frames three core dimensions of the Educational Improvement Science and highlights two key approaches for the success of educational improvement. Based on the reflections on the specific practices in Canada, China and Pakistan, this paper further theorizes Educational Improvement Science by grounding it on several philosophical concepts. Our focus then moves to institutional efforts to improve higher education quality. The second paper shares the background knowledge of general education in contemporary Chinese universities. Introducing an information system collecting data from eight top-tier universities in China, the author highlights the theoretical and practical fundamentals of course construction and quality assurance of general education in Chinese elite universities. The third paper draws our attention to the localization of collegiate system in China, discussing educational improvement from the perspective of organizational forms of universities. The paper reviews the history of the collegiate system in Western universities and the process of its transfer to Chinese universities. Taking the construction and development of the collegiate system at University T as a case, the authors explore the characteristics of the localized Chinese collegiate system, highlighting its reconciliatory role in the realization of political functions and educational functions in Chinese universities. In addition to the institutional perspective, we are very much concerned about educational improvement through micro-level educational practices. The fourth paper puts learning processes in the spotlight, elaborating on the role of student surveys in promoting equity in the education process. Taking China College Student Survey (CCSS) as a strong case, the final paper critically analyzes the current situation of Chinese higher education institutions by focusing on vulnerable groups of students and their decision-making through university surveys from the source of evidence, the transformation of evidence, and the use of evidence.

This panel session aims to investigate educational improvement from various levels and dimensions with international perspectives. Although the presented studies cannot cover all associated significant issues and the referred national contexts are relatively limited, we hope to invite discussions on critical issues in the new field by those who are in different educational systems at all levels. Additionally, we look forward to hearing critical feedback and inspiring ideas on the new thoughts and new visions of Educational Improvement Science.

Sub Unit

• Educational Improvement SIG

Organizer

• Xuemeng Cao, Tsinghua University

Chair

• Jinghuan Shi, Tsinghua University

Individual Presentations

• Educational Improvement Science in International and Comparative Perspectives - Jun Li, Western University; Maria I Khan, University at Albany - SUNY

• Localizing the Collegiate System for Educational Improvement: A case of University T - Xuemeng Cao, Tsinghua University; Ianwen Zhang, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University; Tianle Shi, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University; Wanyi Xie, institute of education,Tsinghua University

• Promoting Learning Engagement of Vulnerable College Students through Institutional Improvement: The Role of College Student Surveys - Jinghuan Shi, Tsinghua University; Yuheng Huang, Capital Normal Universit

Discussant

• Axel Rivas, Universidad de San Andres