Implementing Competency-Based Education in China’s extracurricular institutions: a case study of a youth education center in Shanghai

• In Event: Digital Transformation and Educational Innovation in East Asia

Proposal

Competency-based education(CBE) has become a global education policy(Deng, 2024; Tromp, 2018), promoted by international frameworks such as the OECD’s “Key Competencies”(OECD, 2005). In China, the call for “key competencies” (Hexin suyang) reflects this trend, aiming to prepare students with the skills, values, and dispositions required for personal long-term development and to meet the demands of social progress (Lin, 2016). However, the country’s examination-driven education tradition and the high-stakes pressure of the national college entrance examination system (Gaokao) have constrained schools’ ability to fully implement CBE reforms (Deng, 2025). Beyond formal schooling, extracurricular education institutions played an important complementary role (Xue & Hu, 2025). With greater curricular flexibility and the capacity to create authentic contexts and communities of practice, they can address gaps left by exam-oriented schooling (Kotlyk, Kanova, & Viunnyk, 2025). While international studies highlight the contribution of museums and science centres in developing competencies such as creativity and collaboration, little research examines how Chinese extracurricular institutions advance CBE. This study addresses that gap by analyzing district-level youth education center in Shanghai. Guided by Situated Learning Theory, it asks: What srategies has the center adopted to construct authentic contexts and communities of practice in implementing CBE? How do students and teachers perceive and evaluate these strategies? What challenges persist in sustaining and advancing such practices?

Situated Learning Theory posits that learning is not the acquisition of abstract knowledge but a social process that occurs within authentic contexts and communities of practice(Lave & Wenger, 1991). Applied to this study, the theory provides three interrelated analytical lenses. First, authenticity and strategic design: Situated learning underscores the importance of authentic contexts for learning. This lens informs the analysis of what strategies the center adopts to create authentic learning environments that foster students’ key competencies. Second, participation, identity, and teacher-student evaluation: Learning is understood as a gradual movement from peripheral to central participation. This perspective helps analyze how students and teachers perceive and evaluate these strategies, focusing on students’ changes in participation and identity formation, as well as the role of teachers as facilitators. Third, communities of practice and encountered challenges: Communities of practice gradually emerge through shared goals, negotiation, and collaboration. This lens is employed to reveal the challenges faced by the center in advancing CBE, such as limited resources, which may hinder the sustainable development of authentic learning communities.

In this study, a qualitative research design was employed. The district-level Youth Education Center in Shanghai was selected because the city is at the forefront of CBE reform in China (Deng, 2025), and the Center, as a government-supported demonstration site with innovative programs, provides a distinctive and accessible case. Data collection involved three complementary methods: Textual analysis of institutional documents was conducted to identify the related strategies. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eleven teachers to examine their approaches to designing and implementing competency-based curricula, their perceptions of the facilitator role and the challenges encountered. Semi-structured interviews with ten students explored how they experienced these learning activities, their transition from observation to participation, and their shifts in identity. In addition, participant observation was undertaken to document students’ modes of participation and patterns of teacher–student interaction. Data analysis followed a thematic analysis approach focusing on recurring patterns across participants’ narratives. Codes were generated inductively but interpreted through the theoretical lenses of situated learning. Specifically, three lenses outlined above were used to guide the interpretation and organization of themes. Triangulation across multiple data sources and perspectives enhanced the credibility and validity of the findings.

The findings revealed that the center employed five key strategies to foster students’ key competencies in authentic contexts. First, it utilized technologies such as 3D and AI to construct digital-intelligent learning spaces that provided immersive and authentic learning environments. Second, it designed a three-tier progressive curriculum that offered students step-by-step learning experiences, ranging from interdisciplinary knowledge integration to addressing real-life problems. Third, it adopted project-based learning, where students described starting as observers but gradually assuming leadership roles, embodying the situated learning principle that competencies emerge through participation in a community of practice. Fourth, it organized a three-tier professional development system that equipped teachers to design authentic contexts and guide students from observation to active participation. Collaborative training also fostered teacher communities of practice, enhancing their role as facilitators and sustaining authentic learning environments. Fifth, it collaborated with external resources to offer students opportunities to learn in authentic environments such as field practice bases, university laboratories, and enterprises.The findings also show that students perceived the initiatives as enabling them to gradually move from the periphery to the center of learning within authentic contexts, effectively cultivating key competencies such as problem-solving and collaboration, which they could also apply in everyday life. Teachers emphasized that professional development activities enabled them to more effectively assume the roles of facilitators, equipping them to create authentic learning contexts and to lead students in engaging with real-world problems, thereby fostering the development of students’ key competencies. Challenges still persist. limited opening hours, restrictions on the use of certain resources, short course durations and the need to improve course processes have constrained the development of communities of practice and students' growth. Teachers are also hindered in their role as facilitators by burdensome administrative tasks, unfamiliarity with emerging technologies such as AI, and insufficient time to understand their students.

This study shows the specific strategies, outcomes, and challenges of extracurricular education institutions in China in advancing CBE that align with situated learning, complementing the formal school system. The five strategies identified demonstrate how authenticity, community, and progressive participation can be structured in extracurricular contexts to foster students’ competencies. However, persistent challenges such as limited institutional resources highlight the need for expanding institutional capacity.

Theoretically, this study extends situated learning theory to extracurricular contexts, showing how authentic spaces and cross-institutional collaborations expand communities of practice. From a comparative education perspective, it provides an empirical example of how global CBE agendas are localised in China, contributing to international debates on how non-formal institutions complement formal schooling in advancing competencies.

Authors

• Yan Gao

• Li Deng, East China Normal University