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Understanding Chinese university student conceptions of assessment: cultural similarities and jurisdictional differences between Hong Kong and China

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Abstract

Hong Kong (HK) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), while sharing historic cultural roots, have different policies for and practices of educational assessment. Student conceptions of assessment function to guide individual behaviour in response to the functions, purposes, and consequences of assessments. A new self-report questionnaire was developed to account for attitudes and beliefs detected in qualitative and pilot survey studies. In a two-group confirmatory factor analysis, an eight-factor solution, in which seven factors were dependent on a higher order factor (i.e., School Quality), was found with good fit. The seven factors were named: Societal Uses, Class Benefits, Accuracy, Negative Aspects, Teacher Use, Family Effects, and Competition. Invariance testing showed that regression weights were not equivalent between the PRC and HK students, though they were among PRC pre-degree and postgraduate students. There were statistically significant differences in factor mean scores between the HK and PRC groups. Conventional Chinese cultural norms were less explanatory of results than the effect of institutional assessment policies and practices in each jurisdiction.

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Notes

  1. See the story of an examination hothouse school ‘Maotanchang High School’ at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/magazine/inside-a-chinese-test-prep-factory.html.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank their research assistant, Ho Yee Tang, who carried out the validation studies, which were funded by an Internal Research Grant (#RG42/09–10) to the first author from the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Specific thanks go to colleagues who facilitated the data collection, including Dr. Lamei Wang (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Prof. Lingbiao Gao (South China Normal University), Dr. Yang Wu (Zhengzhou Normal University), Dr. Xiaorui Huang (East China Normal University), Dr. Junjun Chen (Hong Kong Institute of Education), and Prof. Ming Gao (Shannxi Normal University).

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  1. School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, Faculty of Education & Social Work, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Gavin T. L. Brown

  2. Department of Psychological Studies, Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Zhenlin Wang

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Correspondence to Gavin T. L. Brown.

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Brown, G.T.L., Wang, Z. Understanding Chinese university student conceptions of assessment: cultural similarities and jurisdictional differences between Hong Kong and China. Soc Psychol Educ 19, 151–173 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-015-9322-x

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