How Chinese international student engagement in the United States differs from domestic student engagement

Abstract

There has been an exponential growth in Chinese international students (Chinese ISs) pursuing postsecondary degrees in the United States (U.S.) in the past decade. More knowledge about how Chinese ISs’ engagement differs from that of domestic students in the U.S. is strongly needed. Using large-scale and multi-institutional survey data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, 2015), this study first examined Chinese ISs’ engagement in the employment of effective learning strategies, collaborative learning, and student-faculty interaction at four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. Then, the extent to which Chinese ISs’ engagement in these activities differs from that of domestic students was explored. Given that these engagement behaviors may be influenced by culture, Hofstede’s dimensions of culture were used as the conceptual grounding. This study helps enhance mutual understandings of engagement between Chinese ISs and domestic students and provides recommendations to faculty and practitioners in supporting the cross-cultural integration and mutual engagement of Chinese ISs and domestic students in the U.S.