Academic Success at Social Costs: An Exploratory Study on Social Networks of Chinese Students under Academic Streaming.

In universities that require students to reside in dormitories, there are two types of social networks-study/classroom-based and social/dorm room-based. The academic streaming system may disrupt study/classroom connections, but its impact on students' social networks is unknown. Using self-reported surveys, this study examines ego network measures of network sizes, turnover, multiplexity, and diversity among 382 students (44% female, 56% male). Surveys were administered before and after the university employed a first-semester grade-point average to demote or promote students into an honours college. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 11 honours students staying within their track and 11 students who were re-streamed to the non-honours track. Quantitative results showed that students in the non-honours college and who remained there had increasingly overlapping friendship circles between study and social environments, along with more diverse social connections, indicating stronger networks. In contrast, honours participants experienced fewer overlapping networks across domains and less dispersed social ties, especially after the academic replacement process. Qualitative results showed that the honours students faced a trade-off between academic success and social engagement in maintaining their elite status. Re-streamed students experienced otherness in social groups and decreased psychological wellbeing. This study contributes to the application of network analysis in education and provides insights into the unintended consequences of educational practice on students' social networks.

Changes in Chinese students' academic emotions after examinations: Pride in success, shame in failure, and self-loathing in comparison.

BACKGROUND: Several attempts have been made to examine students' academic emotions (AEs) in Western contexts, but less is known about how students' self-reported emotions vary over time. AIMS: The study aimed to understand Chinese students' emotional responses to academic events and the impact of high-stakes testing on their AEs in the first year with a repeated-measures survey after the Semester 1 and Semester 2 mid-term examinations. SAMPLES: 351 first-year university students completed both surveys in an elite Chinese university, where the top 10% of first-year students were assigned to an honours programme. METHODS: Self-reported AEs survey responses were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis. Invariance testing between honours and ordinary students and between semesters was used to examine between-group differences across time. RESULTS: A three-factor model of AEs (i.e., admired, shame, and self-loathing) was found in both semesters, with strong invariance between semesters. Mean scores between groups were equivalent and semester. However, self-loathing had the lowest mean (mean = 2.50; between mostly disagree and slightly agree), admired was at moderately agree (mean = 4.00), and shame was strongest at just over moderately agree (mean = 4.20). CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals a three-factor structure of AEs and the stability of these emotions among highly successful Chinese learners. Despite being elite students, this sample of Chinese learners felt shame and pride in response to mid-term examinations.