Improving Undergraduates’ Civic Responsibility and Learning Achievement through an Integrated Instructional Model: Evidence from a Chinese University

Abstract

This research consists purposes were 1. to compare the differences in civic responsibility between the experimental group and the control group after the experiment and 2. to compare the differences in learning achievement between the experimental group and the control group after the experiment. The research sample included 120 first-year college students, equally divided into two classes: one designated as the experimental group which employed the new instructional model, and the other as the control group which employed traditional teaching methods. The research results were: (1) No significant score difference between the two groups in the civic responsibility pre-test. Post-test results showed that the experimental group scored higher than the control group in total civic responsibility, with a mean difference of 17.98 points (t=9.30, p<0.001). And Cohen’s d values for the total score and all subdimensions exceeded 0.8, indicating a large effect size. (2) For learning achievement, the experimental group achieved a higher post-test total score than the control group, with a mean difference of 7.36 points (t=7.12, p<0.001, Cohen’s d=1.30), also indicating a large effect size. The results verified the model’s effects on enhancing Chinese undergraduates’ civic responsibility and learning achievement, providing practical foundation for teaching ideological and political courses in higher education.