Dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs, which teach content knowledge in English and a partner language, have shown promise in attaining academic achievement, bilingualism/biliteracy, and sociocultural competence. Recently, scholars have argued for adding critical consciousness as a foundational goal to challenge the hegemonic…

In Chapter 1, we study the allocation of homogeneous positions under affirmative action policies where some positions are reserved for underrepresented groups on a "minimum guarantee" basis. Each individual has a merit-based score and may be eligible for multiple reserves. When an individual counts towards each of the reserves that she…

Critical thinking (CT) has become a main focus in the higher education and is viewed as one of the essential skills for students to succeed in the 21st century. Many studies focus on Chinese students and their CT skills. There is a scarcity of research targeting teachers' CT. However, teachers are the key to successful education and they play a…

The surge in demand for online learning, further intensified by COVID-19, has ignited profound interest in enhancing student learning outcomes in the realm of online learning. The purpose of this study was to examine how and why college students in the United States and China engaged with, accepted, and perceived online learning during and after…

Chinese international students' lived experiences have garnered substantial attention in US higher education research due to the ever-increasing numbers of such students as well as the tense relationships between the US and China, yet this research rarely considers issues of race and racism. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed…

This dissertation uses the Conceptual Blending Hypothesis from the socio-cognitive method presented and refined by Kecskes (2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2020) to explain how the lexical choice of bilinguals differs across sociocultural situations. Quantitative (lexical density, lexical diversity, and lexical sophistication) and qualitative (lexical…

Second language (L2) writing teaching and research in China have enjoyed a rich history and have had remarkable achievements. However, the extensive L2 writing literature created in China has not yet been analyzed comprehensively from theoretical, methodological, and philosophical perspectives. This research synthesis provides a metadisciplinary…

Under the framework of item response theory (IRT) and generalizability (G-) theory, this study examined the effects of item difficulty on rating reliability and construct validity on both the constructed-response (CR) items and essay items on English examinations. The data collected for this study were students' scores and responses on the two…

This in-country grounded theory study examined the lived experiences of 24 Chinese returnees who completed advanced degrees in the United States. The study found that the four types of organizations in mainland China determine the social context of the application of Western education of the Chinese returnees. Returnees working in multinational…

Assessment is an integral part of learning as it is used to gather information about a test-taker. Those in the field of academia, such as educational policy makers, instructors, and administrators are able to use information gathered from tests to further instruction and learning decisions (Baker, 2006; Drianna, 2007; Kasper & Ross, 2013;…

More than 300,000 Chinese students attend U.S. universities annually (USDHS, 2017), many of whom reportedly "Leave China, Study in America, Find Jesus" (H. Zhang, 2016). However, research on this phenomenon of worldview change is thin, especially experiences of atheist or nonreligious Chinese graduate students attending Christian…

Advocates of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a cross-cultural phenomenon that has attracted public attention throughout the world, portray them as an equalizing force in international higher education; but researchers have noted discrepancies in how learners from different countries have engaged with them. The number of MOOC learners in China…

The purpose of this study is to investigate perceived changes in self-concept among Chinese international students in the United States. Because a huge cultural distance exists between China and the U.S. in terms of schooling systems, higher education traditions, and practices, Chinese international students need both linguistic and cultural…

Information technology (IT) outsourcing, including foreign or offshore outsourcing, has been steadily growing over the last two decades. This growth in IT outsourcing has led to the development of different hubs of services across nations, and has resulted in increased competition among service providers. Firms have been using IT outsourcing to…

This dissertation is a comparative study of "translation theory" and "translation studies" in China and the West. Its focus is to investigate whether there is translation theory in the Chinese tradition. My study begins with an examination of the debate in China over whether there has already existed a system of translation…