Evaluating the associations of learning environment with student engagement and learning gains among undergraduate students at a medical university in western China
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction As quality improvement in medical education increasingly focuses on the learning processes that students actually experience, it is important to clarify which learning-environment domains are most closely associated with student engagement and how engagement relates to learning gains. Methods In this pooled repeated cross-sectional study, we analyzed 11,717 student responses from four administrations (2021–2024) of the National College Student Survey among undergraduate students at a medical university in western China. The learning environment was assessed across five domains: classroom teaching quality, facilities and resources, developmental support, interpersonal support, and teaching administration. Student engagement was measured across behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Learning gains were assessed across six domains. Hierarchical multiple linear regression, cross-sectional indirect association analysis, year-stratified analyses, and k-means clustering were used to examine associations among perceived learning environment, engagement, and learning gains and to explore heterogeneity among students. Results Survey year and background characteristics explained only 1.5–4.0% of the variance in engagement, whereas the five learning-environment domains explained an additional 22.5–27.6%. Classroom teaching quality showed the largest positive associations with behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, which were statistically significant in every survey wave, and developmental support was also positively associated with all three dimensions. Engagement statistically accounted for 31.93% of the cross-sectional association between perceived learning environment and learning gains (total indirect association = 0.234; total association = 0.734). Person-centered analysis identified a convergent-low profile comprising 37.2% of students, whose scores on perceived learning environment, engagement, and learning gains were all below the sample average; background characteristics were only weakly associated with membership in the three profiles (Cramér’s V ≤ 0.063). Discussion These findings suggest that, in improving educational quality, medical universities should give greater attention to the classroom teaching and developmental support processes that students experience directly in their everyday learning, and should incorporate student engagement and learning experiences into routine, ongoing quality monitoring alongside conventional outcome assessment.
Source: Frontiers in Public Health
Authors: Zhiwen Mo, Yong Gao, Zhuangyu Wei, Hua Xu
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7222959668