LABOR CURRICULUM REFORM AND LABOR LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY BASED ON THE THREE-WIDE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK

Hai-Rong Xie

Abstract


The curriculum-based development of labor education in higher education requires a shift from general task-based arrangements to more systematic practice-oriented pedagogical design. Drawing on the Three-wide Education Framework, this study redesigned a university labor curriculum and evaluated its effectiveness using a pretest–posttest control-group quasi-experimental design. The study involved 270 valid student participants from three undergraduate programs—administrative management, e-commerce, and biology education—with 135 students in the experimental group and 135 in the control group. The experimental group received a reformed course that integrated optimized learning objectives, reconstructed practice tasks, strengthened reflection and feedback, and diversified assessment, whereas the control group followed conventional instruction. The results showed that the two groups were comparable in labor literacy before the intervention. After the course, the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group in both posttest scores and value-added scores across four dimensions: labor cognition, labor competence, labor habits, and labor responsibility. The findings provide empirical evidence for the design of labor education curricula, practice-oriented course reform, and student development assessment in higher education. The study also demonstrates the value of combining pretest-posttest comparison with value-added analysis in evaluating practice-oriented curriculum reform.

Keywords


Three-wide Education; labor education; curriculum reform; labor literacy; value-added evaluation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Alt D, Naamati-Schneider L, Weishut DJN, 2023. Competency-based learning and formative assessment feedback as precursors of college students’ soft skills acquisition. Studies in Higher Education 48(12): 1901-1917. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2023.2217203

Ashwin P, 2025. Transformational accounts of students’ undergraduate education are evoked by their engagement with knowledge. Higher Education 90(2): 479-495. doi: 10.1007/s10734-024-01332-9

Banihashem SK, Noroozi O, van Ginkel S, Macfadyen LP, Biemans HJA, 2022. A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education. Educational Research Review 37: 100489. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100489

Björck V, 2021. Taking issue with how the work-integrated learning discourse ascribes a dualistic meaning to graduate employability. Higher Education 82(2): 307-322. doi: 10.1007/s10734-020-00650-y

Gao X, Noroozi O, Gulikers JTM, Biemans HJA, Banihashem SK, 2024. A systematic review of the key components of online peer feedback practices in higher education. Educational Research Review 42: 100588. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2023.100588

Gordon CS, Pink MA, Rosing H, Mizzi S, 2022. A systematic meta-analysis and meta-synthesis of the impact of service-learning programs on university students’ empathy. Educational Research Review 37: 100490. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100490

Jackson D, Bridgstock R, 2021. What actually works to enhance graduate employability? The relative value of curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular learning and paid work. Higher Education 81(4): 723-739. doi: 10.1007/s10734-020-00570-x

Keller MV, Dresel M, Daumiller M, 2024. Do achievement goals and self-efficacy matter for feedback use? Learning and Instruction 93: 101948. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2024.101948

Kozanitis A, Nenciovici L, 2023. Effect of active learning versus traditional lecturing on the learning achievement of college students in humanities and social sciences: A meta-analysis. Higher Education 86(6): 1377-1394. doi: 10.1007/s10734-022-00977-8

Levinsson H, Nilsson A, Mårtensson K, Persson SD, 2024. Course design as a stronger predictor of student evaluation of quality and student engagement than teacher ratings. Higher Education 88(5): 1997-2013. doi: 10.1007/s10734-024-01197-y

Li B, Lu S, 2023. Labor education, cash transfers and student development: Evidence from China. International Review of Financial Analysis 87: 102565. doi: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102565

Martínez-Heredia N, Corral-Robles S, González-Gijón G, Sánchez-Martín M, 2022. Exploring inequality through service learning in higher education: A bibliometric review study. Frontiers in Psychology 13: 826341. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.826341

Morris R, Perry T, Wardle L, 2021. Formative assessment and feedback for learning in higher education: A systematic review. Review of Education 9(3): e3292. doi: 10.1002/rev3.3292

OECD, 2025. Education at a glance 2025: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi: 10.1787/1c0d9c79-en

Salas-Pilco SZ, Yang Y, Zhang Z, 2022. Student engagement in online learning in Latin American higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. British Journal of Educational Technology 53(3): 593-619. doi: 10.1111/bjet.13190

Schluer J, Brück-Hübner A, 2025. Diversity of pedagogical feedback designs: Results from a scoping review of feedback research in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 50(2): 295-307. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2024.2378336

Seo K, Dodson S, Harandi NM, Roberson N, Fels S, Roll I, 2021. Active learning with online video: The impact of learning context on engagement. Computers & Education 165: 104132. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104132

Theobald M, 2021. Self-regulated learning training programs enhance university students’ academic performance, self-regulated learning strategies, and motivation: A meta-analysis. Contemporary Educational Psychology 66: 101976. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.101976

World Economic Forum, 2025. The future of jobs report 2025. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/. Accessed 13 August 2026




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v13i8.6949

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Hai-Rong Xie

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2015-2026. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).