From Activity Participation to Student Development: An Engagement–Learning–Assessment Framework for the Second Classroom in Chinese Private Undergraduate Universities

Abstract

The "second classroom" has become an increasingly visible and institutionalized component of undergraduate education in China, encompassing a wide range of co-curricular and extracurricular activities such as student organizations, social practice initiatives, volunteer service programs, campus cultural events, innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and academic and skills-based competitions. Despite this growing prominence, student participation in these activities is still predominantly documented through quantitative metrics such as attendance records, accumulated hours, credit points, certificates, and publicity-oriented outputs, with limited attention paid to the actual developmental outcomes experienced by students. This paper addresses this critical gap by adopting a student-development perspective to examine how second-classroom engagement can be meaningfully assessed and enhanced. Drawing on policy analysis, a comprehensive review of higher-education literature, and recurring management situations observed in student-affairs practice at a private undergraduate university in Chongqing, China, this study proposes an Engagement–Learning–Assessment framework. The framework is structured around three core questions: whether students are placed in meaningful and developmentally appropriate roles, what knowledge and competencies they acquire through those roles, and what forms of evidence can reasonably demonstrate developmental growth. The framework is then applied to discuss key dimensions including role progression, cross-activity linkages, collaboration between academic and student-affairs units, and the systematic documentation of second-classroom records. The overarching aim is to provide a practical and theoretically grounded approach for private undergraduate universities to transition from mere activity accumulation toward more robust and intentional developmental support for students.