Abstract:

Research on the Chinese learner, which gradually developed in the international community after the 1980s, focuses on analyzing the unique characteristics and features of Chinese students' learning within a global comparative framework. It represents the continuation and deepening of the international academic concerns on China. In recent years, represented by the China College Student Survey (CCSS) project, Chinese scholars began to participate in and promote research in this field, attempting to construct local student learning theories based on empirical analysis, which becomes a local force in constructing original knowledge specific to Chinese student learning and even Chinese education. The CCSS project, with its 15 years of implementation and research, exemplifies a process that begins with actively and selectively introducing overseas knowledge and gradually promoting localization at the level of philosophy, concepts and tools, followed by the discovery and contextual analysis of local phenomenon through in-depth mining of local empirical data, which leads to the development of local models and theories. The case of CCSS provides the following insights. To construct the independent knowledge system of Chinese education, it requires a thorough understanding, evaluation, and selective adaptation of global knowledge, an in-depth analysis of empirical research addressing local issues, an effective dialogues with the global academia to highlight the universal significance of local knowledge, and the generation-to-generation transmission of innovation awareness, ideas and methods through the academic training of young scholars.

Key words: the Chinese learner, educational original knowledge system, China College Student Survey (CCSS), Chinese characteristics