Symbolic Participation or Substantial Learning Behavior? A PSM-Based Comparison Between Honors and Non-Honors Undergraduates from Two Top Elite Universities in China

Originating in the US and subsequently diffusing across worldwide, honors education has been increasingly adopted in China. A central question is whether honors participation produces substantive changes in students’ learning or functions as symbolic participation. Drawing on samples of senior-year honors (N = 163) and non-honors undergraduates (n = 317) from two top elite universities in China, PSM estimation indicates that honors students do not demonstrate a significant advantage in competence development. However, focusing solely on outcome indicators may obscure the process through which honors education operates. On the one hand, PSM results also showed that honors students were more likely to engage in deep learning behavior. On the other hand, regression revealed that after adding the university as moderator, the significant effect of honors participation disappeared, while the roles of teaching and learning remained consistently stable. Moderated chain mediation analyses further indicated that the association between honors participation and competence development was primarily linked to student-centered teaching practices and deep learning engagement, and that this pathway varied across the two universities. Overall, the findings suggest that the benefits of honors education may derive less from honors affiliation itself and more from the substantive learning experiences fostered within honors contexts. These findings provide empirical support for reforms that place greater emphasis on learning processes and competence development within honors education.