Towards an understanding of experiential learning in China's hospitality education

Abstract

This study aims to develop a scale to measure experiential learning (EL) activities in China’s hospitality higher education. The scale development procedure involved four stages: developing the initial items, implementing purifying measures, collecting data, and assessing the reliability and validity of the proposed measurement scale. After exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the development process resulted in a reliable and valid scale for measuring EL. The scale consists of nine items with three dimensions: (1) practical learning activities, (2) school-based activities, and (3) professional skills-related activities. This study contributes to the literature by developing a measurement scale for EL that lays the groundwork for future study. A better understanding of EL activities can contribute to graduates’ career development, universities’ curriculum validation, and hotels’ service quality.

本研究旨在為中國內地高校旅遊和酒店專業的體驗式學習活動開發一套評估衡量標準。衡量標准開發過程的步驟為：開發初始項內容、實施淨化措​​施、搜集數據，並對所提出的衡量標準的信度與效度進行評估。在進行探索性因素分析與驗證性因素分析後，從開發過程中得出體驗式學習的信度與效度標準，並得出三個層面於九項內容。這三個層面包括：（1）實踐學習活動；（2）校內活動以及（3）與職業相關活動。本研究對現有文獻的體驗式學習開發了一套衡量標準，並為將來的相關研究打下了基礎。此外，對體驗式活動進一步的理解，有助於提高畢業生職業生涯發展、加強院校教學大綱評估認證以及改善酒店服務質量。