Bridge Program and its Effects on Student Development. Case: Students Transfer from Middle School to International School in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

Bridge program or summer programs are an important and comprehensive component of the learning curriculum. Bridge programs are used and justified to help first-year students adapt to a new learning environment's academic, social, and cultural aspects. However, there needs to be more empirical research on bridge programs for students transiting from national public schools to international private schools. This paper focuses on the impact and significance of bridge programs for junior students from national public schools to transfer to international private high schools. This study is contextualized in Shenzhen, China, and focuses on Ascend, a summer bridge program designed for upcoming Grade 10 students in an international private school. In this study, bridge programs are intensive but short programs designed to help students adapt to the international school system more effectively. Such programs or summer camps take place before or at the beginning of international school enrollment. The primary purpose of Ascend Bridge program is to help students adapt to international schools' education model, curriculum, and teaching methods, which are distinctive from those of national public schools, and thereby help students adapt to the new learning environment. The bridge programs usually involve language training, academic courses, cultural exchanges, social skills, etc. This study employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods. In line with the research philosophy and methodology, data is collected through the purposive sampling of an existing database of students’ academic performance and focus group interviews. In the data sampling, the author got the GPA, attendance, and leadership data of 44 students in the first semester of senior high school in the 2021-2022 academic year from the administrative section of the workplace. Among the 44 students, half of them participated in the bridge program, while the other half did not. Moreover, their academic admission level belongs to the category of top students. This research also employed a qualitative method to conduct a more detailed study. In April of 2023, to better understand the actual situation of the bridging summer camp, seven questions in the Interview’s Question (see Appendix 1) were prepared to be asked when interviewing people who work in the bridge program. Through face-to-face interviews, the Dean of Students, the camp teacher, and a camp event manager who had worked on preparing and implementing the bridge summer camp. Following data collection, the thematic analysis approach is utilized for data analysis for this study. The current research finds that the bridge program positively impacts students transitioning from national public schools to international private schools in three aspects: academic progress, physical health, and mental health. Specifically, the bridge program helps students understand the international education system in advance, reduces the cost of adapting to the international system, and improves students' confidence and English language and time management ability. The current study's findings also reveal problems with the bridge program's length and curriculum design. To address the problems, the program needs to clarify teaching objectives to help teachers better grasp the focus of the course and design to better accommodate students' needs in the future. Moreover, the author suggests that two weeks will be the minimum duration for the bridge program. Yet, further research should be done to explore the impacts of bridge programs in other school contexts and possible improvement strategies in the future.