Program Quality and Graduate Readiness in Sports Dance Education: An Empirical Assessment of Extracurricular Training in Guangdong Province Universities

Abstract

Higher education institutions in China have increasingly incorporated sports dance into their extracurricular offerings, yet systematic evidence evaluating the effectiveness of these programs in building professional competence remains limited. Four core aspects of the sports dance extracurricular programs (curriculum design, pedagogical methods, training resource support, industry-relevant professional development opportunities) were analyzed in this study and their overall effect on the professional readiness of the undergraduate students in Guangdong Province. A quantitative cross section design type of research was used in collecting the data, the number of respondents who were sampled were 375 participants from different universities and the data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression. The results showed that all four program dimensions were significantly related to positive professional readiness. The availability of industry relevant professional development and training resources proved to be the best predictors, and curriculum design and pedagogical approaches proved to be important predictors as well. All four hypotheses were accepted, this means that the integrated model of sports dance talent development is accepted. The results provide lessons or suggestions for institutions and policies to improve extracurricular sports dance programs in Chinese higher education.