This primary qualitative study examines the impacts of curricular and non-curricular social learning experiences on rural middle and high school students in China, regarding their cognition about the world, themselves, and their missions. Through eight-week focus field interviews including students in rural schools and the ones studying in urban schools but had rural school experience, this study provides unusual insight to Chinese rural education from learner’s perspective in a comparison model, which has rarely been done. The differences found about rural students’ cognition suggest that “distance” to their learning “models”, and limited access to learning recourses are the major issues with theoretical interpretations. Consistent visiting teaching programs from city and new information technologies are effective tools to help synchronizing the cognition of rural students in the current social context. This study involves further examination of the major learning theories: Social Learning Theory and Social Cognitive Theory.
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