How to measure student activity, participation, tendency to ask questions, etc? We would like to compare students from different education systems on the following variables:


tendency to actively participate on lessons
tendency to ask questions
tendency and experience in presenting own opinion
etc.


Questions


What studies provide examples of measuring these variables? 
What methods are typically used to answer questions related to these variables? 
What survey papers provide a good starting point?
I recommend this one as it seems quite standardized and backed by many citations of it's use.  It does seem to focus a lot on psychopathology at times, but there are many different versions of it that many different countries have made.  I believe by studying these and adding in a few twists you can get the jist of why this has become such a widely accepted measure of child-age 16 measures of, well, alot of stuff. 

It seems as if methods are already in place (even with instructions on how to interpret the results using common statistical software) to extrapolate almost anything you want/need based upon the questions here.

Thus, I think you're looking for the

STRENGTHS AND DIFFICULTIES QUESTIONNAIRE

(Their website is really, really helpful and to be fair I'm just copy and pasting most of it, lol.)  Btw, it's here: http://www.sdqinfo.org/a0.html

What is the SDQ?

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioural screening questionnaire about 3-16 year olds. It exists in several versions to meet the needs of researchers, clinicians and educationalists. Each version includes between one and three of the following components:


  A) 25 items on psychological attributes.
  
  All versions of the SDQ ask about 25 attributes, some positive and others negative.  These >25 items are divided between 5 scales: 
  
  1) emotional symptoms (5 items)
  2) conduct problems (5 items)
  3) hyperactivity/inattention (5 items)
  4) peer relationship problems (5 items)
  5) prosocial behaviour (5 items)   
  
  Note: 1) to 4) added together to generate a total  difficulties score  (based on 20 items)
  
  The same 25 items are included in questionnaires for completion by the parents or teachers >of 4-16 year olds (Goodman, 1997).
  
  A slightly modified informant-rated version for the parents or nursery teachers of 3 (and >4) year olds. 22 items are identical, the item on reflectiveness is softened, and 2 items >on antisocial behaviour are replaced by items on oppositionality.
  Questionnaires for self-completion by adolescents ask about the same 25 traits, though the >wording is slightly different (Goodman et al, 1998). This self-report version is suitable >for young people aged around 11-16, depending on their level of understanding and >literacy.
  In low-risk or general population samples, it may be better to use an alternative three->subscale division of the SDQ into 'internalising problems' (emotional+peer symptoms, 10 >items), 'externalising problems' (conduct+hyperactivity symptoms, 10 items) and the >prosocial scale (5 items) ( Goodman et al, 2010).
  
  B) An impact supplement
  
  Several two-sided versions of the SDQ are available with the 25 items on strengths and >difficulties on the front of the page and an impact supplement on the back. These extended >versions of the SDQ ask whether the respondent thinks the young person has a problem, and >if so, enquire further about chronicity, distress, social impairment, and burden to >others.  This provides useful additional information for clinicians and researchers with >an interest in psychiatric caseness and the determinants of service use (Goodman, 1999).
  
  C) Follow-up questions
  
  The follow-up versions of the SDQ include not only the 25 basic items and the impact >question, but also two additional follow-up questions for use after an intervention. Has >the intervention reduced problems? Has the intervention helped in other ways, e.g. making >the problems more bearable? To increase the chance of detecting change, the follow-up >versions of the SDQ ask about 'the last month', as opposed to 'the last six months or this >school year', which is the reference period for the standard versions. Follow-up versions >also omit the question about the chronicity of problems. 


Handouts:

You can find several different versions of the survey here:

http://www.sdqinfo.org/py/sdqinfo/b3.py?language=Englishqz(USA)

Scoring:

http://www.sdqinfo.org/py/sdqinfo/c0.py

Citations from SDQ Website Listed for Convenience, Title Scannability, and to Show the Scope of Who, Where, and How the SDQ has been used:


  Goodman R (1999) The extended version of the
  Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as a guide to child
  psychiatric caseness and consequent burden. Journal of Child
  Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 791-801.  Goodman R, Scott S
  (1999) Comparing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the
  Child Behavior Checklist: Is small beautiful? Journal of Abnormal
  Child Psychology, 27, 17-24.  Smedje H, Broman J-E, Hetta J,
  von Knorring A-L (1999) Psychometric properties of a Swedish version
  of the "Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire". European Child and
  Adolescent Psychiatry, 8, 63-70.  Goodman R, Ford T, Simmons
  H, Gatward R, Meltzer H (2000) Using the Strengths and Difficulties
  Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a
  community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 534-539.
   Goodman R, Renfrew D, Mullick M (2000) Predicting type of
  psychiatric disorder from Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
  (SDQ) scores in child mental health clinics in London and Dhaka.
  European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 129-134.  Klasen
  H, Woerner W, Wolke D, Meyer R, Overmeyer S, Kaschnitz W, Rothenberger
  A, Goodman R (2000) Comparing the German versions of the Strengths
  and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Deu) and the Child Behavior
  Checklist. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 271-276.
   Koskelainen M, Sourander A, Kaljonen A (2000) The Strengths
  and Difficulties Questionnaire among Finnish school-aged children and
  adolescents. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 9, 277-284.
   Goodman R (2001) Psychometric properties of the Strengths and
  Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Journal of the American Academy of
  Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40, 1337-1345.  Mullick MSI,
  Goodman R (2001) Questionnaire screening for mental health problems in
  Bangladeshi children: a preliminary study. Social Psychiatry and
  Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36, 94-99.  Goodman R, Ford T,
  Meltzer H (2002) Mental health problems of children in the community:
  18 month follow up. BMJ, 324, 1496-7.  Mathai J, Anderson P,
  Bourne A (2002) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) as
  a screening measure prior to admission to a Child and Adolescent
  Mental Health Service (CAMHS). Australian e-Journal for the
  Advancement of Mental Health, 1, Issue 3.  ,  (Zusammenfassung) Cury CR,
  Golfeto JH (2003) Strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ): a
  study of school children in Ribeirao Preto. Rev Bras Psiquiatr, 25,
  139-45.  Glazebrook C, Hollis C, Heussler H, Goodman R, Coates
  L (2003) Detecting emotional and behavioural problems in paediatric
  clinics. Child: Care, Health and Development, 29, 141-149. 
  Malmberg M, Rydell AM, Smedje H (2003) Validity of the Swedish version
  of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Swe). Nord J
  Psychiatry, 57, 357-63.  Mathai J, Anderson P, Bourne A (2003)
  Use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as an outcome
  measure in a child and adolescent mental health service. Australasian
  Psychiatry, 11, 334-337.  Muris P, Meesters C, van den Berg F
  (2003) The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Further
  evidence for its reliability and validity in a community sample of
  Dutch children and adolescents. European Child and Adolescent
  Psychiatry, 12, 1-8.  van Widenfelt BM, Goedhart AW, Treffers
  PDA, Goodman R (2003) Dutch version of the Strengths and Difficulties
  Questionnaire (SDQ). European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12,
  281-289.  Becker A, Hagenberg N, Roessner V, Woerner W,
  Rothenberger A (2004) Evaluation of the self-reported SDQ in a
  clinical setting: do self-reports tell us more than ratings by adult
  informants? European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2,
  II17-24.  Becker A, Woerner W, Hasselhorn M, Banaschewski T,
  Rothenberger A (2004) Validation of the parent and teacher SDQ in a
  clinical sample. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2,
  II11-6.  Goodman R, Ford T, Corbin T, Meltzer H (2004) Using
  the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) multi-informant
  algorithm to screen looked-after children for psychiatric disorders.
  European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II25-31.
   Hawes DJ, Dadds MR (2004) Australian data and psychometric
  properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Australian
  and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 644-651. 
  Marzocchi, GM, Capron C, Di Pietro M, Duran Tauleria E, Duyme M,
  Frigerio A, Gaspar MF, Hamilton H, Pithon G, Simoes A, Therond C
  (2004) The use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
  in Southern European countries. European Child and Adolescent
  Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II40-6.  Mathai J, Anderson P, Bourne
  A (2004) Comparing psychiatric diagnoses generated by the Strengths
  and Difficulties Questionnaire with diagnoses made by clinicians.
  Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 639-643.
   Muris P, Maas A (2004) Strengths and difficulties as
  correlates of attachment style in institutionalized and
  non-institutionalized children with below-average intellectual
  abilities. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 34, 317-328.
   Muris P, Meesters C, Eijkelenboom A, Vincken M (2004) The
  self-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire:
  Its psychometric properties in 8- to 13-year-old non-clinical
  children. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 437-448.
   Woerner W, Becker A, Rothenberger A (2004) Normative data and
  scale properties of the German parent SDQ. European Child and
  Adolescent Psychiatry, 13 Suppl 2, II3-10.  Woerner W,
  Fleitlich-Bilyk B, Martinussen R, Fletcher J, Cucchiaro G,
  Dalgalarrondo P, Lui M, Tannock R (2004) The Strengths and
  Difficulties Questionnaire overseas: evaluations and applications of
  the SDQ beyond Europe. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13
  Suppl 2, II47-54.  Hintermair M (2006) Socio-emotional
  problems among hearing-impaired children - initial results of the
  German version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
  (SDQ-D). Z Kinder Jugendpsychiatr Psychother, 34, 49-61.  Van
  Roy B, Groholt B, Heyerdahl S, Clench-Aas J (2006) Self-reported
  strengths and difficulties in a large Norwegian population 10-19 years
  : age and gender specific results of the extended SDQ-questionnaire.
  European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 15, 189-98.  Ford T,
  Collishaw S, Meltzer H, Goodman R (2007) A prospective study of
  childhood psychopathology: independent predictors of change over three
  years. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42, 953-61.
   Goodman, R., Iervolino, A. C., Collishaw, S., Pickles, A. &amp;
  Maughan, B. (2007) Seemingly minor changes to a questionnaire can make
  a big difference to mean scores: a cautionary tale. Social Psychiatry
  and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42, 322-7.  Palmieri PA, Smith
  GC (2007) Examining the structural validity of the Strengths and
  Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in a U.S. sample of custodial
  grandmothers. Psychol Assess, 19, 189-98.  Achenbach TM,
  Becker A, Dopfner M, Heiervang E, Roessner V, Steinhausen HC,
  Rothenberger, A (2008) Multicultural assessment of child and
  adolescent psychopathology with ASEBA and SDQ instruments: research
  findings, applications, and future directions. Journal of Child
  Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 251-75.  Matsuishi T, Nagano M,
  Araki Y, Tanaka Y, Iwasaki M, Yamashita Y, Nagamitsu S, Iizuka C, Ohya
  T, Shibuya K, Hara M, Matsuda K, Tsuda A, Kakuma T (2008) Scale
  properties of the Japanese version of the Strengths and Difficulties
  Questionnaire (SDQ): a study of infant and school children in
  community samples. Brain Dev, 30, 410-5.  Van Roy B, Veenstra
  M, Clench-Aas J (2008) Construct validity of the five-factor Strengths
  and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in pre-, early, and late
  adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 1304-12.
   Ford T, Hutchings J, Bywater T, Goodman A, Goodman R (2009)
  Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Added Value Scores:
  evaluating effectiveness in child mental health interventions. British
  Journal of Psychiatry, 194, 552-8.  Giannakopoulos G, Tzavara
  C, Dimitrakaki C, Kolaitis G, Rotsika V, Tountas Y (2009) The factor
  structure of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in
  Greek adolescents. Ann Gen Psychiatry, 8, 20.  Goodman A,
  Goodman R (2009) Strengths and difficulties questionnaire as a
  dimensional measure of child mental health. Journal of the American
  Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48, 400-3. 
  Janssens A, Deboutte D (2009) Screening for psychopathology in child
  welfare: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) compared
  with the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA).
  European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 18, 691-700. 
  Shahrivar Z, Tehrani-Doost M, Pakbaz B, Rezaie A, Ahmadi F (2009)
  Normative data and psychometric properties of the parent and teacher
  versions of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in an
  Iranian community sample. J Res Med Sci, 14, 69-77.  Syed EU,
  Hussein SA, Azam SI, Khan AG (2009) Comparison of Urdu version of
  Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Child Behaviour
  Check List (CBCL) amongst primary school children in Karachi. J Coll
  Physicians Surg Pak, 19, 375-9.  Goodman A, Lamping DL,
  Ploubidis GB (2010) When to use broader internalising and
  externalising subscales instead of the hypothesised five subscales on
  the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): data from British
  parents, teachers and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,
  38, 1179-1191.  Goodman A, Goodman R (2011) Population mean
  scores predict child mental disorder rates: validating SDQ prevalence
  estimators in Britain. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52,
  100-8.  Goodman A, Heiervang E, Fleitlich-Bilyk B, Alyahri A,
  Patel V, Mullick MS, Slobodskaya H, Dos Santos DN, Goodman R (2011)
  Cross-national differences in questionnaires do not necessarily
  reflect comparable differences in disorder prevalence. Social
  Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.  Richter J, Sagatun A,
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  Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) - self-report. An analysis of its
  structure in a multiethnic urban adolescent sample. Journal of Child
  Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 1002-11.


Many times this test is used in an attempt to discover if there are any psychopathologies in a certain sample or group of children/adolescents.  Don't let that fool you though - look at the sample survey sheet - you'll recognize that this can be used for nearly any purpose - which is part of the genius in it's design - which I believe you'll recognize.  Look at the above research titles to see what sort of studies this type of survey has been used in - it has a large scope and there have been a wide variety of instances where this test has been applied.