Perceptions of Chinese international students’ learning approaches in Australian universities: a co-constructed model

ABSTRACT

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese international students (CIS) still comprise the largest international cohort in Australian universities. However, limited research has examined perceptions of CIS’ learning approaches in Australian universities from the broader context of the students themselves and their Australian lecturers. This study explored how CIS and their Australian lecturers perceived CIS’ learning approaches in Australian higher education. Interviews were conducted with 10 CIS and 10 Australian academics from two Australian universities. The findings demonstrated that CIS’ learning approaches were a co-constructed process for both CIS and their lecturers to jointly perceive the context, and actively co-construct learning and teaching through mutual negotiation and adaptation. Drawing upon Biggs’ 3P model, a Co-constructed Model of Learning and Teaching (CMLT) was developed to assist CIS and their lecturers to maximize their international education experience. This study has captured voices of CIS and their lecturers, enabling a greater understanding of their learning and teaching in Australian universities to emerge. A significant contribution of this study is to build the CMLT framework to facilitate international students and their lecturers to gain the most from their international education, and thus be embedded into the internationalized teaching and learning literature, particularly regarding Chinese students in Western universities.

KEYWORDS:

• approaches to learning
• Chinese international students
• Australian academics
• co-constructed learning
• Australian universities

Acknowledgements

Boli Li was supported by a tuition-fee scholarship from the Faculty of Education and Arts, later the School of Education, Federation University Australia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. ^①②One of the conditions of the ethics application was that the two universities involved in the study would remain anonymous, thus the name of the universities have been cited as “Metro University” or “Regional University”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Boli Li

Boli Li (corresponding author) is an Associate Professor at Chongqing Technology and Business University, China, and Federation University of Australia. As a productive scholar, Boli has published around 30 academic papers, and chaired and participated in more than 10 research projects in the field of education. Her current main research interests are student learning approaches, curriculum design and teacher development. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6599-6959. Email: [email protected]

Jenene Burke

Jenene Burke is a Professor at Federation University Australia. As a teacher educator and researcher, Jenene’s research mainly centres on educational responses to student diversity with respect to inclusive education and disability studies in education. She is particularly known for her world-class research into play spaces as inclusive environments for children and their families. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6624-0360. Email: [email protected]

Margaret Plunkett

Margaret Plunkett is Associate Professor, Federation University Australia and Monash University, Australia. Margaret’s main area of interest is the field of gifted education with a particular focus on provisioning for highly able rural students. Her other research interests include teacher education, particularly relating to mentoring partnerships in professional placements, and also alternative educational settings such as the School for Student Leadership. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3952-622. Email : [email protected]