Students’ perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning in transnational higher education in China: implications of the intercultural dialogue framework

ABSTRACT

Despite the rapid development of TNHE over the past decade, research studies on students’ perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning at TNHE programmes in China are very limited. Using both surveys (328) and follow-up interviews (40) from students at two Anglo-Sino programmes, this study explores students’ perceptions and experiences of teaching and learning in TNHE in China. Drawing on the five components of the intercultural dialogue framework, this paper reveals that Chinese students’ experience of teaching was fragmented not least through a mixture of cultural approaches to pedagogy including a teacher-centred approach by the local Chinese teachers and a student-centred approach by the foreign teachers, with the latter generally preferred by the students. The findings yield several important implications for contextualized curriculum and careful consideration of the TNHE learning environment in China.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• transnational higher education
• teaching and learning
• effective teaching
• Intercultural dialogue framework

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation [grant number 2019A1515110873]; the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [grant number 20YJCZH091].