Understanding Chinese Learners in Transnational Higher Education in China

Abstract

Chinese students have become the largest share of international students in many countries. Meanwhile, the number of transnational higher education (TNHE) programmes has reached a new high in China. This makes it exceptionally important for teachers whose own cultural and educational background are very different from Chinese to understand their learners. The study set out to better understand Chinese students in TNHE by studying a case of a Sino-Anglo cooperation university in China. The foreign teachers' and foreign students' views on Chinese students were collected and juxtaposed with Chinese students' own accounts. The qualitative study finds many commonly cited features of East Asian students evident in this research context. However, this study gains insights of these phenomena and strategies from the very experienced expatriate teachers, who demonstrated a good understanding of their Chinese students. The authors propose a new approach to teach Chinese students. This study is believed to be of reference to teaching in TNHE in vast contexts with students from Confucian heritage cultures (CHC).