When the instructor isn’t enough
Student perspectives on pedagogical and structural innovations in transnational composition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32674/6b4rkh15Keywords:
transnational education, first-year writing, sociocultural theory, course design, educational developmentAbstract
This mixed-methods study, which is grounded in sociocultural theory, examines students’ perceptions of pedagogical effectiveness in a U.S.-accredited first-year composition course (ENG 1430) delivered face-to-face at a Sino-American transnational university in China. Survey data (N = 63) and semistructured interviews (n = 15) reveal two equally influential factors shaping student experience and writing development: (1) the instructor as the primary mediational scaffold within the zone of proximal development and (2) curricular and structural design features (class duration, workload distribution, grouping strategy, and assessment clarity). Despite strong writing self-efficacy (M = 5.01/7) and self-directed learning tendencies (M = 4.59/7), course enjoyment remained only moderate (M = 2.78/4), with students attributing this gap to structural constraints rather than instructor quality. Drawing on sociocultural theory and the process approach to writing, this study translates these student-generated insights into transferable design innovations for intensive writing courses in transnational higher education.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Liam Duffy, Huang Zheming, Zhu Xinyi, Shi Yiheng, Yvonne Cranmer
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