Participatory learning design and student well-being in Sino-foreign higher education: engagement and inclusive climate as psychological pathways

Abstract

Background Sino-foreign higher education requires students to coordinate academic participation, multilingual communication, intercultural adjustment, and peer collaboration. This study examined whether creative and participatory learning design was associated with student well-being, collaborative engagement, and intercultural learning, and whether student engagement and inclusive learning climate functioned as psychological pathway variables. Methods Survey data were collected from 373 undergraduates enrolled in Sino-foreign cooperative programs, followed by semi-structured interviews with 10 students to contextualize the quantitative results. Partial least squares structural equation modeling and bootstrapped mediation analyses were integrated with thematic analysis of the interviews. Results Creative and participatory learning design was positively associated with student engagement, inclusive learning climate, student well-being, collaborative engagement, and intercultural learning. Student engagement and inclusive learning climate statistically accounted for part of the associations between learning design and all three outcomes. Interview narratives provided context suggesting that psychological safety, affective support, language negotiation, and intercultural meaning-making may qualify the observed associations. Conclusion Participatory learning design appears to be a psychologically relevant correlate of students’ experiences in transnational classrooms. Inclusive, dialogic, and participatory pedagogies warrant longitudinal and intervention-based evaluation; the present cross-sectional findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects.