In transit: Cross-cultural differences in international students’ constructively aligned learning experience

Constructive alignment is widely promoted as a culturally neutral framework for outcome-based higher education, yet most evidence for its benefits comes from Western settings and focuses on positive outcomes. This study examined whether international students' home learning culture moderates the associations between perceived constructive alignment and learning motivation, cognitive load, and academic stress. In a three-wave survey, 129 first-year international students at an English‑medium university in Germany reported on one constructively aligned class across a semester. At T1, they rated the clarity of learning outcomes, alignment of teaching activities and assessments, and feedback effectiveness. Motivation (competence self-perception, enjoyment, usefulness) and cognitive load (intrinsic and extraneous) were rated at T2, and academic stress (workload- and expectations-related) at T3. Moderated linear regression analyses showed that higher perceived alignment was linked to stronger motivation in European students, but these benefits were attenuated in students from instructor‑centred traditions: the competence benefit was weaker for Gulf Cooperation Council students, and the enjoyment and usefulness benefits were weaker for Confucian Heritage students. Perceived alignment robustly predicted lower extraneous cognitive load across all groups, with no reliable cultural moderation. In contrast, alignment was associated with lower expectations-related stress in European students but with higher workload- and expectations-related stress in Confucian Heritage and Gulf Cooperation Council students. These findings suggest that constructive alignment is not culturally neutral: for students from instructor‑centred learning cultures, the same design features that support motivation can simultaneously heighten stress, underscoring the need for culturally responsive implementation in internationalised higher education.