Does doing good lead to feeling good? Reflections and insight on service learning: The students' perspective
Hannah Barton (Institute of Art , Design & Technology Dun Laoghaire)
Abstract
John Dewey (1938), the architect of American progressive education, described education as involving “the full range of the students’ life experiences, not just the academic experience”.
Mezirow (2000) defines transformative learning as “learning that transforms problematic frames of reference - sets of fixed assumptions and expectations – to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective, and emotionally able to change”. This paper discusses how one pedagogical method, service learning, can be used to facilitate this type of experiential learning and fulfill the function of education as envisaged by Dewey. Service-learning promotes its objectives to increase opportunities for students in the community, strengthen community relationships, and provides integrative learning experiences for students (Gray et al., 1999 in Bordelon and Phillips, 2006).
This paper assesses the pedagogical and personal benefits of service learning within the Social Psychology module in Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) from the perspective of the student. For the past four years, all third-year Psychology students are required to complete more than 25 hours of service within the community and complete a reflective learning journal of the experience. An on-line qualitative and quantitative questionnaire was completed by more than 60 students who had completed the mandatory service learning assignment. Furthermore, 30 of these students completed Rhyff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being before and after the service learning assignment, to assess any personal growth, meaning in life and autonomy changes that might have resulted from the experience.
Research showed that the initial motivation of the students in carrying out the project was to simply complete the course requirement; the potential for finding out about themselves and the need to build up relevant experiences for their Curriculum Vitaes for postgraduate courses were also cited. There was also, in more than a quarter of the participants, considerable resistance to the project with fear, time-poverty and “the issue of the relevance of service learning to a psychology course” as the main arguments raised against completing the service learning, before the assignment started.
The paper concludes with some personal reflections on the changing experience of integrating service learning into a psychology course in order to develop civic engagement.
References
Bordelon, T. & Phillips, I. (2006). Service learning: what students have to say? Active Learning in Higher Education. Vol.7 (2), 143 -153.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan.
Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning as Transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
