Service-learning: impacts of learning motivation and learning experience on extended social/civic engagement

ABSTRACT

Service-learning (SL) integrates academic curricula and practical experiences to deliver social services to communities. By participating in a SL program, students’ prosocial behavior can be nurtured once they are appropriately motivated and supported. This study investigates students’ different motivations to join SL programs, the enjoyableness of their learning experiences, and whether they intend to engage in future social/civic activities. A mixed-methods approach, combining a questionnaire survey and an interview study, was adopted in two student cohorts in a fashion-related SL program in Hong Kong over two consecutive years. The results demonstrated that students held positive views of the program. However, different types of motivation had different impacts on learning experiences and learning outcomes. Extrinsic motivation was more complicated than intrinsic motivation and, thus, generated controversial results. Furthermore, learning experience had a mediating role that partially explained the association between motivations and extended social/civic engagement. The findings deepen our understanding of the role of SL in nurturing students’ prosocial behavior, generating implications for the design of similar programs while providing references for future studies in SL.

KEYWORDS:

• Service-learning
• learning motivation
• learning experience
• social/civic engagement
• mixed-methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).