Personal growth and insight gained from an intergenerational service-learning course in Hong Kong undergraduate students

ABSTRACT

Thirty-six undergraduate students were required to complete a compulsory intergenerational service-learning subject that aims to develop them ability to communicate with elderly and apply essential principles to promote health in community setting. Students organized center activities or conducted home visits in nine weeks. A content analysis on students’ reflective essay after the intergenerational service-learning subject was conducted to evaluate their personal growth and insights into elderly community health services. Results indicated that students were able to apply the skills of health promotion, show empathy, identify needs of elderly services and build community engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Intergenerational service-learning
• health promotion
• personal growth
• community engagement

Acknowledgments

The author(s) wish to thank the students in the service-learning subject for their reflective journals, the senior management and centre staff from Sik Sik Yuen for the support to this project and providing the opportunity for the students to gain experience in service-learning, and academic colleagues Rebecca Lee, Winnie Ng, Alisa Wong and Wing Cheung who supervised the students during the services.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [ Project No: UGC/IDS24/18].