Community+engaged+service-learning

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**Community engaged service-learning: The effect on university students and community partners ** Susan Steele, Coordinator, Vandal Academic Support Services, University of Idaho [susans@uidaho.edu]


 * Keywords:** Quasi-experimental design, moral orientation, leadership identity development, altruistic attitude, ethic of service


 * Conference track:** Contexts and methods: Theoretical and conceptual frameworks, research designs, and methodological issues


 * Format:** Poster presentation

Service‐learning pedagogy is uniquely situated to assist in promoting an ethic of service, rooted in values that may be shared across cultural, religious, and political boundaries. This quasi‐experimental evaluation research study focused on the effect of a community engaged service‐learning experience on the moral orientation, leadership identity development, and altruistic service attitude of university students and the impact on their community‐partner at a mid‐sized university in the Pacific Northwest.
 * Summary**

Participants included 140 university students, enrolled in selected 100‐or 200 level introductory university courses. The intervention group participated in a service-learning project experience, the control group did not. Both were pre‐and post‐tested with the same instrument. University course assignments were used to reinforce and enhance the service-learning experience. From this program evaluative research framework, evidence was used to explain the potential impact and worth of university‐community based service‐learning on the respective university and community partner participants.

Moral orientation consists of the ethic of justice and the ethic of care as related attributes of moral reasoning orientation and was measured using the Measure of Moral Orientation-2 (Liddell, Halpin, & Halpin, 1992). Initial analysis of the online instrument with the pre‐post-test design showed that there was a statistically significant effect by gender (p < .05) for the ethic of care, but not for the ethic of justice. This reinforces the idea that moral reasoning education needs to be purposeful and practiced over time (Kohlberg, 1976; Reimer, Paolitto, & Hersh, 1990; Stoll & Beller, 1998). The modified Community Service Attitude Survey (Shiarella, 1998) measured seriousness and intention to serve, as well as service‐learning awareness and empathy, which also showed statistically significant increases (p < 0.05) as a result of the service‐learning experience. Community partner impact was assessed through survey and thematic analysis of open-ended questionnaires, written comments by administrators and community partner participants.

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