scholarly journals Self-Efficacy and Civic Engagement in Undergraduate Students: Empirical Results of a Service Learning Program in Thailand

Author(s):  
Prasart Nuangchalerm

The environmental and cultural problems in Thailand are large and widely distributed. To address these problems, public awareness must be raised and all sectors of society must assume their civic responsibilities to assist in sustaining both our environment and the local culture. This study sought to engage undergraduate students in civic engagement projects in order to enhance their self-efficacy to address such problems through service learning experiences. One hundred and ninety six undergraduate students participated in a general education course on civic education during the first semester of 2012. This course provided students the opportunity to explore theoretical aspects of citizenship as well as the opportunity to practice community service. Such community service allows the students to experience and learn how the community members live. Data was collected by a variety of methods; self-efficacy questionnaires, student reports, journal writing and reflections, and interviews. Findings revealed that the students had high levels of self-efficacy and increased their levels of civic engagement through the community service conducted.

Author(s):  
William Oakes ◽  
Maeve Drummond ◽  
Carla Zoltowski

Engineering Projects in Community Service— EPICS — is a service-learning program that wasdeveloped nearly twenty years ago at Purdue University.Under this program, undergraduate students inmultidisciplinary teams earn academic credit for longtermprojects that solve technology-based problems forlocal or global community service organizations. TheEPICS model has been implemented at 23 universities inNorth American and on other continents. With itsemphasis on the start-to-finish design of significantprojects that will be deployed by the communitycustomers, EPICS addresses many of the programoutcomes mandated by ABET and the CEAB and, morebroadly, to meet the Washington Accord graduateattributes. This paper describes the curricular andassessment procedures and documentation that have beendeveloped to enhance and evaluate the students' abilitiesto meet outcomes including functioning onmultidisciplinary teams; communicate effectively; andunderstand the impact of engineering solutions in aglobal and societal context.


Author(s):  
Victoria Calvert ◽  
Halia Valladares Montemayor

  In Mexico, the community service strategy and requirements for undergraduate students are both longstanding and mandated by the Mexican Constitution. Students undertake a minimum of 480 hours of service during their undergraduate degrees, which are coordinated through their universities’ Social Service (SS) departments. Many Canadian universities and colleges offer community service through courses and volunteer programs; however, the practice and adoption levels vary widely. Student involvement with community partners, as represented through community service-learning (CSL) and volunteerism in Canada, are sponsored by many post-secondary institutions but are not driven by a national agenda. While, in Mexico, community service is documented at a departmental and institutional level for reporting to stakeholders and the government, in Canada, documentation of community service varies with the institutional mandate and is often sporadic or non-existent; the imperative for systematic student engagement and citizenship development has not been recognized at the national level. This research paper provides an overview of the community engagement practices in both countries, with the national patterns represented through a summative review of selected Canadian and Mexican universities. Suggestions for processes and practices for Canada are proposed based upon the Mexican model.


Author(s):  
Jana Grekul ◽  
Wendy Aujla ◽  
Greg Eklics ◽  
Terra Manca ◽  
Ashley Elaine York ◽  
...  

This paper reports on a pilot project that involved the incorporation of Community Service-Learning (CSL) into a large Introductory Sociology class by drawing on the critical reflections of the six graduate student instructors and the primary instructor who taught the course. Graduate student instructors individually facilitated weekly seminars for about 30 undergraduate students, half of which participated in CSL, completing 20 hours of volunteer work with a local non-profit community organization. We discuss the benefits of incorporating CSL into a large Introductory Sociology class and speculate on the value of our particular course format for the professional development of graduate student instructors. A main finding was the critical importance to graduate students of formal and informal training and collaboration prior to and during the delivery of the course. Graduate students found useful exposure to CSL as pedagogical theory and practice, and appreciated the hands-on teaching experience. Challenges with this course structure include the difficulty of seamlessly incorporating CSL student experiences into the class, dealing with the “CSL”/ “non CSL” student division, and the nature of some of the CSL placements. We conclude by discussing possible methods for dealing with these challenges.  


Author(s):  
Lori Simons ◽  
Lawrence Fehr ◽  
Lake Greene

This chapter describes lessons learned from students involved in a service-learning program in an urban school district during the past 15 years. A total of 729 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course took part in the study. Students completed a survey at the beginning and end of the course. The findings indicate that academic-based service-learning and cultural-based service-learning contribute to different learning outcomes. Academic-based service-learners develop intercultural relationships with service recipients and community partners and acquire an understanding of social disparities in the community while cultural-based service-learners develop interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Students also appeared to make meaning out of their diverse service experiences and acquired a deeper understanding about how social responsibility is part of their role as preservice teachers in their school community. Implications for incorporating CBSL strategies in a teacher education program are discussed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 276-297
Author(s):  
Mei-Ying Chen ◽  
Fu-hsing Su

This study observed the feasibility of a general education course in facilitating global civic engagement for twenty-six participants from a Taiwanese university. Such a commitment was considered crucial to the fostering of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural understanding of immigration and new immigrants as a global issue within the Taiwanese context. Oral presentations, film/video watching, and service learning sessions were arranged to promote critical appraisals of things, persons, and issues related to foreign ethnicities and cultures. Data of the study consisted of relevant writings produced by the participants. The results of analyses revealed that the participants developed an awareness of persons, things, and issues that were cross-ethnic or cross-cultural in nature. Consequently, they achieved attitudinal and perceptional change of foreign ethnicities or cultures or generated critical appraisals of specific things or issues. Additionally, a considerable number of them displayed motivational readiness for global civic engagement.


Author(s):  
Lori Simons ◽  
Lawrence Fehr ◽  
Lake Greene

This chapter describes lessons learned from students involved in a service-learning program in an urban school district during the past 15 years. A total of 729 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course took part in the study. Students completed a survey at the beginning and end of the course. The findings indicate that academic-based service-learning and cultural-based service-learning contribute to different learning outcomes. Academic-based service-learners develop intercultural relationships with service recipients and community partners and acquire an understanding of social disparities in the community while cultural-based service-learners develop interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Students also appeared to make meaning out of their diverse service experiences and acquired a deeper understanding about how social responsibility is part of their role as preservice teachers in their school community. Implications for incorporating CBSL strategies in a teacher education program are discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai-Kuen Leung ◽  
Wen-Jing Liu ◽  
Wei-Dan Wang ◽  
Ching-Yu Chen

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