First-Year Student Motivations for Service-Learning: An Application of the Volunteer Functions Inventory

Abstract

This study extends a line of research focused on motivational factors that contribute to first-year students' reasons for engaging in service-learning. Among first-year students, altruistically-motivated students (Christensen, Stritch, Kellough, & Brewer, 2015) and minority students (Pearl & Christensen, 2016) were not only more knowledgeable of service-learning upon entering college but they were also more interested in enrolling in service-learning. The present study employs the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (Clary et al., 1998) to explore the extent to which student traits are correlated with various motivations to enroll in service-learning courses. We examine student responses to the VFI survey instrument using multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA). Our findings establish a foundation that better accounts for students' "inputs" in order to better understand various service-learning outcomes. We discuss the implications of our findings as they relate to higher education administrators and instructors in order to close the gap between service-learning interest and enrollment, and to provide students with service-learning experiences that satisfy their motivations and help them achieve their goals.

When Does Service-Learning Work? Contact Theory and Service-Learning Courses in Higher Education

“…_____ Students are asked to reflect on their own values and identity as part of the service project. (Christensen, Stritch, Kellough, & Brewer, 2015) and minority students (Pearl & Christensen, 2016) were not only more knowledgeable of service-learning upon entering college but they were also more interested in enrolling in service-learning. The present study employs the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (Clary et al, 1998) …”

“…We fully acknowledge that this is an overly reductive view of race; however, this was necessary for the purposes of our analyses given our sample size. Through qualitative analysis, Pearl and Christensen (2016) found that minority students may be interested in fulfilling different needs by enrolling in service-learning than White students. Consequently, the first model we ran includes only race as a grouping variable, the second model includes gender as a single grouping variable, the third model includes both race and gender as grouping variables, and the final model adds the interaction of race and gender as a grouping variable.…”

“…The present study extends a line of research focused specifically on motivational factors that contribute to new students' reasons for engaging in service-learning. Among first-year students, altruistically-motivated students (Christensen, Stritch, Kellough, & Brewer, 2015) and minority students (Pearl & Christensen, 2016) were not only more knowledgeable of servicelearning upon entering college, but they were also more interested in enrolling in service-learning. The present study continues this line of exploratory motivations-as-antecedents research by employing the Volunteer functions Inventory (VfI, Clary et al, 1998) to begin to better understand the extent to which student traits are correlated with various motivations to participate in service-learning.…”

“…In a qualitative analysis of open-ended student responses, Pearl and Christensen (2016) found that minority students report that they may be interested in fulfilling different needs through participation in service-learning than White students. In particular, minority students indicate that they are more driven by the public service aspect of service-learning than its academic aspects, suggesting that the gaps in participation rates in service-learning courses may, at least in part, be due to the fact that minority students can fulfill these motivations through other voluntary activities.…”

“…further, the academic component of service-learning may, in fact, be perceived as a barrier to service-learning participation if the primary goal of the student is to provide service to the community. Pearl and Christensen (2016) emphasize the importance of initiating conversations related to the differing motivations of students, including how those may relate to gender or race, in order to provide experiences that meet their needs and goals.…”