Transformation and Development of University Students through Service-Learning: a Corporate-Community-University Partnership Initiative in Hong Kong (Project WeCan)

Abstract

As service-learning is still at its infancy in Hong Kong, there is a need to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of service-learning projects and bring important implications to the curriculum. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a service-learning initiative that involved a corporate-community-university partnership (Project WeCan). In total, 138 university students (service providers) were included. We evaluated the project through three mechanisms. First, pretest and posttest data showed that students changed in the positive direction in terms of the intended learning outcomes in the civic engagement, cognitive and academic domains. Second, students showed positive changes in terms of psychosocial competencies and self-leadership. Finally, qualitative analyses of the reflective journals showed that students demonstrated positive changes in the areas of social responsibility, interpersonal competence, and intrapersonal skills. The findings underscore the utility of service-learning as an effective pedagogy to promote holistic development of university students.

Subjective Outcome Evaluation of Service-Learning by the Service Recipients: Scale Development, Normative Profiles and Predictors

“…It provides a validated measure that can be used by practitioners and researchers in the future. Second, this study reinforces the findings that the corporate-university-community partnership model may have a positive influence on both the service providers and service recipients (Shek et al 2019b).…”

“…Similarly, SL can promote youth development based on the 5C/6C model of Richard Lerner (Lerner et al 2011, p. 9) where SL can help to promote "connection", "competence", "confidence", "character", "contribution", and "care" of the service recipients. Previous studies have showed that SL subjects were able to promote PYD attributes in students (e.g., Shek et al 2019b).…”

Serving Children and Adolescents in Need during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluation of Service-Learning Subjects with and without Face-to-Face Interaction

“…Compared with the FTF teaching/learning mode, a lack of FTF interaction poses a greater challenge to the delivery of service learning, which involves experiential learning through engagement in community service [ 8 ]. Although many evaluation studies have investigated FTF service learning [ 9 , 10 , 11 ], whether service learning can be successfully implemented without FTF interaction is unknown. This paper reports how a credit-bearing service-learning subject was transformed from an FTF mode into a non-FTF (nFTF) mode in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…The service targets are children and adolescents with various special needs who live in Hong Kong and mainland China. In Hong Kong, the service targets include school children and adolescents with emotional or behavioral problems from Society of Boy’s Centres, pre-school children with intellectual difficulties or development disorders from Heep Hong Society, and adolescents from local schools who are underachieving academically with social deprivation [ 11 , 20 ]. Service activities are designed according to the specific needs of the service targets, such as tutorial, extracurricular class, day camp, and campus visit.…”

“…Students organize a five-day summer camp, in which they offer multiple programs in English, science, health, and personal development and also train children to perform in a closing ceremony. Several preliminary evaluation studies have tested the effectiveness of the subject in the location of Hong Kong [ 11 , 20 , 41 ]. The results showed that students experienced significant improvement in cognitive development, positive youth development competence, and service leadership qualities but not in civic development.…”