Service Learning and Civic Responsibility: Assessing Aggregate and Individual Level Change

Abstract

This article was originally published by the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher EducationThis study sought to expand the extant literature regarding the effectiveness of a higher education service-learning project designed to increase students’ civic and socially responsive knowledge and intentions. A class with a semester long service-learning component was administered a pre- and post-test assessment using multi-item scales to determine if a student’s sense of civic responsibility would increase. Our hypothesis predicting overall mean or aggregate change in civic responsibility was not affirmed by the paired t-tests or analysis of covariance tests. However, using growth curve modeling, we investigated between-individual differences in within-individual change. The study’s results demonstrated that significant variation in individual differences between time one and time two did exist. Particularly noteworthy was the finding that previous service-learning experience, outside the classroom setting, predicted the level of civic attitudes and predicted the level and change of civic action