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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article15 (Dec., 2012) |
A group of 22 students and 2 staff leaders from the faculty of applied science of a tertiary institution were involved in the 11-day real-life events in a community of Chiang Rai, Thailand. Contact time was about 8 to 10 hours every day over a week. The cohort consisted of 12 graduating students, 8 third-year students and 2 second-year students. Comprised of local students, majority came from environmental science course while minority was from biotechnology and biomedical courses. The ratio of females to males was 1:2. The age range was between 18 and 22 years old.
A variety of methods was utilized in this study to gain an insight of the effectiveness of the CSL experience. This included an evaluation questionnaire, reflection questionnaire and reflection journal. The evaluation questionnaire, termed as Community Service Learning Questionnaire (CSLQ) consisted of 10 items: 1 question presented students with four choices ranging from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’; another presented them with only ‘yes’ or ‘no’ options; and remaining 8 statements were assessed with 5-point Likert scale (see Table 1). The statements of this questionnaire were adapted from Parker el al. (2009). The statements were modified to fit into the context of learning and the community (Hill Tribe village). Examples of the statements are “I established rapport with villagers at the Hill Tribe” and “I can see the link between what I learnt in PBL and the objectives of this SL.” The reflection questionnaire that was provided by the institution consisted of 7 open-ended questions for the students to reflect and share the CSL experience. 1 of these 7 questions also included four choices and students had to explain their selected choice. The reliability of the scale (Cronbach’s α) was .97 in this sample.
The questionnaires were administered to all student volunteers at the end of the CSL trip, in Chiang Rai. All of them responded to this evaluation questionnaire and reflection questionnaire. These students also submitted their reflection journals and the data was coded, with clustered categories and derived themes.
