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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article15 (Dec., 2012) |
The results of this CSL study were positive, as supported by the research findings (Eyler & Giles, 1999; Parker et al., 2009). Eyler & Giles reported that 80% of 1100 students agreed that their service learning experience was ‘good or excellent’. Conrad and Hedin (1991) reported that service learning offers connection between academic contents and real world problems.
Through engagement between the academic contents in school and real-world problems in authentic setting (i.e. CSL), students build their competence as they have more control over their learning, hence promoting positive learning (Billig, 2006; Scales, Roehlkepartain, Neal et al.,, 2006). CSL provides the characteristics of effective learning environment as students were more engaged in their learning and had better understanding on purpose of bioreactors. What they had learnt in classroom in terms of theory and principle of biogas might not appear meaningful to them till they had experienced the real process of constructing the bioreactor. They also learnt how to make the bioreactor works so as to produce sufficient biogas for cooking purpose. Therefore, such experiential learning had provided them invaluable experiences including meaningful learning through integration of classwork and community life (Zeidin, 2004; Scales et al., 2006).
Specific comments such as ‘meaningful’, ‘eye-opener’ and ‘significant impact’ suggested that students perceived the community service experience as being beneficial to their learning and an opportunity to achieve positive outcomes. These were consistent with findings of Markus et al. (1993), as community service has many creditable or commendable purposes and outcomes. Community service not only fulfills civic responsibilities to the community, but also enables one to gain insights that are beneficial to the personal and career development.
On the contrary, this study had several limitations. As it was not a compulsory module, the ratio of staff to students was 1:11. Hence, the sample size was not big enough to conduct a large-scale quantitative research. The maximum number of students that could take for each overseas trip was around 22 students. The adjustment of sample size would have to take into consideration to permit more students to be exposed to CSL for each trip. As this is an exploratory study conducted in a tertiary institution, there is a need to conduct further research on the educational outcomes of CSL.
In addition, majority of the students came from environmental science background. Minority of them were from biotechnology and biomedical science background. It will be more relevant if the participants came from environmental science field as they had gained theoretical knowledge of bioreactor’s construction and biogas production; hence, more applicable to the practical aspects in Chiang Rai. However, the knowledge of biogas and its principle were not too abstract for the biotechnology and biomedical science students. They could pick up the theory fairly well during the pre-trip preparation.
Last but not least, the self-evaluation for this community service experience and participation may be biased which led to more favorable responses on the assessment instruments. Students with prior community service experience might have a significantly greater change in their responses to survey questions than those who have no prior experience (Piper, DeYoung & Langsam, 2000). In this study, 50% had prior experience whereas the remaining 50% did not have any. The motivation level of these students may differ. For instance, the ones with prior experience commented that this CSL trip was one of the transformational experiences whereas the ones without prior experience responded positively that this trip was the most transformational one (Table 2). Nevertheless, service learning experience is active and dynamic. The results might be biased due to the subjectivity of the evaluation tools. However, the main objective was to assess the students’ perceptions of service learning in a rural community context which proved to be a success. In addition, the students were more aware of their own learning and value of community service experience based on reflection questionnaire.
Aligned with the aims of this research, participants should understand the purpose of this CSL and have clear understanding of their expectations. The briefing and introductory sessions prior to the CSL trip should be conducted in clear and systematic manner. There is a necessity for participants and staff leaders to avoid any mismatched expectations which may result in conflicting interests and disagreements during the trip.
The partnering non-governmental organization and community partners must work with institution closely to ensure that CSL is structured and carried out properly. This is important as the structure and context of CSL should be consistent to the learners’ outcomes. For future application of CSL into school curriculum, detailed planning and implementation time must be supported.
In conclusion, although this study was considered as a small-scale research, its findings could be considered as a preliminary platform to conduct more of such research in future. The future agenda will consider the longitudinal study of service learning and a larger scale of study.
