Service-Learning as Entry Into or Enhancement of University Volunteering? Student Characteristics at an Elective Service-Learning Institution

Abstract:Service-learning is a pedagogical practice that enhances university coursework through volunteering. Current challenges for the field are understanding the benefits of service-learning in relation to volunteering and with regard to pre-service student characteristics. Although students are the focus of service-learning research and practice, understanding how institutions structure service-learning is needed to appreciate its benefits. A model of institutional structuring of service-learning (offered or not, elective or mandatory) is presented. The model is used to inform a study of the academic, psychological, and prosocial characteristics among 266 undergraduate students enrolled in an elective service-learning course at a single large Canadian public university. The study revealed four groups of students: (a) service-learners with prior volunteer engagements, (b) volunteers, (c) non-volunteers, and (d) service-learners with no prior volunteer engagements. The paper is the first to identify and examine service-learners with no prior volunteer engagements and to situate these students in the context of other service-learners, volunteers, and non-volunteers. Although service-learners with prior volunteer engagement resembled volunteers, service-learners with no other volunteer engagement differed from all other groups. The findings are discussed with regard to the benefits of service-learning and volunteering in a variety of institutions.