Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study

It is essential to have engaged citizens for a functioning democracy. Consequently, educational processes must foster the active engagement of citizens. This could be enabled by the concept of service learning. Empirical studies on the effects of service learning on civic responsibility are ambiguo...

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Main Authors: Karl-Heinz Gerholz, Julia Holzner, Andreas Rausch
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria 2018-06-01
Series:Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung
Online Access:https://www.zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/article/view/1142
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author Karl-Heinz Gerholz
Julia Holzner
Andreas Rausch
author_facet Karl-Heinz Gerholz
Julia Holzner
Andreas Rausch
author_sort Karl-Heinz Gerholz
collection DOAJ
description It is essential to have engaged citizens for a functioning democracy. Consequently, educational processes must foster the active engagement of citizens. This could be enabled by the concept of service learning. Empirical studies on the effects of service learning on civic responsibility are ambiguous, however, a positive trend can be described. Retrospective self-disclosure of students, which is normally used in empirical studies, is impaired by memory effects. For this reason, this study is process-oriented with a weekly reflection in the form of a journal. The claim of the study is to explore key situations in the service learning module, which stimulate the students to think about civic engagement in society. The results show that key situations occur in interacting processes between the partner of the charitable organizations and the fellow students, as well as during the scientific work on the service project. Therefore, the interaction among students also seems relevant for triggering the consideration of civic engagement. This indicates that regarding service learning courses, students can be stimulated to find their own role in a society and position concerning civic engagement, but less so to foster a willingness to be engaged.
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spelling doaj.art-90e94e4c28e640069fab99e6e61e7ec32023-09-06T07:30:32ZdeuForum Neue Medien in der Lehre AustriaZeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung2219-69942018-06-0113210.3217/zfhe-13-02/04Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical StudyKarl-Heinz GerholzJulia HolznerAndreas Rausch It is essential to have engaged citizens for a functioning democracy. Consequently, educational processes must foster the active engagement of citizens. This could be enabled by the concept of service learning. Empirical studies on the effects of service learning on civic responsibility are ambiguous, however, a positive trend can be described. Retrospective self-disclosure of students, which is normally used in empirical studies, is impaired by memory effects. For this reason, this study is process-oriented with a weekly reflection in the form of a journal. The claim of the study is to explore key situations in the service learning module, which stimulate the students to think about civic engagement in society. The results show that key situations occur in interacting processes between the partner of the charitable organizations and the fellow students, as well as during the scientific work on the service project. Therefore, the interaction among students also seems relevant for triggering the consideration of civic engagement. This indicates that regarding service learning courses, students can be stimulated to find their own role in a society and position concerning civic engagement, but less so to foster a willingness to be engaged. https://www.zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/article/view/1142
spellingShingle Karl-Heinz Gerholz
Julia Holzner
Andreas Rausch
Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung
title Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
title_full Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
title_fullStr Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
title_full_unstemmed Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
title_short Where Is the Civic Responsibility in Service Learning? A Process-oriented Empirical Study
title_sort where is the civic responsibility in service learning a process oriented empirical study
url https://www.zfhe.at/index.php/zfhe/article/view/1142
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