Integrating Service-Learning Pedagogy Into Community College Coursework

Timothy Leonard, Patrick Flink

OAI: oai:igi-global.com:245771 • DOI: 10.4018/IJITLHE.2020010103

Developmental students face significant academic and life challenges as they pursue a college degree. As students in developmental studies often struggle to complete their courses, research focused on innovative pedagogy that engages students while developing skills is needed. This project sought to investigate implementing an on-campus, service-learning (SL) component into developmental reading courses. Students participated in SL by reading to children at the on-campus Early Childhood Center (ECC) one time per week, during scheduled class, with time provided for structured metacognition through reflective journals. A phenomenological approach was used for this study, and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to examine responses and note trends in data. It was found that students who participated in SL as part of their developmental reading course reported multiple positive effects such as developing a positive academic mindset, improving self-efficacy, and increasing motivation to read.

Higher Education Education Higher Education