Service-Learning or Internship: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Experiential Learning Pedagogies

Abstract

Experiential learning pedagogies, including internship and service-learning experiences, are becoming increasingly popular in higher education. An internship engages students with hands-on experiences that enhance their learning or skills within their fields of study. In contrast, service-learning is a type of experiential education in which students participate in service, typically within the community, and reflect on their involvement to gain further understanding of the discipline as well as its relationship to societal needs. To date, no study has directly compared these teaching modalities. Therefore, the present study systematically evaluated a service-learning experience against an internship experience using a mixed-methods model with the primary outcome being student self-efficacy. Sixteen exercise physiology students (13 females) completed a community-based wellness internship with a subgroup (nine students, 7 females) allocated to a service-learning component of internship designed to improve self-efficacy. At the end of the semester, students completed a 15-item online self-efficacy and satisfaction survey. Three focus groups were conducted in which 3-4 participants responded to a series of nine questions that explored their experience. Overall responses to the self-efficacy and satisfaction survey were favorable for both groups, but the internship group was more likely to agree or strongly agree with statements of self-efficacy. Focus groups found that the internship experience reinforced classroom learning, but the ability to work with different populations and ability levels was mentioned only by the service-learning group. Themes from reflective assignments, such as engaging with community members and professional exploration, were evident only in the service-learning group responses. Therefore, the findings indicate that service-learning reflection assignments successfully connect the service experience to relevant course outcomes promoting student development but may not improve self-reported self-efficacy beyond that of a typical internship experience.

Coverage and treatment of qualitative inquiry in general research methods textbooks.

“…To complement our examination of coverage, we examined how qualitative inquiry was presented to readers across the textbooks. As two of the textbooks (Leary, 2012; Morling, 2018) essentially excluded qualitative inquiry, the findings in this section were primarily drawn from the seven textbooks that covered qualitative inquiry at least minimally 3 . We found that detailed descriptions of qualitative inquiry’s history, current status, and future in psychological research were largely absent from the textbooks.…”

“…The coverage of qualitative inquiry—defined by the proportion of pages, chapters, and visuals—differed substantially across the nine textbooks and was low overall. Specifically, two of the textbooks (Leary, 2012; Morling, 2018) excluded an explicit discussion of qualitative inquiry from the entire main text and all locators (i.e., table of contents, glossary, and subject index). Of the seven texts that did include explicit mention of qualitative inquiry, five (Lewandowski et al, 2019; Nestor & Schutt, 2018; Patten & Newhart, 2018; Privitera, 2017; Shaughnessy et al, 2015) contained focused coverage, defined as containing at least one full chapter dedicated to qualitative inquiry and more than five distinct mentions of qualitative inquiry in any of the locators.…”

“…We found that these research methods/methodologies were present across all sampled textbooks except one (Morling, 2018); however, the authors differed as to whether they connected the research methods to qualitative inquiry. While seven of the texts presented these methods as forms of qualitative inquiry, one (Leary, 2012) introduced them under broader sections named for nonexperimental, descriptive, or observational methods without explicit mention of qualitative inquiry. So, although textbook readers are introduced to a set of methods commonly associated with qualitative inquiry, the introductions did not consistently present qualitative inquiry as an explicit set of approaches to psychological research.…”

Influencia del aprendizaje-servicio universitario sobre la competencia profesional en estudiantes de titulaciones de actividad física y deporte

“…En este sentido, la percepción de utilidad social que el ApSU proyecta en el currículum universitario suele ser más notable en mujeres que en hombres, acompañándose de una visión más comprometida con los colectivos vulnerados y sociedad en general (Newsham et al, 2021). En otro estudio llevado a cabo con alumnado universitario del área de salud y AFD, se muestra la reflexión social que el ApSU provoca en el alumnado implicado, especialmente en mujeres (Leary & Sherlock, 2020).…”

Experiential Teaching is more Conducive to Student Learning than Traditional Teaching

“…These are difficult to generate in an education where information is received passively. Reflection in the experiential learning process promotes higher-order process reasoning and holistic thinking by learners to achieve stated goals (Leary & Sherlock, 2020). In this process, students continually review the experience and how they think about the goal until they succeed.…”