Today I’m pleased to share a research summary from Annie Wendel, a Providence College Graduate (Public and Community Service) who was central to the development of this website during the past year. Annie’s preparing to leave for a year in Nepal as a Fulbright Scholar, but she agreed to share her research before departing. The study examined the differential impact of course-based and non-course-based Alternative Spring Break programming. – EH

By Annie Wendel

My experiences as a Public and Community Service major over the past four years at Providence College have allowed me to explore service-learning opportunities in numerous locations, including Australia and the Solomon Islands, South Africa, and Mexico. Within the major, I have been encouraged to reflect on the implications of service and my relationship to the community. Through my time on campus, I have also witnessed the increasingly popular trend to participate in Alternative Spring Breaks and for students to have the important opportunity to become trip leaders and organizers.

While students return home from these trips saying, “the experience changed my life!” I was curious to examine what elements made the experience transformational and if the same experience could be transferred to students in a classroom environment. Reflecting on my personal and academic growth both in and out of the classroom setting, I designed a study to answer the following questions: Can global service-learning programs that do not have the accompanying required course component be as effective in helping students achieve the intended cognitive and attitudinal outcomes? Is a faculty-led course the only way to develop intercultural competency in student participants? If reflection is indeed at the center of service-learning pedagogy, how much is necessary to be done by a teacher or in a classroom setting? Can the same results be achieved through personal or small-group reflection?

Methodology

I chose to study the differences in cognitive and attitudinal outcomes of students who participated in the Providence College ASB program and students who were enrolled in a Global Studies ASB-centered course. The group of participants within the study was comprised of:

• Four student participants from each of the ASB locations (Pine Ridge (South Dakota), Mexico, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua)
• Two students exclusively enrolled in the Global Studies class
• Three students enrolled in the class as well as an ASB program (2 participated in the Nicaragua ASB and 1 in the Pine Ridge ASB)

Pre-trip interviews with all seven ASB participants were conducted leading up to departure to inquire about expectations and anxieties of the trip. The two class-only students were also interviewed to determine a baseline understanding of their perceptions about the communities that they studied. Individual semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted with all study participants within two weeks of returning from the ASB, arranged so that the class-based students had time to reflect in class on the first-hand experiences of their peers.

Findings

Benefits of a structured curriculum 

Overall, the findings suggest that students with a structured curriculum made more intended cognitive gains in the objectives as defined in the course syllabus, specifically in understanding the concepts of intercultural service and global citizenship. As a result, these gains prompt the need for facilitated discussion for all ASB participants in understanding intercultural service and impact on the community before, during, and after the immersion experience, especially for those students who are first-time participants. While it would be unrealistic to assume that the implications of intercultural service (or direct service in general) would be completely covered and understood though one semester of classroom instruction, it would provide students with the opportunity to discuss, effectively articulate, and make meaning of these concepts.

Based on the feedback from both groups of students, participants recognized the need to be more informed before participating in an immersion experience. Yet they also acknowledged the challenge of voluntary preparation, suggesting that more structure is needed for pre-departure orientation. It may prove beneficial to future ASB participants, particularly those with limited knowledge of the host culture, to require a cultural orientation activity prior to departure and/or require student trip leaders to complete an ASB-centered class to learn how to effectively lead group orientation and reflections.

Benefits of experiential learning

While the cognitive classroom-based learning is a necessary component to understanding the concepts of intercultural service and global citizenship, experiential learning of ASB trips also showed to have a positive impact on students who participated in a trip. ASB participants expressed the transformative psychological impact of their immersion experience, particularly their feelings of connection to community members and exposure to diversity. Additionally, they shared their experiences with peers back in the classroom, enhancing the required classroom reading and discussion.

Implications for the classroom

This personal sharing that occurred in the classroom can be modeled as a way in which to engage students who experienced pivotal moments with those who lacked the immersion experience. It is a starting point to the question of “how can students lacking the ASB experience not be left out of learning?” The interviews show that there is significant potential for in-depth cognitive reflection to accompany students’ experiential learning. Further consideration should be given to whether students must experience this connection to community and exposure to diversity or if this “second-hand” experiential learning in the classroom has as great of a psychological impact. The findings also indicate that the classroom has the advantage of being a space for debriefing for ASB participants who might not have been able to previously fully reflect on the experience.

Furthermore, there is a need to consider the role of the faculty advisor on the immersion trip. Recognizing that not all ASB participants would be able to fit this ASB course in their academic schedule, the faculty advisors may be able to help bridge this gap. While ASB participants have noted the importance of students retaining their autonomy as trip leaders, there is also potential in using the faculty advisor to address the above course learning objectives during group reflections before, during, and after the immersion experience.