ABSTRACT

This paper reports the results of an action research project on improving students’ learning from international service-learning. Participants were two consecutive cohorts of university students enrolled in nine international service-learning projects. Mixed-method findings from the first cohort reveal significant increases in their global competence and intercultural effectiveness but not their social responsibility or global civic engagement. Targeted improvement actions were planned and implemented accordingly for the subsequent cohort, resulting in significant increases in their social responsibility in addition to global competence and intercultural effectiveness scores. No significant increase, however, was found in students’ global civic engagement. The findings suggest that action research can be an effective strategy to improve students’ global citizenship and intercultural effectiveness development from international service-learning, and that explicit and intentional elements are needed in the learning and reflective activities to develop these attributes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

摘要

本文报告了一项关于从国际服务学习中提高学生学习能力的行动研究项目的结果。参与者是参加九个国际服务学习项目的连续两组大学生。第一个队列的混合方法结果显示，他们的全球能力和跨文化有效性显着提高，但他们的社会责任或全球公民参与没有显着提高。为后续队列相应地计划和实施了有针对性的改进行动，除了全球能力和跨文化有效性得分外，他们的社会责任显着增加。然而，学生的全球公民参与并没有显着增加。研究结果表明，行动研究可以成为从国际服务学习中提高学生的全球公民意识和跨文化有效性发展的有效策略，并且在学习和反思活动中需要明确和有意的元素来发展这些属性。讨论了对实践和未来研究的影响。