Lavanya BALACHANDRAN*, Sue CHANG-KOH, and LIM Xin Yi
College of Alice & Peter Tan (CAPT)
Balachandran, L., Chang-Koh, S., & Lim, X. Y. (2023). Unpacking students’ development of empathy and skills in the informal curriculum of a residential college in Singapore [Poster presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/unpacking-students-development-of-empathy-and-skills-in-the-informal-curriculum-of-a-residential-college-in-singapore/
SUB-THEME
Communities and Education
KEYWORDS
Service-learning, community engagement, student-led, empathy, skills, learning outcomes
CATEGORY
Poster Presentation
ABSTRACT
Service-learning has been identified as an effective pedagogy for students across various age cohorts (Steinke & Fitch, 2007) with many benefits such as cognitive development and personal growth (Everhart, 2016), including empathy development (Gordon et al., 2022). This is because service-learning programmes provide the platform to engage with various communities and real-world issues where students gain ‘ground-up’ knowledge and acquire skills (Prentice & Robinson, 2010).
In Singapore, service-learning pedagogies have been incorporated into the curriculum of public schools and institutes of higher learning (IHLs) (Service learning and greater flexibility for incoming undergraduates at NUS, 2021; Tan, 2009). Additionally, some IHLs have also incorporated them into living and learning programmes (LLPs), which are residence-based programmes that focus on specific academic themes, through formal and informal curricula (Inkelas, 2008; Mukhopadhyay & Tambyah, 2019).
This poster presentation draws from a qualitative research study conducted in a Singapore undergraduate residential college (henceforth referred to as the college) that has community engagement (CE) and active citizenship as its core ethos. In particular, it examines the impact of student-led CE programmes in the informal curriculum focusing on how empathy and skills—two out of the four intended learning outcomes (ILOs) of the CE programme in the college—are perceived to be developed, enhanced and sustained for students.
This study is based on in-depth interviews with 19 students over their two-year residency in the college. The interviews were conducted in three phases, spanning the residency period to track the students’ aspirations, expectations, and perceptions of their CE experiences. Thematic coding was conducted using NVivo to analyse the interview data.
Findings from this research suggest that:
(a) CE programmes effectively facilitate the development of empathy in students when grounded in curated, intentional learning experiences. Meeting and engaging with the various communities experientially catalyse affective empathy development, especially when augmented by other learning modalities, including pre-engagement and post-reflection activities.
(b) the type of student involvement results in differentiated pathways in skills acquisition. Leaders and non-leader participants have different tasks and expectations of their engagements. Hence, their varied experiences in these CE programmes result in the acquisition of different skills.
This research sheds light on how the adaptation of service-learning in the informal curriculum of a residential college, particularly when reconfigured into student-led programmes, significantly impacts on student learning. It also highlights the importance of focusing on experiential learning and providing opportunities for role variety in these programmes, as they enhance the development of empathy and skills in students. This study also provides suggestions to expand on these findings to explore how students should leverage different CE opportunities and explore various participatory roles to maximise their learning outcomes.
REFERENCES
Gordon, C. S., Pink, M. A., Rosing, H., & Mizzi, S. (2022). A systematic meta-analysis and meta-synthesis of the impact of service-learning programs on university students’ empathy. Educational Research Review, p,37, 100490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100490
Everhart, R. S. (2016). Teaching tools to improve the development of empathy in service-learning students. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 20(2), 129-54. https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/1281
Inkelas, K. K. (2008). Innovative directions for living-learning programs research and practice. Journal of College and University Student Housing, 35(1), 8–13.
Mukhopadhyay, K., & Tambyah, S. K. (2019). Where freshmen aspirations meet reality: Factors Influencing the learning outcomes of a living-and-learning program in an Asian university. Higher Education Research and Development, 38(5), 1015–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1598337
Service learning and greater flexibility for incoming undergraduates at NUS. (2021, February 26). NUS News. https://news.nus.edu.sg/service-learning-and-greater-flexibility-for-incoming-undergraduates-at-nus/
Prentice, M., & Robinson, G. (2010). Improving student learning outcomes with service learning. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535904.pdf
Steinke, P., & Fitch, P. (2007). Assessing service-learning. Research & Practice in Assessment, 2, 24–29. https://www.rpajournal.com/assessing-service-learning/
Tan, K. P. (2009). Service learning outside the U.S.: Initial experiences in Singapore’s higher education. PS: Political Science & Politics, 42(3), 549–57. https://doi.org/10.1017/s104909650909088x