Service-learning impact on community engagement : from the graduates\u27 perspectives

Service-Learning (S-L) is pedagogy that has been newly introduced into Hong Kong\u27s higher education institutes. Thus, most local, recent studies focus on implication and evaluation of the S-L program for the existing students. There is lack of study about the long-term impact of S-L, especially for graduate students. Lingnan University (LU) as the only liberal art university in Hong Kong, aims to equip LU students with whole person development skills, as well as the capability to serve the community in the future. The Office of Service-Learning (OSL) was established in 2006 to promote S-L in Lingnan, echoing the university\u27s motto Education for Service. A study was conducted in 2011 to investigate the long-term impact of S-L on graduates\u27 whole person development skills, community engagement and career exploration. In this paper, we will focus on investigating the long-term impact of S-L on graduates\u27 community engagement (measured by civic responsibility) in terms of three subdomains: connection to community, civic awareness and civic efficacy. The comparison result between 424 graduates with S-L experience and 345 graduates without S-L experience will be used in this paper. The most prominent finding shows that graduates with S-L experience had significant higher scores than graduates without S-L experience in civic responsibility (Mwith S-L experience=5.80, SD=1.20; Mwithout S-L experience=5.16, SD=1.47; t=6.57,