Published In

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Subjects

Citizen participation, Civic engagement, Educational planning

Abstract

Purpose – This investigation sought to identify learning outcomes for undergraduate students at a US college enrolled in community-based learning courses. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences between American students' and international students' development of leadership skills through senior level service-learning (SL) courses and analyzed the role of teaching methods on those outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Over 150 SL courses from students representing 30 countries were examined at a major university in the USA. US and non-US student leadership and learning outcomes were cross-tabulated with instructional techniques to analyze for statistically significant differences. Findings – Facilitating leadership skill development is a function of utilizing transformational rather than traditional classroom teaching techniques. Practical implications – Transformational teaching and learning methods such as collaborative projects, student-selected readings, and group decision-making in SL courses help transform students' views of themselves, their communities, and the world as they consider their roles as leaders in an unscripted future. Originality/value – Few studies have examined the instructional elements in SL that transform student knowledge and leadership skills especially across such a breadth and variety of SL courses and student cultural backgrounds.

Rights

This article is © Emerald Group Publishing. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1863613

Description

Final Version title: "A Transnational Comparison of Service-Learning As a Tool for Leadership Development."

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/9852

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