Analyzing student journals in a service-learning course.

Abstract

Most service-learning courses utilize the amount of reflection in student journals as a means of assessing learning. This qualitative study analyzes student service-learning journals in a first year experience program. Intended outcomes of increased community awareness, improvement of personal skills, and self-discovery were evident in the journals. Developmental themes of identity exploration and career development emerged from the first year student journals. Service-learning courses should incorporate developmental issues into curricula to maximize the experience for students.

Reflection is key for students in service-learning courses to link the concrete experience to more abstract learning (Hatcher & Bringle, 1997; Goldsmith, 1996). Students engaging in service can become so entrenched in their lives, their university studies, and the logistics around the service-learning experience that they may not take the time necessary to reflect and learn from their experience. Daudelin (1996) describes reflection as "the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences; learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a guide for future behavior." This reflection, then, is not just an exercise but rather is the path toward learning.

Service-learning, in particular, requires a higher amount of reflection since the experience itself serves as the primary resource of information. Students generally are given credit for the learning that takes place and not for the hours of service (Howard, 1993). But, documenting learning in service-learning courses is nebulous. Learning can take place in a variety of domains: personal development, attitudes, beliefs, and civic engagement. Consequently, journals become an ideal mode of documenting learning and enabling students to reflect as well. Most service-learning courses utilize journals as one source of reflection (Eyler, Giles & Schmiede, 1996; Goldsmith, 1996; Kendrick, 1999). Hatcher and Bringle (1997) advise that journals should be directly tied to course objectives and the format of the journal should follow those objectives. Under the best circumstances, the reflection and learning evident in journals meet course objectives.

Goldsmith (1996) points out that service-learning journals help students heighten observational skills, process information, explore feelings, evaluate their service project, increase communication when the journal is shared, increase writing skills and fluency, and build citizenship. Eyler, et al. (1996) describe that journals are beneficial to students for personal development, connecting to others, and understanding others. In particular, they note that the journal "can become a useful focus for reflection on personal growth and changing perceptions" (p.78). However, this implies that those are the goals of the service-learning experience. Journaling is a means for measuring outcomes, but there may be unintended outcomes that emerge from the service-learning journaling process. Because service-learning includes reflection as part of the learning process and keeping a journal also involves reflection, students are poised for a synergistic reflective experience, yielding learning in ways not explicitly denoted in learning outcomes (Goldsmith, 1996; O'Grady, 2000). Evidence is clear that service-learning is beneficial. Kraft (1996) describes how service-learning has been noted historically to reduce prejudice, increase self-worth and insight, increase open-mindedness, increase self-esteem among a variety of other benefits. Service-learning also improves academic skills, particularly writing skills (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000). Civic engagement and greater social responsibility have been linked to service learning experiences for college students (Eyler, 2000). When couched in the reflective process, service-learning positively influences students (Eyler, 2000; Hatcher & Bringle, 1997; Kraft, 1996).

From a developmental perspective, service-learning serves as a facilitative process in continuing introspection and identity formation for college students. In particular, first year students transition from high school to the college campus and move from adolescence into what may be deemed "emerging adulthood," a relatively new term for the period of the lifespan from the late teens to the early twenties (Arnett, 2000). These emerging adults continue to explore life's opportunities but do so more autonomously than adolescents and distantly from the family of origin but do not perceive themselves as "adults." At the same time, emerging adults are beginning to make more life-directing decisions and are simultaneously given more options for those choices (Arnett, 2000). The college experience has become a primary force in shaping emerging adults, allowing them to develop as individuals, explore their identities, expand their thinking, and interact with others. Universities, to support student development, provide educational and recreational programs to help students learn to cope, to manage money, to study better, to learn about relationships, and to get a job. Freshman Experience or First Year Experience programs strive to ease the transition for students, to foster a sense of belonging for the students, and to help the students succeed in university study. In addition, the First Year Experience can help the students through this "emerging adulthood" period where they have many choices and are making life-altering decisions. Put together, the service-learning experience and First Year Experience program can create a climate for internal change for the students. Students moving into adulthood, defining themselves as university students, and being coached to reflect on their service learning yields a transformation in what students learn.

The learning that takes place and the changes that students undergo as a result of the first-year program and service-learning experience are not easily assessed through quantitative measures. A qualitative approach better captures the underpinnings of the transformation of students in their own words, specifically in journals. These journals assess how much students are learning but also serve as a touchstone to the transformation. The goals of the program can be assessed by what the students describe in journal entries. However, because of the reflection required, students may demonstrate learning that is unintended. They learn something that was not specifically targeted but is deemed meaningful by the individual student. Using a qualitative approach, first-year students' service-learning journals are investigated on how students describe their learning, intended and unintended, in relationship to service-learning outcomes.

Method

Participants Students enrolled in a yearlong Freshman Experience program completed journals during the spring semester in which service-learning was required. The course met for two hours a week, and students were required to complete 30 service-learning hours during the course of the semester. Each student submitted six, two-page journals over the semester. Some of the journal topics were prescribed, (e.g., "What is the Mission of your agency?") and others were relatively open (e.g., "Check in on your service-learning experience."). In total, 63 journal entries from 17 students in the Spring 2000 class and 85 entries from 19 students in the Spring 2001 class were analyzed. Journal entries were copied from the students' portfolios (with consent) for this study. Although each student was to complete six journals over the semester, not all entries were submitted in the final portfolio so only those available are included in this study.

Procedure The researcher read each journal entry and used a grounded theory approach to analyze the entries (Glaser, 1998). Grounded theory requires that the qualitative data be reviewed and that the researcher form the meaningful conceptualizations (concepts) of what is being observed or investigated. Then, these concepts are compared to create emergent themes or categories. The emergent themes then formulate propositions, which describe the conceptual relationships among the categories. In this study, any time students noted a piece of learning or greater understanding of themselves it was documented for analysis (a concept). For example, one student wrote, "I know that for me this opportunity has given me the chance to meet new people." This type of example was noted as evidence of learning. Upon analyzing the journal excerpts of learning, themes of learning began to emerge (categories), forming the basis of the results (propositions). The journals were co-read by a colleague to establish reliability of the coding. Most of the evidence of learning written by the students fit under one of the themes. There was no consistent pattern for those that did not coincide with a theme and are not reported here.

Results

Students documented their experiences through journal entries. Some students superficially described the routine tasks undertaken during each visit to the service-learning site. Some students directly answered the prescribed questions without much reflection. The majority of students, however, included instances of reflection describing the learning that they recognized during their service-learning experience. These cogent statements created five themes recurring across the journals: learning about community, recognition of improvement of personal skills, self-discovery, exploration, and career development. The first three follow typical patterns of service-learning outcomes (Eyler, et al., 1996). The latter two themes were not anticipated as outcomes of service learning. Selected excerpts for each theme follow.

As expected in a service-learning program, these students described their increased understanding of the surrounding community.

* "I try not to look at this service learning site as a job but as a way to pay back to the community for all it has provided me with." Female student placed in an afterschool program.

* "Seeing this being reality now rather then [sic] just a TV show I realize that this world can be more of a difficult world for some then [sic] to others." Male student placed in a school tutoring program.

* "Our [service-learners'] understanding of community need is also increasing." Female student placed in an outreach program.

Students described the personal skills improved during the service-learning experience.

* "In addition, I learned to handle rejection and not blame myself for having no success with the soapbox [a student government outreach program where students can speak out on the quad]." Male student placed with the student government.

* "Amazing as it sounds I actually feel more comfortable speaking in public than I ever have. I did not think reading stories to kids in front of a class would help me to build confidence in public speaking but it has." Male student placed in a school tutoring program.

* "During my time volunteering, I have learned how to have patience." Male student placed in an afterschool program.

* "You might think these are small elements that are no big deal but believe it or not it's [service-learning] all I have right now that makes me feel confident about myself and makes me feel like someone." Male student placed in a school tutoring program.

* "I have become more compassionate towards others and I listen to everyone's opinion rather than judging some before I hear them." Male student placed in a university outreach program.

Students described their self-discovery of aspects of who they are.

* "This [service-learning] experience made me realize that I cannot work with children in large groups, in a setting such as that of a teacher." Female student placed in an after school program.

* "I got a reflection on how I felt when I was younger. My parents also didn't speak or read English. I was also poor and financially unstable. I was also in special classes like these in elementary [school], but now I was the leader, now I was the role model." Male student placed in a school tutoring program.

* "Sometimes I can be too lenient but now I am starting to show them who is in charge." Female student placed in an afterschool program.

Increased understanding of the community, improvement of personal skills, and self-discovery are all intended outcomes of the first year, service-learning experience for students. The service-learning opportunity combined with the reflective activity of journaling creates the forum for these intended outcomes to emerge. On the other hand, the reflective experience of journaling spurred the emergence of two unintended outcomes. Students described their own developing identities and talked about issues of career development.

Students described their recognition of how service-learning allowed them to explore beyond their usual notions of themselves and develop their identities.

* "If I hadn't been [sent to the service-learning site] than [sic] I would be the same old Suzanne who was scared of her own shadow." Female student placed in a social research center.

* "It's [service-learning is] pretty interesting and fun because I'm learning and doing things that I never really tried before." Female student placed with the campus Women's Center.

Students used the service-learning experience as a means of career development.

* "The experience that I have gained from service-learning will integrate into my educational plans. Since business is my major, I need to have skills dealing with people on the job." Male student placed with the student government.

* "Being that I am going to become a child psychologist, this has led me to realize that this is a career I do want to pursue." Male student placed in an adolescent detention facility.

* "Dealing with the children taught me how to tolerate the attitudes of the children and teach and instruct them in playing together and crafts. It is almost the same as dealing with mean executives conducting meetings and charting graphs, so the skills I got at the Boys and Girls Club are somewhat similar in the depiction of my major and career." Male student placed in an afterschool program.

* "I have always wanted to practice medicine, and this project helped me realize that I wanted to go into pediatrics, or pediatric surgery." Male student placed in an adolescent detention facility.

Discussion

Journals for first-year students in service-learning serve as a way to induce introspection and reflection and to document changes during the experience. First-year university students are in the midst of solidifying their campus identities and their personal identities as well. The service-learning experience can then serve as a catalyst or medium for transformation. However, students are emerging adults, with complementary issues and personal goals that may deviate from stated learning outcomes. As emerging adults, students are still finding their own identities. They are trying to figure out how they fit in as students on campus and as members of the community. These first-year students access the journaling process as means of clarifying their own development. Based on the evidence from the student journals, the goals for service-learning experiences during the first year may need re-evaluation. These first year students reflected on their experiences in the areas of self-discovery, refinement of personal skills, community, and career development. Since these are developmentally appropriate for this stage in the lifespan, the self-exploration and the career exploration should be incorporated into first-year, service-learning programs. Students will address those issues de facto. Realigning service-learning courses to incorporate developmental issues helps to make the experience more reflective and transformational. If ignored, the students find ways to meet their developmental needs themselves or distance themselves from the experience because there are unaddressed in the experience (Eyler & Giles, 1999).

The developmental needs of the students must be taken into consideration when designing a service-learning program. As demonstrated in this study, students will reflect on how service-learning affects their evolving identities and their clarification of career goals whether or not it is intended by the program designers. Instead, service-learning programming could meet intended goals, such as increasing student understanding of the community, and also provide a novel experience in career development issues as well. For example, a student who is majoring in business could be placed in a service-learning experience with mentoring about non-profit agency management. By ignoring the developmental needs of students, an opportunity for greater learning is lost. Reflection is paramount for students engaging in service-learning. Rice and Pollack (2000) write that "developing this capacity for self-reflection--a trait not encouraged in our fast-paced 'been there done that' society--is therefore and important aspect of critical service learning pedagogy" (p.133). In order to make service-learning pedagogy more responsive to the participants and the community, developmental issues need to be incorporated into the self-reflection. By doing so, the service-learner will learn more and find the experience more fulfilling.

References

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.

Astin, A. W., Vogelgesang, L. J., Ikeda, E. K., and Yee, J. A. (2000). How service-learning affects students: Executive summary. Retrieved January 3, 2002 from UCLA, Higher Education Research Institute Website: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/slc/rhowas.html.

Daudelin, M. W. (1996). Learning from experience through reflection. Organizational Dynamics, 24, 36-48.

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Eyler, J., Giles, D. E., & Schmiede, A. (1996). A Practitioner's Guide to Reflection in Service-learning: Student Voices and Reflections. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.

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Howard, J. (1993). Praxis I: A faculty casebook on community service-learning. Ann Arbor, MI: Office of Community Service-learning Press, University of Michigan.

Kendrick, J. R., Jr. (1999). Building campus-community connections: Using service-learning in Sociology courses. In J. Ostrow, G. Hesser, & S. Enos (Eds.), Cultivating the sociological imagination: Concepts and models for service-learning in Sociology (pp.39-53). Washington, DC: AAHE.

Kraft, R. J. (1996). Service Learning: An introduction to its theory, practice, and effects. Education and Urban Society, 28, 131-159.

O'Grady, C. Integrating service learning and multicultural education: An overview. In C. O'Grady (Ed.), Integrating Service Learning and Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities, 1-19.

Rice, K. & Pollack, S. (2000). Developing a critical pedagogy of Service Learning: Preparing self-reflective, culturally aware, and responsive community participants. In C. O'Grady (Ed.), Integrating Service Learning and Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities, 115-134.

Robert S. Weisskirch, California State University, Monterey Bay 

Dr. Weisskirch is an Assistant Professor of Human Development. He has taught a variety of human development, service learning, and fieldwork courses.