Term of Award

Spring 2022

Degree Name

Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Rebecca Ryan

Committee Member 1

Ryan Couillou

Committee Member 2

Karen Naufel

Abstract

The current study sought to determine how community partners’ varying motivations for participating in collegiate service-learning programs relates to their perceptions of service-learning. Prior research has demonstrated a plethora of positive outcomes for students who partake in courses with service-learning requirements, but research investigating the outcomes for the organizations that host these students is less common, and research investigating the link between their motives and perceptions is nonexistent. Based on this gap in the literature, the quantitative, evidence-based Perceptions of Service-Learning Scale was developed for the current study to assess how community partners perceive their experiences with service-learning across four dimensions (university-community partnership, experience with students, cost-benefit analysis, and overall impact) as a function of their primary motivation for participating in service-learning. The four primary motivations were educating students, increasing capacity, improving relations, and securing support, although it should be noted that due to low sample size, the study was underpowered, and two of the four motive groups were excluded from analysis. The results of the one-way multivariate analysis of variance showed that the Educating Students Motive Group and the Increasing Capacity Motive group did not differ significantly in their scores, however, descriptive statistics revealed that the Educating Students Motive Group had higher scores on the scale and each subscale than the Increasing Capacity Motive Group. Potential reasons for these differences are discussed, as well as how these findings combined with further implementation of the scale can inform improvements in service-learning programming.

OCLC Number

1365384921

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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