University Teachers' Perspective on Service-Learning: Teacher Characteristics and Teaching Quality Predict Student Learning

• In Event: Multidimensionality of Service-Learning in Pre- and In-Service Teaching

Abstract

While previous studies confirm the overall positive results of service learning (SL) in higher education, determinants of this effect remain largely unclear. Building on previous models and results in educational research, teacher characteristics and teaching quality are assumed to be part of these determinants. Therefore, the study aims to examine their relationship with student learning in SL. Using exploratory best subsets regression analyses and subsequently a path model, teachers’ knowledge and skills, their motivation and attitudes towards teaching, as well as teaching quality, can explain vast proportions of the variance in teachers’ perspective on their students’ learning outcomes. Results and implications for a preliminary framework describing the process of learning and teaching in SL in higher education are discussed.

Authors

• Julia Mordel, Goethe University

• Holger Horz, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt