Assessing the Effects of Experiential Learning: An Experimental Test

• In Event: TLC at APSA Technology and Innovative Pedagogy Track Panel 1: Community Engagement and Experiential Science

Abstract

Scholars have long emphasized the benefits of experiential and service-based experiences in human learning and development (e.g. Dewey 1897; Kolb 1984; Giles, 1991, Boud et. al, 1993; Cantor, 1995.) In the context of higher education, service learning has increasingly been seen as an avenue for enhancing civic awareness and political engagement (Markus et al 1993, Bennion and Laughlin, 2018) and for promoting intergroup relations and reducing intergroup prejudice (Erikson and O’Connor, 2012).

Applying the lessons of contact theory (Allport 1957) to experiential learning has been theorized as a route for increasing programmatic effectiveness, creating positive consequences for outgroups (Erikson and O’Connor, 2012) and promoting social justice (Glennon, 2004). However, no current study has conducted an experimental test of contact theory in the context of experiential/service-based learning in higher education. A randomized experimental design helps avoid a potential selection bias that exists among most assessments of service based learning to date (Celio et al, 2011).

In this study, I avoid a possible selection bias by randomly assigning undergraduates to an experiential learning experience as a part of their coursework in an upper-level race and politics course in the spring 2020 semester. All students enrolled in the course (70) will be given an “out-of-classroom” assignment for completion credit, but only half (35) will be assigned to the contact treatment condition. This treatment is participation in a 2-hour citizenship class at a local immigration organization. These classes run for 10 weeks each term and as volunteers, students directly engage with immigrants in pursuit of naturalization.

The citizenship class condition offers an ideal venue for testing Allport’s Intergroup Contact hypothesis (1957), which identifies four key conditions for positive effects of intergroup contact: equal group status within a situation, goal-oriented effort, intergroup cooperation and support from authorities, law, or custom. Undergraduate students and immigrant participants in citizenship course will all be under the instruction of the directors of the program and will have a shared task for each session: following a guide and completing a handout/flash cards on a range of topics on American politics and government. Each undergraduate student will be working directly with one or multiple citizenship class participants.

The students randomly assigned to the control condition (35) are instead assigned to a 2-hour presentation at a local African American museum at the end of the spring 2020 semester. During this visit, students will not interact directly with community members, other than the museum curator. They will take a tour of the museum, learn about the exhibit, and engage in dialogue with the curator and their course instructor.

To assess the effects of this experiment, student attitudes are collected at three points in time. First, anonymous surveys are administered both before and after the experiential learning assignments. These surveys assess group attitudes, intergroup anxiety, outgroup norms and general attitudes on American politics and policy. They also double as an avenue for introducing key concepts and measures that are covered in their race and politics course throughout the semester. In a later follow-up (after the conclusion of the semester), a third, short survey will be sent to assess the possible duration of the contact treatment on intergroup attitudes.

The prediction is that students who are assigned to the treatment visit to the immigration organization will demonstrate more positive feelings, have higher levels of trust, and lower levels of prejudice and intergroup anxiety about immigrants. There is no expected effect on intergroup attitudes as a result of the museum visit.

Because the treatment is short in duration, this experiment serves as a very conservative test of contact theory. Longer term service projects are seen as most effective (Niemi et al 2000). But if positive effects on intergroup attitudes are found after a shorter experience (a 2-hour citizenship class), this will have significant implications for future service-learning projects, as shorter experiences can be more easily executed in a single semester and they allow for participation of a larger number of students.

Author

• Brittany N. Perry, Texas A&M University