1STATRE
As part of this service-learning project, we hypothesised that service learning significantly decreases selfish attitudes. We also hypothesised that there is a negative relationship between selfish attitudes and attitudes towards volunteering or community service.
Hypothesis 1
A t-dependent test revealed that students had significantly lower levels of selfish attitudes after service learning (M=24.48, SD=4.21) compared to before service learning (M=26.15, SD=4.19), t(39)=2.59, p<.05. Service learning is effective in decreasing selfishness.
Hypothesis 2
A Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient was used to determine whether selfish attitudes is related to attitudes towards volunteering using the pre-programme survey. No relationship was found between the variables (r=-.20, n=48, p>.05). Selfish attitudes were not related to attitudes towards volunteering or community service.
Discussion
The results revealed that service learning is an effective tool to decrease people’s selfishness. It will be a valuable addition to schools, institutions, and workplaces to develop compassionate people who think not only for themselves but for others around them too. This is congruent to my personal experience of this service-learning project. Although at the start my focus was only on doing well for my grades, engaging with the children has turned my focus from academics to more of the growth of the children. I sincerely enjoyed the sessions with them and I even felt sad when the programme came to an end. It made me really happy to see that my work had an impact on the children, and this increased my motivation to see beyond personal gains and have the urge to want to help more people. I also know of some of my classmates who after the project expressed their interest to continue investing their time to volunteer at the student care centre for long term. This shows that service learning has inspired them to use their time for more other-focused reasons.
Results also show that a less selfish person may not necessarily be more willing to volunteer. This might be because the person is generally not selfish when it comes to people directly around them, like friends and family, but that does not mean that they will actively seek opportunities to help someone they do not know. On the other hand, a person who is seemingly selfish is also capable of sincerely wanting to help others, just that they may at times focus on themselves more. I personally am selfish in some aspects like believing that one should live for themselves and look after my personal interest, but I also have the urge to be in a helping profession and engage in community services. During this service learning project, although all of us had our grades in mind, but I could also see that we really put in effort to make the programme engaging for the children, and during those few hours with them our focus is really all on allowing to learn and have fun at the same time.
Future studies
Since this service-learning project was with primary school students, it would be beneficial to have future studies focusing on service-learning with other populations like the elderly and youths to see if the population of beneficiaries affect the experience of students. Service-learning programmes could also be done in companies where people are of older ages or in education institutions where students are younger than the tertiary students in this study. This can give a broader view about whether service-learning have the same effects of different age groups and hence whether service-learning should be implemented in other places apart from schools. It could also be beneficial to examine the relationship between attitudes towards volunteering and other variables like personal growth initiative, so community engagement can be increased by targeting those variables if a significant relationship is found.
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