Effects of Service Learning on Physical Education Teacher Education Students' Subjective Happiness, Prosocial Behavior, and Professional Learning.

Oscar Chiva-Bartoll,Carlos Capella-Peris,Pedro Jesús Ruiz Montero,Celina Salvador-García

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00331

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the effects of a service learning (SL) program on the subjective happiness (SH), prosocial behavior (PB), and professional learning (PL) perceptions of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students as well as to examine the correlations among these variables.MethodsThe study used a quasi-experimental design of two non-equivalent groups (control and experimental) comparing pre-test and post-test data. The instruments used were the Subjective Happiness Scale, the Prosocial and Civic Competence questionnaire, and the Impact of Service Learning during Initial Training of Physical Activity and Sports questionnaire.ResultsData indicated that SL only had a significant influence on SH when the students compared themselves with their peers. On the other hand, the effect of SL on promoting PB and PL perceived was significant in several of their dimensions. Finally, the results showed a greater correlation of the perceived PL with the PB than with the SH.Discussion/ConclusionThe results of the study provide educational researchers with valuable information to better understand how SL influences the training of PETE students.

Highlights

Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students require a break from traditional methodologies and demand new avenues that give them maximum prominence
While analyzing the effect of service learning (SL) on prosocial behavior (PB), it was found that improvement in the students of the experimental group was notable
Results related to Subjective happiness (SH) indicated that, in our study, SL had a limited influence on it, the literature presents mixed positions

Summary

Introduction

Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students require a break from traditional methodologies and demand new avenues that give them maximum prominence. There is no doubt that one of the aims of the current Physical Education lies in responding to the needs of the society of the XXI century (Metzler, 2017) In accordance with this view, SL is a teaching methodology that seeks to develop academic and professional competencies while providing community service to meet social needs (Capella-Peris et al, 2020). Various works in the field of PETE have shown that SL increases the students’ knowledge of the curriculum as well as perceived applied skills (Galvan et al, 2018) This fact reinforces the idea that SL represents a great opportunity to develop professional skills combining both theory and practice. Several studies have analyzed the effect of SL academically and professionally (Galvan et al, 2018; Capella-Peris et al, 2020), while other works have focused on the impact of this teaching method from a social standpoint (Domangue and Carson, 2008; Gil-Gómez et al, 2015; Whitley et al, 2017)

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