Service-Learning and Chinese College Students' Knowledge Transfer Development.

Cong Wang,Yulan Li,Fangfang Guo,Meilin Yao,Wenfan Yan

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.606334

Abstract

As a form of experiential education, service learning (SL) shows great potential for promoting students' knowledge transfer as it offers students opportunities to apply what they have learned in classrooms to serve communities in real-life contexts. To explore how students' knowledge transfer evolves during SL, we collected longitudinal survey data from 96 Chinese college students in a 9-week SL program. Results indicate that (a) students' perceived knowledge transfer in SL did not follow a linear trajectory. Although students' perceived knowledge transfer at the end of SL was significantly higher than those at the beginning, a slight drop was observed in the middle of SL; (b) the developmental pattern of perceived knowledge transfer varied across students; and (c) students' perceived knowledge transfer development during SL was associated with mastery goal orientation and perceptions of psychologically controlling behaviors from their SL supervisors. By providing evidence of the dynamic process and mechanisms of students' knowledge transfer development, the present study adds to our understanding of how, when, and why the benefits of SL are realized.

Highlights

Knowledge transfer, the ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in school into a new situation, is an important indicator of educational success (Bransford and Schwartz, 1999; Wang et al, 2020), for college students, as most of them will enter the workforce after graduation and will be expected from their employers to apply what they have learned in college into authentic situations
While there are a number of perspectives to view student knowledge transfer development, the current study focuses on mastery goal orientation and perception of psychological control, as these two factors are well-grounded in the literature of education as consistent predictors of educational success (Kaplan and Maehr, 2007; Senko et al, 2011; Soenens et al, 2012; Ryan and Deci, 2017)
No significant difference was found between Stages 2 and 3, we observed a slight drop in the level of perceived knowledge transfer during Stage 3. students’ perceived knowledge transfer rose to a high point and peaked during the last stage of the 9-week Service learning (SL) program. students’ perceived knowledge transfer during Stage 4 was significantly higher than those in Stage 1 (p

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in school into a new situation, is an important indicator of educational success (Bransford and Schwartz, 1999; Wang et al, 2020), for college students, as most of them will enter the workforce after graduation and will be expected from their employers to apply what they have learned in college into authentic situations. While there are a number of perspectives to view student knowledge transfer development, the current study focuses on mastery goal orientation and perception of psychological control, as these two factors are well-grounded in the literature of education as consistent predictors of educational success (Kaplan and Maehr, 2007; Senko et al, 2011; Soenens et al, 2012; Ryan and Deci, 2017). Belenky and Nokes-Malach (2012) studied 104 undergraduates to investigate how students’ achievement goals interact with different forms of instruction to enhance transfer They found a positive impact of mastery goal orientation on transfer. For RQ3, based on the literature we reviewed, we expected that mastery goal orientation would facilitate students’ perceived knowledge transfer development in SL, while perceptions of psychological control would hinder the process

Participants

Procedures and Measures

Students’ Perceived Knowledge Transfer Fluctuated Across Four Stages of SL

DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT