Toys for Friends (TFF): A Community Service Learning (CSL) to Cultivate Social Responsibility among Primary School Students

Abstract

Service Learning (CSL) is an academic learning approach that integrates community service and academic content to enhance each other. Literature on CSL focuses heavily on the learning outcomes of the participants specifically service providers and very few looked into the backbone of the CSL, which is its framework and learning modules. Therefore, this study aims to examine the extent to which a CSL initiative, Toys for Friends (TFF) is effective in fostering social responsibility among students (service providers and service recipients), specifically by looking into its framework and learning modules. TFF was designed to bring together two Malaysian primary schools from different socioeconomic brackets: one serving as a service provider school involving privileged students and the other as a receiving school involving underprivileged students. This study acts as a preliminary study to identify areas that need to be improved before the implementation of the TTF to ensure its successful execution. This study was qualitatively designed. The data were collected via structured interviews with ten tertiary academic staff who had experience participating in community service-learning programmes. A thematic analysis was performed on audio-recorded interview data. The findings identified four significant themes which are, (1) fostering social responsibility among all key players, (2) bridging community gaps through the two-pronged CSL approach, (3) promoting social responsibility through learning modules, and (4) providing opportunities for face-to-face meetings among participants. The findings suggest that students would be able to acquire social responsibility while simultaneously enhancing their English language proficiency through participating in TFF. This study provides insights into useful aspects and strategies for CSL curriculum designers to consider when designing programmes to ensure that both service providers and service recipients gain social responsibility and experience effective learning. Keywords: Community Service Learning (CSL), English Language learning, primary school students, social responsibility, Toys for Friends (TFF)