Location
MD202, Paul Cardinal Shen Medical Building, Fu Jen University
Start Date
29-5-2015 1:30 PM
End Date
29-5-2015 2:40 PM
Description
Background: The course of philosophy of life was introduced into the Fu Jen Catholic University undergraduate curriculum three decades ago with an aim to help develop students' critical thinking abilities and transform their perceptions of themselves, others, and the world in which they live. Service-learning has been integrated into the course in the late 1990s by the instructors in favour of the pedagogy of learning-by-doing. Studies suggest that students in the course integrating service-learning have undergone certain degree of transformations in the way they think, behave, and feel. However, few studies have looked into the processes by which these hanges have happened.
Objectives: This narrative research sought to find out how college students perceive the process of their perspective transformation through service-learning.
Research Methods: From a social constructivist perspective, holding that knowledge is co-constructed through a process of inter-subjective meaning making and story-telling, I adopt a qualitative narrative approach to the research. Nine participants were selected using a purposive sampling method. The sample is taken from students currently enrolled in the course philosophy of life at Fu Jen Catholic University and the selection criteria are spelled out as follows: 1. having successfully completed twice for 6-8 hours of service learning in the same institution, 2. having claimed to have had a deep transformative experience, and 3. recommended by their respective philosophy of life course professors. The data were co-constructed between the researcher and the 9 participants using a semi-structured in-depth interview approach. Interview data were analysed using the holistic-content and the category-content approaches proposed by Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber (1998). I adopt a reflexive attitude throughout the entire research process and make transparent to the reader those aspects of myself available to my consciousness. In doing so, I invite readers to assess the methodological and interpretative decisions which I made and come to their own conclusions about the trustworthiness of my research.
Results: The core themes emerging from the study were (1) crossing boundaries, (2) dissonance, (3) critical reflection, (4) connecting, and (5) intent for changes, which represent college students' perceptions of their perspective transformation process through service-learning.
Recommended Citation
Liou, C.-P. (2015, May). Discovering new selves: College students' perceptions of their perspective transformation through service-learning. Paper presented at the 5th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning: Love Journey: Community Engagement through Service-Learning, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan.
Included in
Discovering new selves : college students' perceptions of their perspective transformation through service-learning
MD202, Paul Cardinal Shen Medical Building, Fu Jen University
Background: The course of philosophy of life was introduced into the Fu Jen Catholic University undergraduate curriculum three decades ago with an aim to help develop students' critical thinking abilities and transform their perceptions of themselves, others, and the world in which they live. Service-learning has been integrated into the course in the late 1990s by the instructors in favour of the pedagogy of learning-by-doing. Studies suggest that students in the course integrating service-learning have undergone certain degree of transformations in the way they think, behave, and feel. However, few studies have looked into the processes by which these hanges have happened.
Objectives: This narrative research sought to find out how college students perceive the process of their perspective transformation through service-learning.
Research Methods: From a social constructivist perspective, holding that knowledge is co-constructed through a process of inter-subjective meaning making and story-telling, I adopt a qualitative narrative approach to the research. Nine participants were selected using a purposive sampling method. The sample is taken from students currently enrolled in the course philosophy of life at Fu Jen Catholic University and the selection criteria are spelled out as follows: 1. having successfully completed twice for 6-8 hours of service learning in the same institution, 2. having claimed to have had a deep transformative experience, and 3. recommended by their respective philosophy of life course professors. The data were co-constructed between the researcher and the 9 participants using a semi-structured in-depth interview approach. Interview data were analysed using the holistic-content and the category-content approaches proposed by Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber (1998). I adopt a reflexive attitude throughout the entire research process and make transparent to the reader those aspects of myself available to my consciousness. In doing so, I invite readers to assess the methodological and interpretative decisions which I made and come to their own conclusions about the trustworthiness of my research.
Results: The core themes emerging from the study were (1) crossing boundaries, (2) dissonance, (3) critical reflection, (4) connecting, and (5) intent for changes, which represent college students' perceptions of their perspective transformation process through service-learning.