Reading Between the Lines: Verifying Students' Self-Assessments of Skills Acquired During an International Service-Learning Project

摘要

Students and faculty nationwide are proclaiming the educational benefits associated with participation in international service-learning projects. According to recent studies, this form of experiential education allows students to develop leadership, communication, team-building, and critical thinking skills, while instilling a sense of civic responsibility. Involved faculty members declare service-learning to be a "valuable pedagogical tool" that is synergistic and complementary to abstract theories taught in the classroom. By engineering solutions to practical problems with real-world constraints, students construct the necessary scaffolding to achieve a deeper understanding of classroom concepts. While the academic advantages are recognizable and numerous, they do not comprise students' motivation for being involved. The truly unique and engaging quality of a service-learning project is the potential for each eye-opening experience to engender personal growth within the student. The challenge herein lies in the validation of this transition. This paper presents an evaluation of the educational benefits of service-learning projects by focusing on one case study. The most recent endeavor of the Tufts University Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Chapter involved a Green Building Initiative in Ecuador. During the summer of 2007, six students accompanied by a professor embarked on a month-long project in Hacienda Picalqui and El Cristal, Ecuador. During the project, students evaluated their own skill sets by filling out Pre-Travel, Post Travel, and Post-Post Travel surveys and reflected daily on events, health and progress. Comparisons of the Pre and Post-Travel surveys verify substantial advancement in leadership, teamwork, communication and problem solving skills; however, due to the debatable reliability of self-assessments, proving how and when transitions occur is imperative. The verification of students' self-assessments is hidden within the text of their daily surveys and reflections. By mapping the events of the trip to the ups and downs of each person's experience, skill development as well as personal growth can be verified.