Assessing Service-Learning in Higher Education: A Construct Validation Study

Abstract

This was a two-phase study that aimed at re-examining the definition of service-learning and the development of an instrument for evaluating service-learning programs in higher education settings. A Delphi study was designed to achieve research objectives of the first stage. The objectives of the Delphi study were to re-visit the definition of service-leaning and to develop an instrument which operationalized the definition of service-learning. Eight (8) reviewers of the Michigan Journal of Community Service-Learning participated in this study. At the end of this stage, a representative definition of service-learning and an instrument were developed. The objective of the second stage of this study was to examine the psychometric property of a newly developed instrument, Assessing Service-Learning Program (ASLP). An on-line survey study was designed for this stage. After an extensive literature review of service-learning, a hypothesized model of service-learning was generated for this stage as well. There were 248 participants included in this study. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) using AMOS 7.0 was performed. Absolute Model Fit Indexes including Chi-Square statistics, Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), Comparative Fit index (CFI), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) were utilized to investigate the adequacy of the research results. The result indicated that the hypothesized model explained the internal structure of the data adequately.