Impacts of Service-Learning on the Professional Social Responsibility Attitudes of Engineering Students

Abstract

This research explored correlations between the social responsibility attitudes of engineering students and their participation in service-learning and/or extracurricular engineering service activities, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Social responsibility attitudes were measured using a survey with fifty Likert items. The survey also collected information about students’ participation frequency in service-learning courses, EWB, and service trips. Survey responses were received from students at five institutions who were primarily in their first or senior year and majoring in civil, environmental, or mechanical engineering. Findings showed that incoming first-year students with higher frequency of service-learning participation during high school had higher average social responsibility. College service-learning courses had a beneficial impact on social responsibility attitudes. In open-ended responses, a number of students directly cited service-learning courses as impacting their views of social responsibility.  Students who participated in EWB had more positive social responsibility attitudes than students who did not participate in EWB. This is due, primarily, to students with high social responsibility opting into activities like EWB. Future research is needed to determine the specific aspects of the service-learning experiences that foster positive attitudes toward social responsibility in engineering students, such as types of structured reflection and reciprocal partnerships with the community.