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Preparing Next-Generation-Citizens Through Active-Community-Engagement: Longitudinal Study of Informal Learning in an Asian Undergraduate Residential College

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Abstract

Educational experiences rooted in community engagement offer a powerful and effective method by which to prepare students as the next generation of active citizens. This study critically analyzes and illustrates the potential of using community engagement as the focus of an informal curriculum in an Asian university’s living-and-learning undergraduate residential college program designed to prepare the next generation of active citizens. Grounded in empirical evidence from four academic years (2013/14–2016/17) and using the active citizenship and community-based learning theoretical frameworks, this research study systematically evaluates the contribution of hands-on community engagement in undergraduate learning and development. Specifically, conceptual codes were derived from the stated informal learning outcomes related to citizenship competencies, to map the extent of achievement of the target outcomes and objectives of the engagement activities over time. Results from this quasi-quantitative content analysis of 89 programs, involving more than 80% of the College students during each academic year, confirm and complicate our understanding of how critical citizenship competencies of awareness, empathy, deeper understanding and hard and soft skills are achieved. Moreover, findings also highlight how perceptions on learning through active community engagement differ between activities/events in shaping the development of active citizenship competencies. The study findings have ramifications for policies related to community-engagement-based learning in higher education.

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Data Availability

The data used in this study is not available for sharing because it contains students’ information and reflections and details of the College’s community partner organisations and institutions. All data used for this study is kept confidential and have been analysed and reported as per the institution review board’s approval.

Notes

  1. On an average, a typical student of the College, participates in five or more community engagement activities over the course of an academic year.

  2. All “Not Applicable” (NA) assigned cells were excluded from the analyses.

  3. Additional caution should be exercised in interpreting the error bars in Fig. 2, which represents the sample SD for that score. It was accepted that a score which was farther away from 0, 0.5 and 1 would naturally yield a larger standard deviation value. For example, observing the Empathy bars (dotted), since scores fluctuated around 0.7, which is a value near to the center of 0.5 and 1, it was unsurprising that larger error bars were obtained.

  4. Master’s Tea is a learning platform in the College where prominent local and international speakers with diverse contributions and experiences are invited to speak and interact with students in an informal setting.

  5. Singapore Department of Statistics, 2014.

  6. Singapore Ministry of Manpower, 2019.

  7. MSF. (2015). Ageing Families in Singapore. https://www.msf.gov.sg/mediaroom/Documents/Ageing%20Families%20Report%20Insight%20Series%2020151124.pdf

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) for supporting this study with a Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Alice & Peter Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Kankana Mukhopadhyay, Sue Chang-Koh & Jie Ren Gerald Har

Authors
  1. Kankana Mukhopadhyay
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  2. Sue Chang-Koh
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  3. Jie Ren Gerald Har
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by KM, SC-K and GJRH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by KM and all authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kankana Mukhopadhyay.

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Mukhopadhyay, K., Chang-Koh, S. & Har, J.R.G. Preparing Next-Generation-Citizens Through Active-Community-Engagement: Longitudinal Study of Informal Learning in an Asian Undergraduate Residential College. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 31, 575–587 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00609-2

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