Meeting important educational goals for chemistry through service-learning

Abstract

This paper describes a service-learning course in Chemistry Honours at Rhodes University in South Africa. Students visit two schools in different settings, where they present a lecture-demonstration, entitled ‘A Pollutant's Tale’, and two hands-on experiments to school learners. The students are assessed on their learnings as seen through their own reflections on the activities in reflective journals. The reflections from 27 students over four years of the course were analysed to investigate to what extent the educational goals of the course were being met. Six broad themes emerged from student reflections: (1) social awareness; (2) civic responsibility; (3) challenging beliefs; (4) enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills; (5) personal growth; and, (6) evaluating the service-learning experience. In our discussion of these themes, we suggest that through service-learning, students have learnt to do things differently in Chemistry: they have learnt about society beyond the laboratory and beyond their previous life-experiences. Importantly, the students have undergone personal development and picked up critical skills which they will need when traversing life and its challenges – such as, working with and learning from diverse groups of people, teamwork and learning to cope in stressful situations. The paper will be of particular interest to those who are involved in chemistry teaching in both schools and higher education institutions, as well as those interested in service-learning as a pedagogical tool, community and civic engagement and the development of transferable skills in chemistry students.

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Introduction

Globally, the changing role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), has led to curricular reforms which have seen academics incorporating new educational priorities that extend beyond the traditional borders of evaluation within the disciplines, and which aim to equip students for life beyond their degrees (Moore, 2003). Students graduating with a degree in chemistry need to be educated not only in the theory and practice of chemistry, but also equipped with critical skills to navigate society and the employment market on leaving university.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) lists that among the top ten skills required by 2020 will be people management, interpersonal coordination, service orientation and cognitive flexibility (Gray, 2016). The critical cross-field outcomes (CCFOs) stipulated by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Act (Ministry of Education, 2000) have been developed, to some extent to align with the need to embed these educational goals within higher education teaching and learning, and at least some CCFOs are expected to be embedded in courses across the disciplines and years of study. Similar to the skills listed by the WEF, some of the critical capabilities students are expected to develop through their studies listed by the SAQA Act as CCFOs are: problem identification and solving; teamwork; self-organisation and self-management; reflection on and exploration of effective learning strategies and practising responsible citizenship (Ministry of Education, 2000). The conclusion of this paper is that these important educational goals (viz. CCFOs) can be addressed in a service-learning (SL) course in chemistry.

A number of articles focussed on science and chemistry community outreach (Guedens and Reynders, 2012; Garber et al., 2013) and service-learning and the concomitant educational benefits (which include critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and presentation skills and professional development) (Hatcher-Skeers and Aragon, 2002; Donaghy and Saxton, 2012; Harrison et al., 2012; Kammler et al., 2012; Burand and Ogba, 2013; Pluth et al., 2015) have been published. However, the literature does not mention much on use of reflective journals nor the analysis thereof in thinking about broadening educational goals within chemistry education, which is the focus of this paper. In Community Engagement work, students and staff of HEIs apply their subject knowledge to address community challenges (Bender et al., 2006; Bender, 2008). In South Africa, HEIs are required to do various forms of Community Engagement work, and much has been written on models of Community Engagement work (Bender et al., 2006; Bender, 2008; Hall, 2010). SL can be described as the curricular version of community engagement and is often described as a form of experiential learning. Broadly speaking, the inclusion of structured reflection is key to student learning and is in part what distinguishes SL from community outreach and community engagement. In a seminal definition, Bringle and Hatcher describe SL as:

“a credit-bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility” (Bringle and Hatcher, 1996).

The Chemistry Department of Rhodes University has a long history of Community Engagement (Harrison et al., 2011; Sewry et al., 2014; Sunassee et al., 2012; Glover et al., 2013) and SL (Glover et al., 2013), working with primary school and high school students, teachers and the wider community.

In South African HEIs a three year undergraduate degree is followed by a one year Honours degree, before the students go on to Masters and PhD programmes. At Rhodes University, the Chemistry Honours course consists of a research project, a review essay and a number of 10-lecture modules, usually assessed through examinations at the end of the academic year. Each module contributes 4.7% to the year mark. The Honours SL module, described in this article is different to the other modules in that it is not a series of lectures, nor is it assessed in the examination period. Students voluntarily sign up for SL as one of their modules, and the course is run by a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and a lecturer from the Community Engagement Division.

In this paper, we show how activities that have in the past been used for Community Engagement (Outreach), namely ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ (Harrison et al., 2011; Sunassee et al., 2012) and hands-on experiments (Harrison et al., 2011), are used for an SL course in the Honours year. This paper outlines the development and implementation of the SL module in such a way that it could be adapted and further developed for use by others, taking local contexts into consideration. Finally, this paper examines data from student reflections in reflective journal entries made during the service-learning course to assess what educational goals were met.

The service-learning course

Overview

The Honours SL course begins with an introductory lecture during which the students are briefed by both lecturers on what the course is about, how it will be managed, what is expected of them and how the course will be assessed. Some of the students have been involved in community outreach activities, and some have done an Organic SL course during their undergraduate degree (Glover et al., 2013). Despite this, the assumption is that few students have engaged in formal reflections on their learnings through service activities for academic credit. Given this, a seminar discussion on reflective writing is key to the course, and students are given academic readings about reflection to supplement the introductory seminar (see Beveridge, 1997; Hubbs and Brand, 2005; Pavlovich, 2007). During the introductory lecture, students self-select from the various portfolios for specific tasks and responsibilities (‘A Pollutant's Tale’, each of the hands-on experiments, safety equipment, schools liaison) that they will undertake during the course.

All the honours students who sign up for the course, participate in the service activity which takes place at two schools, with which relations have been formed over a number of years. Before participating in the service activities at the selected schools students have the opportunity to do one or two trial runs of the demonstration and experiments with an after school science club to ensure that they are ready for the course activities in the schools. For the service activity, the honours students present ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ (Sunassee et al., 2012) and two hands-on experiments (Harrison et al., 2011) to grade 7 learners (12–14 years old) at both a well-resourced school (WRS) and an under-resourced school (URS) in the local community. ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ is a lecture-demonstration on gases in the atmosphere and links these to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Before starting the hands-on experiments, the honours students brief the learners on safety aspects, and hand out lab coats, safety glasses and nitrile gloves. The two hands-on experiments introduce the grade 7 learners to the method of investigation in chemistry. In the first experiment, the learners measure the time it takes for a piece of magnesium ribbon to react completely in varying concentrations of hydrochloric acid, and from these times, learners estimate an unknown concentration of hydrochloric acid. In the second experiment, learners make a slime from a solution of polyvinyl alcohol and borax. Learners start with the same volume of polyvinyl alcohol and add varying volumes of borax to find the effects on the ‘stickiness’ of the slime.

After each school visit a debriefing meeting is held with the two lecturers and the honours students, after which the students are given a week to write reflections which are then submitted to the lecturers. The main activities of the course are summarised in Table 1 below.

Table 1 Main activities and their duration for the SL course

Activity	Approx. time (hours)
Introductory lecture	1.5
Student training on ‘A Pollutant's Tale’	1.5
Check equipment	1
Practice run for ‘A Pollutant's Tale’	1
Practice run for hands-on experiments	1
Activity at WRS, including travel (date and time negotiated with the school)	2
Debriefing after activity at WRS	1
Writing first reflection (2–3 pages)	1
Activity at URS, including travel (date and time negotiated with the school)	2
Debriefing after activity at URS	1
Writing second reflection (2–3 pages)	1
Writing final reflection (3–5 pages)	2

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The SL course has been developed as a mutually beneficial course in terms of student learning outcomes, as well as serving the goals of community based organisations with whom students conduct their service activities. The goals and outcomes of the course can be seen in Table 2.

Table 2 Goals and outcomes for chemistry honours SL course

Goals	Outcomes
G.1. Meet expressed community needs/challenges	O.1. Understanding of assets available in community
G.2. Develop partnerships between community and university	O.2. Improved understanding of local and broader South African context
G.3. Give students the opportunity to use newly acquired academic skills/knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities	O.3. Enhance the application of student learning
G.4. Extend student learning beyond the classroom	O.4. Improved problem solving skills
G.5. Foster a sense of civic responsibility, break down biases and prejudices in students	O.5. Ability to challenge previously held beliefs, assumptions and values
	O.6. Improved understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship
	O.7. Improved ability to work with diverse groups of people
	O.8. Improved teamwork, interpersonal, and communication skills
	O.9. Improved science communication and demonstration skills

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In meeting the goals of community based organisations, ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ and the hands-on experiments are relevant to the grade 7 curriculum. One of the specific aims of the curriculum is that students are expected to undertake investigations, in which they measure, record and interpret the information (Department of Basic Education, 2011). The hands-on experiments are based on investigations, and grade 7 learners have to measure volumes (measuring cylinders), time (stopwatches) and record the data. Topics in the grade 7 curriculum which are covered in ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ include acids and bases, gases and boiling points (Department of Basic Education, 2011). Learners also benefit enormously from engaging with science students who provide aspirational role models who are closer to them in age than lecturers or teachers, and show them that science can be fun and ‘cool’. Learners are given the opportunity to see and use equipment and materials brought in for the demonstration and experiments to which they do not have access at school.

The role of lecturers and staff

Accompanying students on their service activities is a crucial part of being involved in lecturing service-learning courses. When academic staff accompany students on service activities they not only show students the importance of the relationship between community partners and university staff, but also show students that service activities are a core component of the curriculum. Accompanying students to service activities also allows staff to provide advice or insights during activities, as students navigate new spaces, create critical links between the course content and their activities, and understand discipline specific knowledge as applied in the field. While it is important for staff to be available to help students when activities do not go according to plan, or when accidents or emergencies arise during service activities, it is also important for students to take responsibility for the consequences of their own actions and to solve problems collectively during their activities. Accompanying students during service activities also means that observations and evidence are collected which can be critical to informing debrief sessions and providing insightful feedback for student reflections.

Group debriefings with students and staff after service activities are crucial. Here students can reflect on their activities, learn to navigate group conflict beneficially, and plan for future service activities co-operatively. During group debrief sessions staff should encourage students to discuss their differences, particularly those related to the goals and approaches used during the service activity. Issues related to leadership and workload distribution are common sources of tension in group work projects and the debrief space allows for students to approach issues of conflict constructively. In facilitating these spaces (following suggestions by Cress et al. (2005)) students should be allowed to listen to one another's views on the nature of the conflict; work together to focus on the source of the conflict (rather than individual differences); allow everyone's views to be understood; help the group to identify common goals and generate solutions based on these goals with specific achievable tasks for all parties. Critical people management, group work and communication skills are fostered through this process.

Assessment

According to Cress et al. (2005), community engaged learning, and in particular SL, involves a kind of teaching and learning that promotes both content and process knowledge as well as developing socially relevant knowledge in students. The key to making this happen is reflection (Cress et al., 2005). In reflective journals, students are asked to bring the course materials, readings and their experiences through service together into critical narratives that develop over time providing a space for them to analyse their thoughts, experiences, beliefs and assumptions, as well as allowing them a place to prepare for future action and reflection. Reflective journals have been established as important tools for learning and assessment in transformative and experiential learning approaches, allowing students to highlight frames of reference and the ways in which those have been shifted, and allowing students to interpret and analyse their experiences and in so doing both concretize and showcase their learnings (Hubbs and Brand, 2005).

Students were not provided with any structural framework or guiding questions for their reflective journals, and journal entries were open-ended reflections. Marking rubrics are given to students during their introductory lecture to assist them in understanding what is required and expected of them in writing reflective journal entries. Students were encouraged to be as honest and open as possible in their reflections in order what they learnt and how they developed through the course. It was made clear to students that for some of them this would mean that authentic self-expression would not always be complimentary of the course or activities. Since reflective journals are developmental in nature, feedback on students’ journals is typically formative, and even on final journal reflections, feedback tends to be a combination of summative and formative, in order to encourage students to continue the process of reflection. Summative feedback and mark allocation for student reflections can be greatly assisted by the use of a marking rubric such as the one used in this course (Table 3). Marks allocated for students’ final reflections after all summative feedback has been considered by students, is the only mark allocated for the module.

Table 3 Marking rubric for student reflective journals used in the chemistry service-learning course

Information	Evidence high	Evidence medium	Evidence low
Evidence that readings are read and the issues are understood
Issues from readings are related to own personal feelings
Critique
There is evidence that class discussion and school visits have sparked reaction related into personal life
Evidence that a shift in perspective has occurred (i.e. making personal sense of issues from readings, school visit, class discussions etc.)
Speculations
Evidence of macro thinking (i.e. asking the ‘big questions’) relevant to Chemistry as a field or the course or the school
Developed possible answers to those question in later journal entries
Synthesis
Has successfully synthesized theory and practice
Has made personal sense of school visits
Final mark:

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Educational goals and student learning

The learning outcomes for the chemistry honours SL course (Table 2), when brought together with the CCFO's and skills listed by WEF in the introduction, highlight four overarching educational goals in this course: personal and interpersonal management; enhanced citizenship; improved critical thinking; and new ways of learning (Table 4).

Table 4 Educational goals from the chemistry honours SL course, CCFOs and WEF skills

Personal and interpersonal management	Enhanced citizenship	Improved critical thinking	New ways of learning
People management (WEF)	A service orientation (WEF)	Cognitive flexibility (WEF)	Enhance the application of student learning (O.3)
Interpersonal coordination (O.8; CCFO)	Practicing responsible citizenship (G.5; O.6; CCFO)	Problem identification and solving (O.4; CCFO)	Extend student learning beyond the classroom (CCFO)
Teamwork (O.8; CCFO)	Break down biases and prejudices in students (G.5)	Ability to challenge previously held beliefs, assumptions and values (O.4)	Use newly acquired academic skills/knowledge in real-life situation in their own communities (G.3)
Self-organisation and self-management (CCFO)	Improved understanding of local and broader South African context (O.2)
Communication skills (O.9; O.8; CCFO)	Understanding of assets available in community (O.1)
	Improved ability to work with diverse groups of people (O.7; CCFO)

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Students’ reflections provide a great deal of insight into both their experiences of the course and their learning, and at the same time serve as a valuable tool for assessing whether the educational goals have been met through the course.

Method

In order to gain deeper insight into students’ experiences and learnings, and thus the education goals being met, 81 reflective journal entries from 27 students (three reflections from each student) participating in the course over a period of four years were analysed thematically. Student journal entries were submitted as electronic text documents, which were stored securely by the researchers in an online repository. The qualitative data presented in the journal entry texts were analysed using an inductive pattern finding method to generate a codebook comprising emerging themes, following which the reflective journals were coded (Boyatzis, 1998). The two researchers independently generated codebooks, which were cross-verified to formulate the final codebook. One researcher coded the reflective journals using the codebook, after which the second researcher repeated the analysis. Working together both researchers clustered emergent themes into groups for the construction of overarching themes with sub-themes under each.

Ethical standards in accordance with Rhodes University Institutional Policies on Research Ethics at the time of this study were followed. Students involved in the research had the right to withdraw from the study at any time during or after the course, and were guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality. All students who agreed to voluntarily participate in the research were informed that their reflections were being used for this research and gave informed consent for their journals to be used for this purpose.

Results

Six overarching themes, each with a number of sub-themes, emerged in the student reflective journals: (1) social awareness; (2) civic responsibility; (3) challenging beliefs; (4) enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills; (5) personal growth; and (6) evaluating the service-learning experience. Across the 81 reflections analysed from the 27 students, the theme of personal growth occurred the most times – 293 times. Overall, the six themes came up a total of 1223 times across the 81 reflections (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Overall theme prominence in student reflective journals (total reflections = 81 and overall theme prominence = 1223).

Under the first theme of social awareness, eight sub-themes relating to the differences between the two social settings (URS and WRS) in which the service activities took place, emerged in student reflections, and were clustered together (Fig. 2). These sub-themes were: (a) the physical spaces, (b) the graduate students’ own learnings, (c) the school learners’ learnings, (d) the behaviour of the learners, (e) the socio-linguistic spaces, (f) physical resourcing, (g) resourcing (other than physical), and (h) the quality of education.

Fig. 2 Sub-themes for theme 1 (social awareness).

Two sub-themes emerging from student reflections were clustered together under the second broader theme of civic responsibility (Fig. 3): (a) an expressed desire to continue with activities contributing to social justice, and (b) a recognition of assets available in the community.

Fig. 3 Sub-themes in theme 2 (civic responsibility).

From the student reflections, the third theme of challenging beliefs could be further divided into five sub-themes (Fig. 4): (a) surprise at respect shown towards graduate students by school students, (b) the relationship between teachers and learners at schools, (c) expectations about education across socio-economic lines, (d) changing of preconceived ideas about economic privilege, and (e) questioning the relationship between education and economic privilege.

Fig. 4 Sub-themes in theme 3 (challenging beliefs).

Two sub-themes, (a) recognition of increased school learner engagement through demonstrations/experiments, and (b) graduate students’ experience showed their perception of the need for science engagement in schools, emerged from the fourth theme of enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5 Sub-themes in theme 4 (enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills).

Five sub-themes emerged from student reflections and were clustered under the fifth theme of personal growth (Fig. 6): (a) learning to improvise through the activity, (b) feelings of anxiety/being overwhelmed/stressed, fear of the unknown, being unprepared in the situation, (c) improved ability to communicate, (d) improvements in ability to work as part of a team, and (e) self-organisation.

Fig. 6 Sub-themes for theme 5 (personal growth).

The sixth theme of evaluating the service experience could be divided into four sub-themes (Fig. 7): (a) suggestions for improving the SL course, (b) a conviction that the SL activity was successful, (c) a positive attitude towards SL due to participation in the course, and (d) planning for future activities.

Fig. 7 Sub-themes in theme 6 (evaluating the SL course).

Each of the six overarching themes emerging from the student reflections were clearly related to the educational goals outlined in Table 5: themes 1, 2, 3 and 6 all related to the broad educational goal of ‘enhanced citizenship’; themes 3 and 5 relate to the goal of ‘improved critical thinking’; themes 4 and 6 to the goal of ‘new ways of learning’, and themes 4, 5 and 6 related to the goal of ‘personal and interpersonal management’.

Table 5 The educational goals related to the overarching themes

Learning goal	Enhanced citizenship	Improved critical thinking	New ways of learning	Personal and interpersonal management
Theme	(1) Social awareness	(3) Challenging beliefs	(4) Enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills	(4) Enhanced understanding of science communication and demonstration skills
	(2) Civic responsibility	(5) Personal growth	(6) Evaluating the SL course	(5) Personal growth
	(3) Challenging beliefs			(6) Evaluating the SL course
	(6) Evaluating the SL course

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Discussion

One of the crucial goals of an SL course is for students to gain “a deeper understanding of the problems faced by a significant segment of our society” (Kronick et al., 2011), and the broader social fabric of which this forms a part. As a form of experiential learning, through SL students engage with the learning process by their direct and personal involvement with people and processes rather than texts, and as a result, students connect with their learning both cerebrally and emotionally (Kronick et al., 2011). By coming to understand issues of local importance while working with community members in mutually beneficial partnerships, SL courses prompt students to recognise the assets available in broader society which can be harnessed to address those challenges (Artz, 2001; Mathie and Cunningham, 2005; Donaldson and Daughtery, 2011). Working within this framework tends to foster an enhanced sense of social responsibility and civic duty (Osman and Petersen, 2013). Students in SL courses are forced to start where they are at: examining their own frames of reference for engaging with the world (Mezirow, 2000), and unpacking their expectations in terms of their preconceived ideas, assumptions and biases. Through engaging both cerebrally and emotionally with their peers, the community and the world, students are forced to grapple with their “deeply held assumptions”, which underpin their frames of reference, as they open themselves up to new experiences (Kronick et al., 2011). Changes in students’ frames of reference are often the result of the challenging situations they encounter during their service activities, and show not only a broadening of students’ ways of learning and understanding (Kronick et al., 2011), but also of their critical thinking and problem solving skills.

The students in the chemistry honours SL course visited two schools in two different settings. One school is a private, very well-resourced school (WRS) in the privileged side of town where English is the predominant home language of learners, and the other is an under-resourced school (URS) in the Grahamstown township where isiXhosa is the predominant home language of learners (the school's medium of instruction is, however, English). The service-learning course is designed in this way in order to expose the university students to the different experiences of schooling in South African society. The students themselves are from a variety of socio-economic, linguistic and educational backgrounds. As part of their reflections, the students also wrote about their expectations of each school before actually visiting the schools. In juxtaposing these expectations with their lived experiences, students reflected on their shifts in perspectives, and held their preconceived ideas, biases and beliefs up for critical evaluation.

Social awareness

Student reflections that emerged under the first theme expressed a heightened understanding of the broader South African society in which they are residing. They became more attuned to different ways of life across various class and racial stratifications in particular. In coming to grips with this heightened and nuanced sense of social awareness, students also critically located themselves within that context. Students began to assess their expectations and preconceived beliefs about that context. Finally, students analysed their social context, grappling with the relationship between the economic and social realities in South Africa. Students reflected on the differences in physical spaces and resources across the contexts, picking up in particular on the sizes of the schools, classrooms and desks, as well as the playground conditions. One student did some further research and noted that the WRS had a webpage, whereas the URS did not, showing the general extent of the students’ drive to further understand the context they had experienced. Many of the students expected that the learners from the WRSs would ‘know a lot more’ and be ‘more confident’ than those from the URSs, as one student reasoned “Maybe some things about our educational upbringing hinder rather than aid our development” (Student, 2013). Students were often surprised by “how much” students from the URS knew, particularly in terms of scientific knowledge. Many students were also surprised by how much the learners from the URS benefited from the activity – as one student remarked “my original concern that the class would not gain as much as the children at [WRS] was completely overthrown” (Student, 2014). In reflecting on the behavioural differences between the two contexts, students noted that the learners in the WRS were “more well behaved” than those in the URS, often citing lack of teacher presence or involvement as a possible reason. Many students reflected on the intersection between home language and the language of instruction as an important societal and educational issue. Despite the noticeable differences between the schools, and in re-evaluating their own preconceived ideas, many students reasoned that socio-economic status does not necessarily determine education. One student for example noted that for learners, education is “not entirely dependent on their resources but their desire to learn in and outside the classroom” (Student, 2013), while another noted that at the URS the “quality of education is good despite the lack of resources” (Student, 2015).

Civic responsibility

Under the second broad theme of civic responsibility, student reflections showed that through the process of working with the schools and learners, students came to recognise the assets available in their communities to address some of the social issues of which they had become more acutely aware. One student (2014) commented that they had “gained an understanding of educational issues, community assets and educational processes for making change happen in schools.” Students picked up in particular on the ability of children to engage with knowledge and the increased levels of knowledge in society, as one student (2014) remarked, “the level of education that they are getting is much better than what I had but still I was stunned.” Students reflected that they needed to be aware of these assets when engaging with broader society in order to properly harness the resources available in communities when addressing pressing social concerns. Importantly, student reflections showed that this aspect of the SL experience had made them aware of their place in society and how they should respond as citizens within their communities to social challenges. Following this, many students showed an action oriented approach to citizenship, expressing the desire to continue with CE work after they had completed their SL course. A number of the honours students who did the SL module have continued with research towards Master's degrees in chemical education, some have gone on to become science teachers, while others who are studying towards Master's and PhD degrees in chemistry, still continue with Community Engagement work.

At the outset of SL, students have different expectations and beliefs based on their backgrounds and life experiences. While the theory of SL hopes to achieve transformative learning, student reflections show how students have challenged, and often changed, their preconceived ideas, opinions and beliefs, and so reveal the true extent of learning from the experience (for further discussion on transformative learning in this sense see Giles Jr. and Eyler, 1994; Kiely, 2005; Bamber and Hankin, 2011). One of the major shifts in students centred on their interpersonal perceptions and relations. Students did not expect to receive the amount of respect that was in fact shown towards them by the learners. While some students had expected learners from the WRS to be less respectful than those from the URS (owing to the privileged status of learners at the WRS), students were surprised by the amount of respect they were shown by WRS learners. As one student (2014) reflected, “They all showed respect to their elders as well as their manners by greeting with sir or madam, irrespective of the fact that we were not quite adults.” While students had expected the engagement from teachers at WRSs to be of a high level, they expressed disappointment in their reflections when teachers were not present during SL sessions.

Challenging beliefs

The differences in economic situations that the schools and their learners are in, caused the graduate students to question their previously held beliefs about economic privilege and economic social realities. A number of students, for example, were worried about going to the township (where the URS is located). As one student highlighted, “I felt that my safety would be an issue due to the things I had heard about the township” (2013), but found that they had no reason to have felt this way. Another student critically reflected: “At that point I realized that I had been stereotyping due to the things we hear and see on the news. I learnt that I should stop stereotyping and rather re-evaluate my facts and opinions about the people that live in the township” (Student, 2014). Some students reflected that they had believed that learners from the URSs would not be as interested in science and have lower levels of knowledge than those from the WRSs. Many students noted their preconceived ideas that “learners from private schools seem to get a ‘quality’ education whereas their peers attending public (government) schools seem to be getting a rather diluted and unjust education” (Student, 2016), however they came to challenge these ideas. One student pointed out that while they recognised that there was an “obvious difference between the two schools”, they also thought that this difference “was no reflection on the capabilities and potential of the learners” (Student, 2013).

Science communication and demonstration skills

Science communication skills are increasingly noted as essential in the modern world. Chemistry plays an important role in the lives of all humans, and thus the communication of chemistry has become increasingly important, to enable consumers to make informed choices. For this to happen, the chemistry community is obliged to communicate their chemistry more effectively, and thus it is up to tertiary institutions to prepare their students for this task. Within the fourth theme, student reflections showed that they had improved their science communication and demonstration skills. Most notably student reflections showed that through their activities they had learnt and understood the value of involving the audience in engaging and active ways. A key learning for the students was that: “Involving them in demonstrating the reactions also helped in retaining their focus on that which was being demonstrated” (Student, 2013), and that for the learners “practical application fitted the theory and made them remember it better and some understood more” (Student, 2015). The importance of, and need for, science communication was realised by a number of students who noted that they needed to “encourage learners as well as teachers to take a special interest in the subject of science and realize its importance in world of education” (Student, 2013). Students also often reflected more broadly on the educational context within South Africa, based on their experience of teaching, and again showed an increased action oriented attitudinal shift. One student (2014) reflected that the need for increased science communication was “not an issue in Grahamstown but all of South Africa”, and another remarked that they could improve public attitudes towards science, “I can do better by trying to change the kind of way my community think[s]” (Student, 2015). One student commented: “I have really changed my perspective on the teaching profession from these exercises. There really is more to it than one thinks and fully deserves more recognition and research, especially in our country and political climate” (Student, 2013).

Personal growth

Student reflections showed that students had not only engaged their cognitive faculties, but also their emotional faculties through the course, and as a result they had undergone personal growth during the SL experience, and many of the sub-themes in theme five address some of the skills listed by the WEF (people management, interpersonal coordination, and cognitive flexibility) (Gray, 2016). Many students actively pointed to their personal development through the experience, as one student (2013) noted: “The service learning course was a great eye opener for me and has really highlighted my strong points and weaknesses as an individual.” Some students reflected on the emotional engagement required in the course, highlighting in particular the challenges. Students remarked on how stressed and nervous they were before the activities, yet noted that when events did not go as planned they were able to engage critical problem solving skills they were not aware of previously “to come up with ways of resolving such situations” (Student, 2015). Communication skills take both time and practice to develop, and can only really be learned through experience, as one student (2013) noted: “from being scared and not wanting to talk in front of children I am now excited and keen to step up my game.” Students quickly learned that organisation skills are an essential part of teamwork during the SL course, and student reflections showed both the frustrations and triumphs involved in this. One student (2013) reflected that, “having everyone designated to specific tasks really helped” with the logistics of the course, while another reflected that, “had the presenters planned well and adequately prepared for the presentation then they would not have had difficulties in explaining the concepts to the school learners” (Student, 2016).

Evaluation of the SL experience

The process of reflective journal writing is used for student learning and assessment, as well as playing an important part in the ongoing service-learning evaluation cycle (Payne, 2000). Entries in students’ reflective journals serve as valuable evaluations for the overall impact of a service-learning course. In light of this, it is not surprising that a major theme which emerged in the student reflections centred on evaluation of the SL course. Most students were convinced that the SL course had been a success and had very positive comments about the course, as reflected in comments such as: “This course was well worth the time and effort required, being both interesting and highly rewarding. I would suggest it to anyone who happens to ask about it” (Student, 2013). Another student (2015) suggested that to “describe this service learning course in one word I would go for ‘progressive’. What a way to solve different problems our communities are facing while having fun in the process.” Importantly, we also see evidence that the course changed students’ perspectives on learning, as one student (2015) reflected on the course content, “Personally, I had no interest in the matter before this experience, but my perspective has completely changed.” Most students importantly showed some critical thinking through their evaluations, providing suggestions on how they felt the SL course could be improved both for themselves and the community partners – including: adding extra informational materials such as posters to be left in school; doing further engagement activities; and designing questionnaires for the learners to complete. Suggestions raised by students will be shared with future student groups for consideration as they prepare to implement their service-learning activities.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have shown how activities that have been used for Community Engagement (Outreach), can be effectively used in an SL course to broaden the learning outcomes for students in Chemistry. We have shown the details of the development of the SL course such that it could be adapted for use within other contexts to broaden chemistry education. Through our discussion of data from student reflections during the service-learning course over a period of four years, we have highlighted the educational goals which were met in line with CCFO's and critical skills as outlined by the WEF. In their reflections, students noticed and remarked on the differences in the school settings and the experiences they had within different spheres of society while engaging with diverse groups of people. Through the process of reflection, students came to understand their role within the SL group and gained insight into their own personal attributes, as well as critically interrogating their roles in broader society. Student reflections overwhelmingly showed that through the SL experience: students came to critically reflect on their role as citizens and what this meant to them in the contemporary South African context; students had started to think actively about the challenges and solutions related to contemporary socio-economic, science communication and science education challenges within the South African context; students had improved their ability to solve problems, both individually and as a collective; students realised the importance of personal and group planning, preparation and management; and students had improved their ability to communicate within groups of diverse people.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts to declare.

Acknowledgements

Our deepest thanks go to our community partners who welcomed us into their sites to learn and share with us, as well as working patiently and enthusiastically with our students. Thank you to Dr Amanda Hlengwa who designed the assessment rubric, and to Mr Tim Harrison and Prof. Dudley Shallcross from Bristol ChemLabS who shared their ideas on ‘A Pollutant's Tale’ and the hands-on experiments with us at Rhodes University. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation towards this research is acknowledged. Opinions expressed in this paper and the conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors, and are not necessarily to be attributed to the National Research Foundation.

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