Background: The Service-Learning Outcomes Measurement Scale (S-LOMS) with 56 items is an established tool for evaluating student developmental outcomes arising from service-learning in Hong Kong. However, its length may have deterred potential users. Hence, the current study used a shortened version (S-LOMS-SV) with 21 items for validation in Hong Kong and Singapore. Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to validate S-LOM-SV with new samples, as is required for shortened scales. Methodology/Approach: We recruited 970 respondents from Hong Kong and Singapore universities. They answered the 21-item S-LOMS-SV before and after service-learning, along with a service-learning experience questionnaire. We tested scale validity and reliability and used multisample analyses to examine factor stability and cross-cultural validity. In addition, we employed structural equation modeling to establish the relationship between service-learning experience and developmental outcomes. Findings/Conclusions: The current study established the scale validity and reliability and preliminary cross-cultural validity of the S-LOMS-SV. Results revealed developmental differences between traditional undergraduate students and adult learners and reaffirmed the positive relationships between service-learning experience and student development. Implications: The validated S-LOMS-SV provides a succinct and reliable tool for academic research and quality assurance purposes and paves the way for developing a centralized database for cross-cultural and cross-institutional comparisons. Copyright © 2024 SAGE Publications Ltd.

PurposeWhile most language departments of the university offer service-learning (SL) subjects based on language teaching, such as Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Local Schools and Serving the Community through Teaching English, this paper aims to argue that teaching students to teach language(s) is yet to be the best strategy to serve the service recipients.Design/methodology/approachSL is widely understood as an experiential learning pedagogy that integrates academic focus, reflection and community service and is shown to be impactful. In Hong Kong, the first university that has made SL a graduation requirement is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (the University). Considering this, new SL courses have proliferated over the past decade. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, this paper examines personal narratives from a new SL subject aiming to raise awareness of refugees in Hong Kong. The data includes students' reflective journals, co-created personal narratives and podcasts and semi-structured interviews.FindingsThis paper finds that crafting and recording narratives of shared experiences deepens cultural understanding, cultivates empathy and facilitates language learning in a genuine setting.Social implicationsUltimately, this paper advocates a well-designed SL that combines language, content and technology as a powerful, transformational experience for both college students and service recipients.Originality/valueThis paper focuses on a brand new SL course, Storytelling for Understanding: Refugee Children in Hong Kong, offered in Semester 1, 2022-2023. The subject was developed by the two authors from a language division affiliated to the University. The deliverables were podcast recordings, co-authored and co-edited by the students and the children. Copyright © 2024 Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.

Service-learning has been well documented for its benefits to students. This study examined the service-learning experience of undergraduate students enrolled in the subject Practices in Health Promotion. Data were retrieved from the reflective journals of 72 students and thematic content analysis was performed. The findings indicated that students benefited from incorporating their health promotion skills into a period of community service, which changed their misperceptions about older adults into positive attitudes. The service-learning experience provided opportunities for students to promote health in a real-life situation through intergenerational interactions, and benefited students even though the period of service-learning was short. Copyright ©2024 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Background: Educators have divided and often strongly held views on whether service-learning should be required of all students. However, studies examining students' view on mandatory service-learning are limited in the literature. Purpose: This article contrasts and examines students' views toward a service-learning requirement at a Hong Kong university before and after attending a mandatory service-learning course, and any resulting changes. Methodology/Approach: This is a retrospective qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Participants were 49 students who completed a service-learning course in the 2013-2014 academic year. They were selected according to the nature of their performance in their completed course. Findings/Conclusions: Results show that students' perspectives toward service-learning are not static but rather change dramatically as a result of their experiences. Most students, even those who recalled being initially negative or resigned, reported positive views toward service-learning after completing the course. Implications: Students' initial resistance alone is not a reason for making service-learning optional. Some students have a negative view due to a lack of information or misinformation. Making it compulsory gives these students an opportunity to decide for themselves based on true experience, which, if implemented effectively, has the potential of nurturing initially hostile or inert students into more civic-minded citizens. Copyright ©2021 SAGE Publications.

This study aims to explore whether university co-curricular courses with embedded service-learning have an effect on students' interpersonal capability development, and how course quality relates to student outcomes. It used a mixed-methods approach comprising surveys and interviews. The survey data show that students' self-perceived relationship management skills improved in all cocurricular courses. Students' perception of their own awareness of others' experiences and feelings, however, was found to have worsened. Course quality was found to be a predictor of both aspects of interpersonal development, suggesting that closer alignment of courses with the recommended quality standards will make them more effective in promoting students' interpersonal capabilities. The qualitative data echo the quantitative findings and reveal that course characteristics, such as meaningful experience, diversity, student voice, and group work, are significant for developing students' interpersonal capabilities.本文旨在探討大學課程中設有服務學習的聯課課程能否促進學生的人際溝通能力，以及課程質素如何影響學習成果。本研究採用混合研究方法，即問卷調查和訪談。調研結果顯示學生自感在人際關係管理能力有所提升，但在察覺他人經驗和感受的能力下降。研究並顯示課程質素能夠預測以上兩項能力的發展，即課程愈能緊扣其質素標準要求，則效能愈高。質性研究也有相同的結果，展示課程的特徵如：有意義的經驗、多元化的體驗、學生的聲音、團隊工作，都是發展有關能力的要素。 Copyright © 2018 HKFYG.

Many universities have integrated community engagement in their undergraduate programs. At The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, it is compulsory for all students to take at least one 3-credit subject on service-learning (SL). In each SL subject, there are purpose-designed academic teaching, rigorous service and structured assessment components. At full implementation, roughly 4,500 undergraduate students would enroll in around 70 subjects offered by a wide range of departments and faculties across the university. The subjects cover a diverse range of topics, such as digital divide, learning difficulties, engineering design, healthy living environments, orthotics, and ecotourism. The target beneficiaries are equally diverse, including slum dwellers, disabled people, children with HIV, villagers without water nor electricity, new immigrants, mentally ill patients, ethnic minorities, and children of migrant workers. To date, students have served different groups of clients in Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Rwanda. This chapter outlines the pedagogical design of the program, challenges and strategies for implementation, and the experiences gained so far.
[Copyright of International Journal of Child & Adolescent Health is the property of Nova Science Publishers, Inc.]

While experential learning has been increasingly explored and adopted by higher education institutions, few have researched the appropriate assessment methods that can be aligned with the learning outcomes of experential learning. A literature review on the diverse forms of assessment currently used for community service types of experiential learning in higher education is presented in this paper to review their appropriateness in assessing experential learning. The paper also describes the assessment framework of the University of Hong Kong Sichuan Reconstruction Community Service Project, which is incorporated into a multidisciplinary community service learning project. Feedback from students and teachers are reviewed to gauge their preferences towards these assessments, as well as their opinions on assigning academic credits to experential learning projects.
[Copyright of European Journal of Engineering Education is the property of Taylor & Francis. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2011.644763]