Developing college students’ civic mindedness through service-learning experiences: A mixed-methods study

Abstract

In the current study, we applied a mixed-methods approach to examining civic-mindedness of undergraduate students in a service-learning course. A quantitative self-report measure of civic-mindedness was administered pre- and post-course. During the second half of the course, a subset of students participated in focus groups, responding to questions directly aligned with the quantitative measure. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated via a mixed method convergent parallel design. Quantitatively, civic-mindedness increased pre-post. Qualitative findings both supported and contradicted quantitative results. Mixed-methods analyses provided a more complete understanding of the relationship between service-learning and civic-mindedness than quantitative or qualitative analysis alone. Future research for student affairs and assessment professionals are discussed.