Date of Award

January 2017

Degree Type

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Richard Osbaldiston

Department Affiliation

Psychology

Second Advisor

Robert W. Mitchell

Department Affiliation

Psychology

Third Advisor

Jaime B. Henning

Department Affiliation

Psychology

Abstract

This study examined how service-learning faculty's perceptions are influenced by their experience with service learning, and how service learning affects faculty's personal and professional perceptions and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 130 participants at higher education institutions throughout the U. S. via an electronic survey. The data were used to create seven composite variables to represent each service-learning faculty perception area (Personal Growth, Teaching Advancement, Institutional Context, Community, Scholarship, Personal Values, and Institutional Emphasis). It was hypothesized that faculty who perceive having a highly supportive institutional culture of service learning will have higher levels of personal and professional satisfaction in relation to their service-learning experience than faculty who perceive their institutional cultural as less supportive of their service-learning efforts. Teaching advancement, scholarship, institutional context, community, and institutional emphasis will predict personal growth and these same five variables will also predict personal values. The data were analyzed with SPSS, primarily using multiple regression and all seven composite variables yielded acceptable Cronbach's alpha scores, indicating good reliability. The bivariate correlations among the seven composite variables were computed and all but two of the correlations were significant. Highly significant relationships were found between scholarship and personal growth, personal values, and teaching advancement. Regression results indicated that the teaching advancement variable has the strongest effect on personal growth, and that the community variable is a key predictor of personal values. The findings were largely supportive of the hypotheses, suggesting strong connections between service-learning faculty's professional growth, personal values, and job satisfaction.

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