Motivation in service-learning: an improvement over traditional instructional methods

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the motivation of university students who participated in service-learning projects as part of their coursework, and to determine whether their level of motivation is higher for the service-learning project as compared to performing more traditional academic tasks and assignments. The Service-Learning project carried out during the ICT in Education course intended to support the development of digital literacy in a Maasai school in Kenya. The instrument used to evaluate motivation of the university students is the motivation scale called Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) proposed by Pintrich and his collaborators (1991) adapted to the Spanish population by Roces Montero (1996). The results of the research indicate that there are significant differences in favor of service-learning in relation to motivation in general for the completion of the activities and specifically in relation to the utility of the activity as seen at the present moment and in the future, as well as promoting creativity, the interest in the task which includes the perception of the importance of the project, the need to work hard and thoroughly and willingness to face challenges and difficulties in order to achieve the set objective. No significant differences have been observed in relation to the desire to obtain a better grade for completing the activity or need to prove personal value to others, as well as to broaden the information to complete the activity.