A Comparative Analysis of Experiential Education and Student Development: Does the Type of Service Matter?

Abstract

A comparative analysis was conducted on student attitudes and skills among student interns, academic-basedservice-learners, and cultural-based service-learners. Students did not differ in scores at the beginning of the semester,but by the end of the term student interns had higher multicultural awareness and intercultural relationship scores andlower racial and civic attitude scores than did cultural-based service-learners. Field supervisors also appraisedstudent interns as having a better ability to develop relationships with professionals at placement sites thanservice-learners. The consistency of data from field supervisors and students suggest that the alignment between thecourse content and the service activity is associated with student development and learning.