How Ready Is Higher Education Faculty for Engaged Student Learning? Applying Transtheoretical Model to Measure Service-Learning Beliefs and Adoption

• Main Authors: Su-I Hou, Shannon Wilder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2015-02-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015572282

This study examined service-learning (SL) beliefs and participation among faculty in different stages of involvement to develop tailored resources and support. A representative sample of 1,200 faculty members at a major public university in Southeast United States was recruited. The study used the transtheoretical model (TTM) as an innovative way to group SL involvement into five stages: unaware (U), pre-contemplation (PC), contemplation (C), preparation (Prep), and action and maintenance (A/M). Perceived benefits and barriers at different levels were assessed. The distribution among faculty who completed the online survey ( n = 450, 60% males) across stages was 20% (U), 31% (PC), 16% (C), 10% (Prep), and 23% (A/M). Analyses showed significant differences on the 4 SL beliefs, F (3, 358) ranged from 7.05 to 78.31, all p < .001, across stages. This study provides the first valuable empirical data to support the application of TTM to the SL arena and identified salient variables influencing faculty involvement across stages.