Comparing the effects of service-learning versus nonservice-learning project experiences on service leadership emergence and meaning schema transformation

We investigate the impacts of service-learning project experiences, as compared with those of nonservice-learning project experiences, on the emergence of service leadership and the transformation of meaning schemas. We examine the mediating effect of project efficacy belief and the moderating effect of the responsiveness of partner organization representatives (PORs). The context is a capstone BBA course at a university in Hong Kong. We administered three waves of questionnaires to 491 senior-year students and obtained 275 matched responses. Among this sample, 56% of the students were undertaking service-learning projects, and the remaining 44% were undertaking a comparable type of field-study project, but without service-learning. Our quantitative results indicate that engaging in the service-learning mode of learning, in comparison to the nonservice-learning mode, is more effective in inducing service leadership emergence and meaning schema transformation. Project efficacy belief mediates the effect of project experiences (i.e., service-learning versus nonservice-learning) on service leadership emergence. POR responsiveness moderates the indirect effects of project experiences on service leadership emergence and meaning schema transformation through project efficacy belief. A qualitative case illustration that was drawn from students’ end-of-semester reflective reports provides further support for our hypothesized model.