Involvement in Learning revisited: Lessons we have learned

Journal of College Student Development, Sep/Oct 1999 by Astin, Alexander W

What factors in the college environment encourage or discourage volunteerism among undergraduates? As it turns out, we found a variety of influences related to such things as the curriculum, the faculty, the peer group, the type of institution, and individual student activities. Taking interdisciplinary courses or majoring in social science or education appears to enhance student involvement in volunteer service while in college. Given the emphasis in the field of education and in many of the social sciences on social and public policy issues, this result should not be surprising. Why interdisciplinary courses should be related to volunteer participation, however, is not entirely clear, although it is interesting to realize that, with few exceptions, most volunteer assignments are probably "multidisciplinary." It may well be that some of these interdisciplinary courses involve service-learning components.

As far as faculty influences are concerned, it appears that faculty who are themselves strongly committed to social change are successful in promoting greater student participation in volunteer activities among their students.

But perhaps the most significant finding of all concerns the effect of student peer groups. Of all the variables in our analysis-entering student characteristics as well as characteristics of the college environment-none had a positive effect on volunteer participation that rivalled the effect of frequency of interaction among students. One likely interpretation of this finding is that student engagement in volunteer and community service work operates through peer networking. Further, this finding suggests that one promising way to encourage greater student participation in volunteer activities and service learning would be simply to maximize the amount of interaction that occurs among students. Some of the specific forms of student-student interactions that have positive effects on volunteer participation include participation in religious activities, involvement in campus activism, and socializing with members of different ethnic groups. Each of these activities constitutes another form of student interaction.

The significance of these findings becomes even clearer when we look at some of the factors that negatively influence student volunteer participation. The peer group characteristic that has the largest negative effect on volunteer participation is the degree of involvement of the student body in outside work. That is, a student's chances of participating in volunteer work are lowest in those institutions where many students work at outside jobs. Other student activities that are negatively associated with volunteer participation include living at home and watching television. All of these activities-working at outside jobs, living at home, and watching television-would tend to reduce the student's opportunities for interacting with other students.

It is also of interest to note that the amount of interaction between faculty and students also has positive effects on volunteer participation. While Involvement in Learning and SLI both emphasize the importance of student-faculty interaction as a way of enhancing the learning process, our latest research shows that there are additional "affective" benefits associated with student-faculty interaction beyond any effects it might have on the student's "cognitive" development.