Abstract Book of the 7th Global Conference on Education and Teaching
Year: 2025
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Recognising Potential for Optimisation in One’s Work and That of the Team: Results from a Community-Based Service-Learning Course
Janine Bittner, Janina Kempchen
ABSTRACT:
Project-based work with a high proportion of teamwork, as well as independent individual work by students, promotes the development of various skills among participants, including their professional and methodological competencies, as well as their socio-communicative skills and personal competencies through collaboration with others. The qualitative accompanying study presented here, which covers a community-based research service-learning study project for bachelor’s students in the geography degree programme of a German university, asks the students to reflect on the potential for improvement that they see in themselves and their team. At the end of the 2-semester course, qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 course participants and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The categories were formed inductively. Individual potential for improvement was identified primarily in the following areas: more engagement with scientific literature, better time management, giving presentations, and conducting empirical studies. Potential for improvement for the team was identified, especially in the following area: implementing more regular team meetings. The study showed that the project work and methods learned especially enabled the students to recognise their own individual potential for optimisation. This is an important prerequisite for personal and professional development in the world of work. However, their ability to recognise and identify potential for optimisation in teamwork was not yet as well developed. This can undoubtedly be attributed partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that at least half of the teamwork took place virtually. The expected level of reflection would have been higher with exclusive face-to-face teamwork.
Keywords: community-based research, service-learning, student, improvement potential, work