This study investigated whether community service has effect on the cultivation of the senses of community and participation. The ultimate goal of social studies is the cultivation of citizenship. Thus, it is very important to study an effective teach...
This study investigated whether community service has effect on the cultivation of the senses of community and participation. The ultimate goal of social studies is the cultivation of citizenship. Thus, it is very important to study an effective teaching-leaning method for the cultivation of citizenship. In this regard, although scholars have somewhat different answers to what method is most effective to educate citizenship, most of them refer to learning through democratic experiences. The contents mainly discussed as an effective method to educate citizenship are that what should be emphasized is the importance of community as a place for citizenship
education and participation in public affairs as a method to educate citizenship. From this aspect, community service program, which leads learning through service activities in communities, is closely related to social studies that is purposed to the cultivation of citizenship.
As a method of citizen participation in the recent society, there is also a growing interest in community service as an effective teaching-learning method for the cultivation of citizenship and practice according to it in social studies, which is based on a variety of evidence that there are educational effects for students through community service. Many studies that have so far been made on community service report that as the result of operating community service integrated with educational curriculums in various areas, community service brings academic, individual and social growth and development to students and is especially effective for forming civic values and attitudes.
Based on this, this study set up two hypotheses and continued research as follows. First, the sense of community of the students who did community service which was planned, intended and made through the class of social studies would be higher than that of those who did not community service which was planned, intended and made through the class of social studies. Second, the sense of participation of the students who did community service which was planned, intended and made through the class of social studies would be higher than that of those who did not community service which was planned, intended and made through the class of social studies.
As the results of the study, all of the hypotheses that were intended to verify in this study were verified. Therefore, it was proved in this study that community service has effect on the cultivation of the senses of community and participation which are important factors of citizenship. Accordingly, it was shown that community service can be used as a teaching-learning method in social studies of which the ultimate goal is the cultivation of citizenship.
However, this study has its own limitation. First, the study period was not sufficient to investigate the effect of community service. Second, there is lack of connection between school and community. In the future, service is expected to occupy a great deal of weight on civic life. In this situation, it is necessary to try to see students' service from the aspect of learning and make educational use of it meaningfully. For this, the followings should be prepared. First, as service is seen as learning, it is required to develop a service program well integrated with the contents of social studies within the curriculum. Second, school and community should cooperate with each other closely. When service is made effectively under the cooperation between school and community, all school, community and students can gain various benefits through service. In particular, social studies, which has the goal to bring up great citizens in a democratic society, needs to provide students with opportunities to have many experiences of participation in community. In this regard, community service will provide such opportunities for them.