Impact of &quot;Grassroots on Work&quot; (GROW) Extension Program to the Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Students' Sense of Civic Responsibility
Author: Paga, Mark Leo Huit
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Extension Education,Program Evaluation,Bachelors Degrees,Political Science,College Students,Citizenship Responsibility,Civics,Path Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Student Surveys,Service Learning,Empathy,Self Efficacy,Social Change,Hypothesis Testing,Sex,Educational Attainment,Family Income,Siblings,State of the Art Reviews,Outcomes of Education,Input Output Analysis,Multiple Regression Analysis,Student Responsibility,Qualitative Research

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the medium term effect of service-learning program or &quot;Grassroots on Work&quot; extension program to civic responsibility of AB Political Science students. Methodology: This study employed an impact evaluation research design and both qualitative and quantitative. The data on goals and objectives of AB Political Science Program and objectives, inputs, activities, output, and outcomes of the GROW Program were analyzed through impact pathway analysis; while the data on the impact of GROW Program were generated using a descriptive standardized survey developed by Furco et.al (1998) among 63 student respondents. The data were statistically analyzed using mean, Time-two, Time-one Analysis and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. To answer the extent of &quot;Grassroots on Work&quot; (GROW) Program impact indicators and other factors affecting the sense of personal concern of students to community such as: (a) Awareness of; and empathy towards the community and their needs; (b) Attentiveness in taking movement for the community; (c) Confidence in their ability to influence social change; (d) Understanding the political and social issues that affect community; and (e) Socio-demographic data such as: I. Gender, II. Year level, III. Income of parents, IV. No. of siblings, V. Type of community affect students concern for community, these were analyzed using Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis. Results: The implementation of GROW program realized a significant but small increase in the students' awareness of; and empathy towards the community and their needs (8.62%); A significant but small increase in students' sense of personal concern for the community (7.8%); A significant but small increase in student's confidence to their ability to influence social change (6.01%); and a significant but small increase of students' understanding in political and social issues that affect community (8.26%). However, student's attentiveness in taking action for the community was found not significantly attributed to the program. Furthermore, the results showed that the increase of AB Political Science students' sense of personal concern is significantly correlated with the increase in student's level of schooling. Interview data shows that 100% of students are aware of; and felt empathy towards the community and their needs; attentive in taking movement for the community; they have confidence to their ability to influence social change; and understand the political and social issues that affect community with a 92.31% very sure in the degree of certainty. Conclusion: The AB Political Science students are able to see the multifaceted problems of the community and able to conceptualize ideas or actions that will help the community. Furthermore, students also felt that their actions are valued by the community because of the words and songs of appreciation. Students are now often think socially, politically and discussed the issues that affect the community. Furthermore, as the year level increases, the personal concern for the community also increases. Recommendation: It is recommended that proponents of the GROW program should intensively plan the entire activity, analyze fully the objectives, and goals for their realization. It is also recommended to design specific performance indicators per objective to make them measurable; continue the adoption and mainstreaming of GROW program in the attainment of program objectives of the AB Political Science. The program should focus on activities that motivate them to be more active in their community to allow them to interact with and apply their knowledge in real world problems. It is also recommended to focus more in the social component of GROW program to enable the students to connect with one another, with faculty members, and with their communities to take greater interest in social and community issues and translate active commitment to active citizenship. Moreover, the program must start at the beginning of the academic year, since seven months of implementation from September-March is short and will not ensure the development of students' attentiveness in taking movements for the community to erase the boundary between awareness, empathy, and sense of personal responsibility to actions. The GROW program must strengthen the leadership component to address the aforementioned constraint and to achieve and maximize the impact of the GROW program to the civic development of the AB Political Science Students. Furthermore it is recommended that the proponents of the GROW program who are in this case, the Political Science Professors, must emphasize the integration of personal responsibility to the community. The administration and curriculum planners of the university should be more focused on both immediate and long-term student outcomes. The other colleges of the University must also adopt same service-learning program to make the students of the university an active youth of the community. It is also recommended that the administration should allocate more funds in the service-learning program and provide resources for positive student outcomes. (Contains 8 Tables, 3 Figures.)