IMPLEMENTING COMMUNITY SERVICE LEARNING FOR PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS: THE CASE AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The term Community Service Learning (CSL) is known as an effective learning program that helps the student produce reflective assignments. Due to its practicality, CSL is thus considered as one of the most useful supports for pre-service teachers and has gradually developed over the recent decades. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards CSL as well as enhance their awareness towards community teaching, then find out the ways to extend this type of education program. Taking these aims into accounts, the questionnaire was used to help the author easily research the attitudes, obstacles, and needs of the participants. Moreover, the semi-structured interview technique was used to have a detailed insight into CSL problems. Consequently, the main findings initially revealed that pre-service teachers had a relatively high awareness of the necessity and benefits of CSL. Secondly, the results implied that problems encountered during the program and the lack of supports was noticeably pointed out. Additionally, the pre-service teachers also agreed that one of the major contributions to CSL success was teachers’ consistency. Interestingly, participants showed different opinions when they were questioned whether CSL was compulsory in the learning curriculum. By exposing some limitations, the research implied some significant considerations for the community, universities and pre-service teachers. Finally, some suggestions for further studies were offered to hopefully help the CSL programs become more popular and effective.