‘I can succeed at this’: Engagement in service learning in schools enh ances university students’ self-efficacy

Why this paper matters

Tracks general and teaching self-efficacy across two years of school service-learning.

Evidence reviewed

Design: Three-wave study of 267 psychology undergraduates
Full-text status: Indexed PDF/full text reviewed

Principal finding

Pre-post gains were reported for general self-efficacy (d=.30) and teaching self-efficacy (d=.68), with feedback-related patterns.

EntrSL interpretation

This paper informs the design or evaluation of service-learning and experiential-learning work. Its findings should be interpreted within the reported design and context, not treated as universal or necessarily causal evidence.

Limitations and boundary conditions

No randomized control; repeated measures do not isolate service-learning from co-occurring influences.

Scoring rationale

• EntrSL relevance: 5/5. Directness to service-learning, experiential learning, higher education, entrepreneurship, reflection, reciprocity, or institutional practice.
• Evidence quality: 4/5. Based on design transparency, sample or review breadth, analytical fit, and inferential limits.
• Journal standing is separate. OpenAlex two-year mean citedness and h-index are descriptive source metrics and do not increase this paper’s evidence score.

Citation

Raphael Gutzweiler; Simone Pfeiffer; Tina In-Albon (2022). “‘I can succeed at this’: Engagement in service learning in schools enh ances university students’ self-efficacy.” Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2022.2091126