Profile of a Residential Learning Community Dedicated to Service-Learning on Schwartz’s Typology of Values

Abstract

This paper describes the values orientation of a residential learning community dedicated to exploring the issues of faith and community through service learning. The Schwartz value model, as measured by the 10-item scale used in the World Values Survey (WVS), was used to compare members of this residential learning community with peers in a different section of the same required core religion course. The section for the residential learning community cohort was taught as a service-learning course whereas the other section had a standard lecture and discussion format. The two groups showed somewhat similar profiles, scoring highest on Benevolence lowest on Power, although the members of the residential learning community were nonetheless relatively lower on Power. However, the most notable difference between the two groups was the very low importance placed on Hedonism by the residential learning community members. Unexpectedly, Universalism (a prosocial value) was not one of the most important values, which we attribute to the ability of the inadequacy of the item meant to measure this value on the WVS.