From Civic Knowledge to Collective Action: Strengthening Civic Intelligence through Service-Learning

Abstract

This study explores the implementation of the Service-Learning (SL) approach in Civic Education as a strategy to foster civic intelligence, conceptualized as the capacity of citizens, both individually and collectively, to identify, understand, and address social problems fairly and effectively through the integration of private civic intelligence and public civic intelligence. The study aims to examine the contribution of Service-Learning to students’ ability to design and implement social projects and to investigate its role in strengthening civic intelligence. The Service-Learning approach was implemented through three sequential phases: planning, implementation, and evaluation/reflection, involving four community-based service projects as experiential learning activities. The findings reveal that students participating in Service-Learning demonstrated greater ability to identify social issues, collaboratively develop solutions with community members, implement social projects, and critically reflect on the outcomes of their activities. These improvements strengthened the dimension of private civic intelligence by enhancing students’ civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and civic skills, while simultaneously reinforcing the dimension of public civic intelligence through increased civic engagement, civic participation, and collaborative action within the community. The study concludes that Service-Learning is an effective pedagogical approach for strengthening civic intelligence while enhancing the quality of Civic Education learning.