“Service-Learning” as a Means of Developing the Civic Position of Medical University Students

The results of empirical research, aimed to reveal a role and nature of the impact of mastering the discipline “Service-Learning Public Project” in shaping the civic position (civic consciousness) of medical university students, are presented in the article. In this research, civic identity (citizenship) is considered a personal quality. Its substructures include cognitive, motivationalregulatory, and behavioral components. It is formed through the context of a conscious belonging to a specific state (nationality, ethnicity) via education, upbringing, and social interaction, and is manifested in behavior through the following indicators: participation in the life of one’s state and society; adherence to social norms and legislation; helping (serving) those in need; active engagement in learning about and exploring the history, culture, and geography of one’s country; acceptance and endorsement of the traditions, values, and representatives of different cultures, nationalities, and confessions within one’s state. More than 200 second-year students of the medical University (future pediatricians, pharmacists and dentists) participated in the study, having completed the survey twice: before and after the start of mastering the discipline “Service-Learning Public Project”. The data was processed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests, cluster analysis and one-way analysis of variance. It was revealed that mastering the course “Service-Learning Public Project” has a targeted, rather than comprehensive, impact on the structure of civic identity. The most pronounced positive shifts were recorded in the cognitive and behavioral components, primarily regarding the indicators “Helping (serving) those in need” and “Activeness in learning about and mastering the history, culture, and geography of one’s country”. At the same time, the motivational-regulatory component, as well as indicators such as “Participation in the life of the state and society” did not show a statistically significant increase. An indirect positive effect can be considered the strengthening of connections between individual behavioral indicators, which points to an increase in the internal coherence of civic identity.