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Qualitative outcomes of a pilot study which seeks to investigate the ways and extent to which service-learning impacts the development of empathy in undergraduate engineering students are presented. Service-learning is an experiential education pedagogy in which students engage in activities designed to tackle community needs within structured opportunities to promote learning and development. Community service, teamwork, problem-solving, and reflection are common elements within service-learning activities. This educational approach can provide students with real-world scenarios that connect classroom theory and knowledge to community needs. A brief literature review on service-learning within engineering education, is presented alongside brief background on the meaning of empathy. This is followed by initial qualitative findings around a service-learning trip within an undergraduate engineering course involving 13 student participants. The findings indicate service-learning in a foreign community can serve as a platform for the development of empathy in engineering undergraduates. The development of empathy can be fostered within three main findings: group dynamics, interactions with the community, and individual interpretation of the service-learning experience through self-reflection. This paper concludes with a discussion on how these three findings collectively influence the development of empathy in students. This paper provides a qualitative approach to contextualizing the development of empathy as a learning outcome for engineering educators interested in service-learning. 

This work presents the quantitative findings from a multi-method study investigating service-learning as a platform to promote empathy growth within engineering undergraduates. Qualitative results from this study have previously demonstrated the potential of service-learning activities to support the development of empathy by leveraging group dynamics, interactions with the community, and self-reflection. A repeated measures design using the Davis’ Interpersonal Relativity Index (IRI) was administered to the 14 undergraduate student participants before and after a service learning experience. Exploratory quantitative findings indicating the potential of service-learning and the use of reflection as a platform for the growth of empathy, particularly within the IRI constructs of empathic concern and perspective taking, are presented. These findings, along with associated limitations, demonstrate the importance of further investigation into the use of service learning, and other community-engaged student learning (CESL) activities as platforms for empathy development among undergraduate engineering students.