Experiential learning strategies for promoting adolescents' voluntarism in Hong Kong

Nurturing adolescents' voluntarism-their willingness to help needy strangers-appears to hinge on the experiential learning component embedded in a volunteer training program. Evidence for this is presented from an experimental study carried out in Hong Kong. Although program participants did not differ in voluntarism from their classmates who did not participate in the program, those who devoted more time to volunteer services were ultimately significantly higher on voluntarism. Those who volunteered for services to new immigrants, to people with mental retardation, and to chronic patients had significantly higher voluntarism levels than others. Early voluntarism did not significantly affect their volunteer participation. These findings support the role of experiential learning in the adolescent's development of voluntarism. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.