Abstract:

Opportunities to be involved in a university based community service have steadily increased during the last decades. It provides students with the opportunity to be involved in interesting activities and gain a lot of benefits from it. This study explores the perception of sixty underprivileged primary school students from SK Kampung Tengah Segamat Johor who were involved in a university based community service project funded by an Industrial Grant by KHIND STARFISH Foundation and was jointly organized by University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Johor as well as SK Kampung Tengah Segamat Johor. The project known as EDUTAINMENT 4 UPSR also involved thirty UiTM students who acted as the mentors and six lecturers who were the advisors for the project. The selected underprivileged primary school students (mentees) were provided with a special learning module which focuses on providing lessons and fun learning activities in English Language, Bahasa Melayu, Mathematics and Science. Two sets of questionnaires were deployed among the mentees prior to and after the project was conducted to analyze their perception of the project and the impact it has made on their learning experience, interest, motivation and confidence. The findings revealed that the mentees find the project to be very beneficial as it has enhances their learning interest and motivation as well as increase their confidence in peer interaction and group participation.

Keywords:

Community Service, university-based community service project, underprivileged, learning interest, motivation.