The Impact of Service-Learning on EFL Teacher Candidates’ Academic and Personal Development

Despite its well-documented benefits for training a wide range of professionals, including teacher candidates in almost all content areas, the incorporation of service-learning into foreign language teacher education is relatively new, and most research only dealt with narrative accounts of non-work-related charitable activities. Consequently, this study sought to investigate the impact of the 20-hour peer-tutoring project on the teaching beliefs, community service attitudes, personal and professional development of 14 Turkish EFL teacher candidates. A comparison between their preand post-service metaphors revealed a conceptual shift not only in their teaching perspectives from the behaviorist to constructivist paradigm for knowledge acquisition, but also in their community partnership approaches from the unidirectional to reciprocal pattern of altruism towards their tutees. The classification of their written reflections into six types of significant learning demonstrated that despite a relatively greater focus on expressing their foundational knowledge and application practices, a more balanced distribution of learning gains was achieved between the two overarching spheres of academic learning and personal growth, when coursework engagement and multimodal reflections were co-implemented. They reported developing effective teacher dispositions, interpersonal skills and social responsibility, valued intrinsic rewards for their contributions to the youth well-being, and also appreciated the informal professional learning opportunities the peer-tutoring service offered, though without establishing their own learning agendas.


Introduction
Service-learning involves a wide variety of educative experiences, ranging from cleaning the neighbourhood to developing solutions with community partners for social problems, and its practices differ in the nature of interaction with community members, quality of academic connections, and extent of impact on student learning (Eyler, 2000;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Jacoby, 2015). Considering the combined student population of now nearly 5.8 million in 202 engaged universities from 58 countries, service-learning is apparently not an educational fad, but has flourished as "a radically innovative" approach to instruction in higher education since the mid-1980s (Campus Compact, 2016Jacoby, 2015;O'Connor, 2012, p. 308). Although the term was coined in 1967, and the subsequent search for a common definition yielded no results, or rather, its 147 different descriptions, service-learning became preferred over synonymous tokens such as community-engaged learning and academically-based community service for denoting the combination of service with learning (Eyler & Giles, 1999;Giles & Eyler, 1994;Jacoby, 2015).
A closer analysis of service-learning research in the global context showed that the overwhelming majority of the aforementioned studies focused on the evaluation of preservice elementary teachers' tutoring experiences with relatively smaller samples from vulnerable groups (i.e. low-income youth, children with special needs, at-risk girls, elderly and disabled people), ranging from 10 to 48 participants, and also relied on the qualitative data from the interviews, observations, reflective journals and/or essays collected during and/or after 12 to 80 hours of service (e.g. Boyle-Baise & Kilbane, 2000;Butcher et al., 2003;Chambers & Lavery, 2012;Dodd & Lilly, 2000;Donahue et al., 2003;Glazier et al., 2014;Hildebrandt, 2014;Kaschak & Letwinsky, 2015;McHatton et al., 2006;Petersen, 2007;Wade, 1997). Mergler et al.'s (2016) service-learning research on preservice teachers' perceptions of key teacher values, responsibilities, and diversity in their future classrooms should rather be distinguished from the similar qualitative studies by its considerably larger sample size, as it undertook comparison between the responses of 350 first-year, and 141 fourth-year participants to five open-ended questions.
While Hallman and Burdick (2011) along with Barnes and Caprino (2016) concentrated on secondary English teacher candidates' reflections about their tutoring (i.e. English reading and writing at a local high school in the USA) experiences, teacher roles and identity development, Kistler (2014) as well as He and Prater (2014) examined the reflective practices and knowledge development of both preservice ESL and content-area teachers, tutoring multicultural and multilingual learners of English as a second language at community-based programs, public schools and local churches.
Besides the specific context of language teaching, two of these studies deserve special attention because theoretical orientation and quantification exist in none but He and Prater (2014), and Barnes and Caprino (2016). The former compared the participants' reflections over time, and used an adapted framework from Hatton and Smith (1995) to classify the qualitative data from their pre-and post-teaching belief statements and tutoring journals with respect to five levels of reflection (i.e. technical, descriptive, dialogic, critical and contextualised reflection), whereas the latter used Fink's (2003) taxonomy as a theoretical lens through which the participants' ongoing and summative reflections were compared. Apart from the modes and levels of reflection, different types of service-learning programs were also compared, although very rarely. Among the related research here cited, it was only in Bernadowski et al. (2013) that 37 early childhood teacher candidates were surveyed about their self-efficacy perceptions in course-connected and managed choice (volunteering) service-learning environments, using a 10-item Likert scale and reflective journals.
While Elma et al. (2010) examined the course perceptions of 415 preservice elementary teachers by means of a 28-item scale developed by the researchers, Soykan, Gunduz and Tezer (2015) combined the quantitative data from 254 participants' responses to a similar evaluative scale, and qualitative data from the semi-structured interview with 76 of them, and also documented positive attitudes towards community service due to its empowering effect on their socialisation, personal development and civic engagement. In an experimental study with pretest-posttest research design, participation in community service was also reported by Kucukoglu and Kocyigit (2015) to positively affect 45 early childhood teacher candidates' critical thinking, problem-solving and emphatic skills, and democratic attitudes.
Although the previous literature documented the benefits of service-learning not only for teacher candidates from various content areas (i.e. social studies, science, maths, literacy, early childhood, computer and special education), but also for second or foreign language learners of English, French, Spanish and Italian at different levels of proficiency (e.g. Barreneche, 2011;Burgo, 2016;Chao, 2016;Douglas, 2017;Grim, 2010;Hildebrandt, 2014;Kistler & Crosby, 2014;Morris, 2001;O'Connor, 2012;Pak, 2013), it still remains underexplored how foreign language teacher candidates can learn from and change as a result of service-learning. For this reason, the present study sought to investigate the impact of service-learning on Turkish EFL teacher candidates' underlying assumptions about foreign language teaching, their perceptions of community service, and also the academic and personal learning they derived from the given peertutoring project as demonstrated through their reflective writing. The research questions can thus be worded as follows: i. How does the peer-tutoring service influence preservice EFL teachers' teaching perspectives and community service attitudes? ii. How does the peer-tutoring service influence their professional and personal development?

Method
The current study adopted a multimethod design, for it not only employed two qualitative strands simultaneously (i.e. metaphor elicitation and reflection analysis), but also switched between qualitative and quantitative approaches during data analysis by transforming the originally textual data into numerical data (Creswell, 2009;Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2008;Morse, 2003;Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). In addition to content analysis, the calculation of frequencies and percentages for the occurrences of thematic categories (aka data conversion) enabled comparisons between data sets, and assisted in developing a detailed understanding of the problem situation (Creswell, 2009;Morse, 2003;Patton, 1990;Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Although the aim was not to make generalisations but document and interpret the effects of service-learning on EFL teacher candidates, the sample size (n=14) could be considered a limitation of this study.

Participants
The study group consisted of 14 juniors (12 female and two male, aged 20-22), studying at the Department of Foreign Language Education in a Turkish metropolitan university. They were purposefully chosen among English teacher candidates, who took the three-credit course, Community Service (CS). Their lack of participation in any type of service program and prior teaching experience made them information-rich cases capable of providing deeper insight into the way(s) their teaching beliefs, academic learning and personality development were affected by the peer-tutoring service. The participants were required to tutor three low-achieving students from the English preparatory school for two hours a week. Therefore, the service-learning project lasted ten weeks, and 42 fellow learners in total were provided with 20 hours of one-on-one instruction on the same campus. Since the peer-tutoring project was not intended as a formal teaching practicum, the student teachers were not expected to implement a predetermined curriculum but were instead asked to respond to the learning needs their students identified and expressed, as they studied English together. Their tutees, all registered in English-medium departments, were concerned that they might be expelled from the university unless they passed the English proficiency test at the end of the year, and the student teachers were aware that they would mainly request academic assistance on language learning strategies, study skills, exam preparation and revision, and demand remedial instruction in order to improve their test scores. During their one-hour class meetings with the course instructor at the faculty, the student teachers also reviewed sample lesson plans, reported critical incidents, discussed methodological issues, shared their feelings and resources, and developed a future course of action together.

Data collection
Since they require no transcription and offer practicality during analysis, the qualitative data of this study was derived from documents (Creswell, 2012). Elicited metaphors and reflection questions were especially preferred here, for the former has become established as a powerful device for examining teacher beliefs, interpreting how their underlying conceptualisations inform classroom practices, and raising professional awareness, whereas the latter has been identified as a better form of assessment for exploring different facets of the academic learning service work can induce (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999;Leavy, McSorley & Bote, 2007;Mahlios, Massengill-Shaw & Barry, 2010;Simons & Cleary, 2006).
As part of their coursework, the participants wrote four metaphors by completing each of these two prompts within a 50-min class period: "An EFL teacher is like… because…" and "Community service (CS) course is like… because…". While the first two (pre-service) images described their early beliefs about teaching and course expectations, the latter (postservice) pair reformulated previous conceptions in view of their experience. Apart from their metaphor updates, the student teachers wrote a summative report in response to the following questions: "What have you learnt from your peer-tutoring service? How has it influenced your ideas about: language teaching, community service, and yourself? What should be changed about CS for future course-takers?", and thus provided written reflections, summarising the major events, explaining how they were professionally and personally affected by this kind of service, and contemplating potential adjustments to the course at the end of the ten-week period. With the purposes of promoting consent, maintaining confidentiality and improving data quality, they were also informed of the research purpose, and identified by case numbers (e.g. ST14) in this study (Ciambrone, 2004;Creswell, 2012;Miles & Huberman, 1994).

Data analysis
The qualitative data from their metaphors and reflective reports were analysed with the content analysis method. Besides "summarising and reporting" the main contents of their messages, it allows making "replicable and valid inferences" from a large body of textual data (Berg, 2001;Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007, p. 475;Krippendorff, 2004, p. 18). The use of theoretical frameworks facilitates the processing, labelling, organising and comparing of data (Collins & Stockton, 2018). As a result, Martinez, Sauleda and Guenter's (2001) trio of teaching perspectives, and Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning were adopted in this study for the sake of analytical clarity and interpretive depth. Martinez et al.'s (2001) framework was preferred in the analysis of the teacher metaphors because they provided a shared system of classification for accessing and elaborating on the metaphorical roots of teachers' thinking, and outlined three paradigms in knowledge acquisition: i. the behaviorist perspective, where knowledge is imparted to an empty mind, ii. the constructivist perspective, where knowledge is individually and actively constructed through new experiences, iii. the situative perspective, where knowledge is collaboratively developed through participation in a community. Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning was preferred in the analysis of the service reflections, for he offered a special language for describing learning experiences in student reflections, and determined six different kinds of significant learning: i. foundational knowledge (understanding and remembering the course content), ii. application (developing critical thinking, problem-solving and other key skills), iii. integration (identifying links between different realms of knowledge and people), iv. human dimension (interacting with self and others differently), v. caring (changing feelings, interests and values), and iv. learning how to learn (acquiring self-directed learning skills).
As to the course images, an inductive approach was taken, and four major themes were generated in response to their metaphorical entailments. In the first of these, CS as therapeutic agent, the healing properties of service work are foregrounded, so service providers act as saviours, and service recipients as individuals inflicted with some misfortune. Conversely, the images in CS as practicum workshop, focus on the experiential learning opportunities service work offer to the inexperienced professionals, and assume a mutually beneficial relationship between service partners. CS as challenging transition, is another reciprocally-oriented category where individual and collective development are regarded as interdependent in the larger context of society. The images produced in CS as inessential adjunct, on the other hand, embody negative emotions of superfluity evoked in service providers mainly due to their already hectic schedules.
In this study, two independent coders read both data sets continuously and exhaustively for identifying salient patterns in their statements. After individual analyses, they compared initial findings, discussed disagreements, and finalised their codings. By means of Miles and Huberman's (1994) formula, the intercoder reliability was calculated as: 91% for the metaphor data, and 89% for the reflection statements. The intercoder agreements fell inside Miles and Huberman's (1994) acceptable range. To further enhance reliability, the qualitative data was quantified and descriptive statistics for the thematic occurrences were tabulated. To ensure validity, the following measures were taken: i. the research context was described in detail, ii. respondents checked the accuracy of the findings, iii. their original sentences were kept intact, and iv. direct quotations along with representative examples were amply supplied.

Findings
The classification of STs' evolving teacher metaphors by Martinez et al.'s (2001) framework revealed that the ten-week period of one-on-one tutorial reversed the traditional trend (behaviorist: 57%) toward the adoption of a more modern image of an EFL teacher, facilitating the learning in an unobtrusive way, and co-learning with students in one instance (constructive & situative: 57%). In other words, more than half of the student teachers, who used to view the teaching process as one of giving shape (e.g. the teacher as an architect building knowledge) or presenting information (e.g. the teacher as a cook feeding knowledge), and correspondingly learners as blank slates or empty containers, eventually changed into a more egalitarian conception of an EFL classroom, where the teacher as the more knowledgeable learning partner assists learners in constructing knowledge (e.g. the teacher as a coach/the polestar not dictating but guiding learners when in need) or even learns together with them in real-life situations (e.g. the teacher as an explorer discovering or relearning with fellow expedition team members). When the shift in their orientation was examined more closely as in Table 2, it was found that six STs held categorically identical views, and seemed to have reaffirmed pre-existing teaching beliefs as a result of their peer tutoring. For example, care, guidance and growth constituted the very essence of ST11's constructivist metaphors ('captain>farmer'), whereas ST1's behaviorist metaphors ('sun>cook') emphasised knowledge transmission. An operating manual has theoretical information, visuals, simulations to show how to use the product/language. So is the teacher who has a great influence on the whole process.
The techniques and style of information influence the user/student. The better the manual/teacher is, the better the performance the user/student has (ST2).
Once I started teaching, I noticed that the teacher is also the student. Teacher relearns what she learnt in school this time via experiencing. She develops her own theory. So, my metaphor is exploring. When an explorer explores an island, she goes through some changes. Teacher learns also with her students (ST2).

Negative Constructive> Behaviorist
Like children, students need love and care. Like mother, teacher helps students whenever they need. She provides every information, not just English but everything about life. Mother loves her child without expectation. Teacher gives true love and takes care of her students in school environment. They learn gradually. They learn better by making mistakes (ST3).
An EFL teacher is like a baker and students like pastry. Since child comes to school without knowing anything, teacher can give a shape to him. At first, pastry is raw and runny but they can have a shape. Similarly, students can change easily when they are taught. If baker or teacher is skillful, pastry tastes good and child becomes successful (ST3).
Among the remaining eight participants, whose teacher conceptualisation changed over time, five eventually favoured the facilitative teacher as in ST2's case from Table 2. Only three STs (e.g. ST3 in Table 2) ended up with a negative orientation towards a traditional, banking model of education, which can be explained by the negative incidents encountered during peer teaching. Having admitted that her initial enthusiasm diminished in the face of the tutees' reluctance and apathy, ST3 commented on the shift from the mothering to baking metaphor: "I thought I can create a perfect student profile. But you can only try to give a shape to your students. I observe that they don't expect me to love or respect them. They only want me to give them knowledge. It isn't a kind of emotional relation". It can thus be argued that the reduction in the behaviourist category would be greater if three STs had not replaced their first constructive metaphors with the conventional image of the shaper/molder. Similarly, a thematic analysis of the course metaphors demonstrated in Table 3 that while the majority initially viewed CS either as simple volunteerism; i.e. one-sided charity work (42%), or as a diverting add-on to teacher education curriculum (22%), their final course conceptions predominantly accumulated in two equally-weighted categories: CS as practicum workshop (36%), and as challenging transition (36%), both of which celebrated the reciprocity of benefit in their service-learning partnership (72% altogether). In other words, the CS course was originally viewed by the greater majority of the student teachers as either a place (e.g. soup kitchen) or an instrument (e.g. plaster) whereby afflicted community members (e.g. the homeless, wounded or low-achieving English learners in this case) are cured of their troubles (e.g. hunger, health problems or learning difficulties), or as their playground (e.g. a pool of balloons or video game), as they have more serious courses on their teacher training curriculum; however, they exchanged this preliminary view for a more positive course concept, where they (e.g. as an amateur farmer or chef experimenting in a greenhouse or restaurant kitchen) can develop their job skills in return for their service, or, in a larger sense, together bring solidarity and growth in the society (e.g. like tree trunks expanding into boughs and branches, or mountaineers reaching out for a helping hand if the climbing rope breaks). Table 4 provided further examples of the course metaphors on a continuum of mutual interest.

Table 4. Orientation of evolving course (CS) metaphors
Orientation Pre-service Post-service Reciprocal CS is a magic wand that has a positive effect on lives it touches and people who carry out this task with their free wills are friendly angels. These angels both help people and themselves in terms of developing their helping behaviors. It teaches how people should show more respect to each other. It has utmost importance for students' college experiences because knowledge is not only learned from inside of class but also from outside, e.g. experiences shared by students (ST12).
CS is like teamwork of mountaineering club. Mountaineers bind a rope to connect with others and make sure everyone is secure. The rope provides unity and safety. What if does such a trustable rope break? Then someone should give his hand without hesitation. People living in the same society should feel responsible towards each other and give hands to someone in need of help. So we protect the unity of community and assist to reach the target of society (the peak) (ST12). Nonreciprocal CS is like an ambulance that helps people in need. It does everything to make people happy and alive. We assist some students and with our help they get more confident and successful in their courses. So, we can resemble this process to a healing process in an emergency case. We heal our students' weaknesses like an ambulance (ST7).
CS is like a crutch to people who have a disability and need help from an outsider. The students we are working with are in need of assistance about their English courses. If they don't get assistance, they will fail. Here, CS appears and helps them to be more successful and happier. So, CS resembles to a crutch which help people walk better and feel more confident (ST7).
When STs saw an opportunity in the tutoring service for personal development and solidarity building, their course images were reciprocally oriented as in ST12's case from Table 4, and entailed two beneficiaries: i.e. the tutors, who gained professional experience and empowered their learning community, and tutees, whom they freely gave one-toone instruction and study guidance. Likewise, ST2, who expected "an easy lesson… [where] they [tutees] will be glad with whatever service [she] can give", remarked on the unstructured opportunities for "choosing content, planning, timing, anticipating problems", and later personified CS as "a wise old man who teaches his advice to his grandchildren gently". The majority of the initial course metaphors were, however, produced in the non-reciprocal mode as in ST7's case from Table 4, and embodied healing and/or supernatural properties: "…like Casper, the friendly ghost, who always helps people regardless of their background and asks nothing for return" (ST5). It was apparent from their mental associations that the service/academic support they provided was not being reciprocated with an action of equal value, and peer teaching was perceived as purely altruistic at the beginning. Consequently, it was considered positive that the number of the course metaphors connoting asymmetrical partnership had been almost halved by the end of their service-learning. Finally, STs' written reflections were analysed with Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning. It was evident from Table 5 that their reflection statements were almost evenly distributed between the two overarching themes of academic learning (45.5%) and personal growth (54.5%). Yet, references to the two most-cited academic learning goals -foundational knowledge and application -alone accounted for almost half of all reflection statements (44%), whereas the two most-cited personal growth goals -caring and learning how to learn -amounted to 40.5%. STs apparently seemed more preoccupied with verbalising their theoretical knowledge, criticising the context of practice, and taking pedagogical action accordingly. They addressed issues of citizenship and personal development (14%) less frequently, and almost failed to acknowledge the interconnectedness of learning and life (1.5%). A quick comparison between the most and least prolific participants showed that they tended to include more diverse learning goals depending on the length of reflective writing; i.e. ST8 with the most comments (f=24) included all six categories, whereas ST6 with the fewest comments (f=6) referred to only three types of learning goals. Among the 14 participants, only two -ST8 and ST12 -included all six learning goals. Although verbosity may not always signify deeper or more critical thinking, this finding indicated that a greater investment of time and effort in teaching reflective practice explicitly might have enabled the student teachers to address more variant forms of learning goals as they related to their experiences at the service-learning site. Samples from their reflection statements were provided for each category of significant learning in Table 6. A content analysis of the reflection statements as in Table 6 indicated that STs used the theoretical knowledge they remembered from ELT methodology classes for two main reasons: identifying and acknowledging important teaching skills and learner variables at work. References to their foundational knowledge (%18) related to key concepts of foreign language education: i.e. use of different techniques and activities, skills integration, materials development, lesson design, learner feedback and motivation. Like ST1 from Table 6, ST13, who made an analogy between athletes of differing skill levels and his tutees, focused on the need for accommodating diverse learners: "Some may learn things slowly and some may fast. Teacher should behave according to the levels of the students". ST9 also noted the importance of learner involvement: "It is necessary for students to add something to the teaching process. They should perceive with the help of their previous knowledge. They should make implications. They should take responsibility as much as teachers do".
When their application purposes (26%) were studied in more detail, it was found that STs primarily used the field knowledge for justifying problem-solving actions. Their teacher decision-making involved simplifying, reordering, extemporising and extending activities, scaffolding and reinforcing grammar, rebuilding rapport, and rescheduling classes to enhance learning and maintain interest. Like ST5 from Table 6, who employed code-switching, ST8 modified speech to ensure comprehension: "I spoke English above their level without noticing until they warned me. I practised speaking alone. I started constructing more understandable, short sentences". ST2 also mentioned making detailed plans to ensure a smooth flow of lessons: "I felt confused about what to do to manage unexpected situations, how to deal with timing and the subjects I couldn't make clear. These led me to plan my lessons beforehand with very specific details that we are not taught".
As for the relatively greater part of their applications (f=28), they aimed at evaluating the course design and context conditions of their service-learning partnership. ST6 disapproved of its being a compulsory course: "This course was a must-elective course, which was demanding us to be volunteers but never letting us to volunteer", whereas ST9 protested against lack of choice in service sites: "I prefer to choose the activity myself but we could not choose where to go and with whom we will study. I got afraid if I could not accommodate myself to this program". The group composition, time and resource constraints were other key areas around which their critical thinking behaviors were organised. ST7 drew attention to the importance of assigning the really needy students to peer groups for a successful partnership: "CS is good and helpful if it is applied to the right people. If students do not need extra assistance, it will get them bored. We should be careful while choosing the candidates we will work with". Likewise, ST9 and ST13 pointed out the difficulties of teaching multi-level groups, and demanded the transfer of this course to the final year of their undergraduate study, when their readiness for the job will have increased. While ST8 coped with time and resource constraints using online practice, ST7 identified materials preparation as "the most challenging part of the program", and came up with the idea of organising a teacher's resource file.
In their critical comments, six STs referred to lack of student enthusiasm despite concerted efforts. ST14 concluded from her service-learning experience: "If the student does not put any effort, there is not much to be done because you can put something in an open box not a closed one and you cannot open a box without the owner's will". Although they admitted experiencing self-doubt and frustration, they were able to resolve truancy issues by "talking things over" with the students: "The last weeks I did not enjoy attending classes because my student was unwilling to come. It affected my motivation. After that, I talked with him and we solved this problem. Maybe he didn't like my teaching style" (ST5). Being concerned about their own academic success, some also criticised this arrangement for being very timeconsuming (e.g. lesson planning and campus travels) and disturbing to their work-life balance (e.g. giving up sports and hobbies): e.g. "Preparing exercises did not bother me at first. I want to teach them everything. Unfortunately, at the end, I am fed up with it because I do not have time. Sometimes it becomes a burden to go to prep school to teach them" (ST3).
Being the least-cited among all six categories, the integration learning goals (1.5%) focused on connecting and sharing experiences with the fellow students, other peer teachers and instructor. It can be understood from ST12's (in Table 6) and ST8's statements that CS enabled them to go beyond superficial exchanges of knowledge in their learning communities: "Sometimes I and my student were talking about our lives and he mentioned he was so bored in the dormitory. I advised him the groups in our university. He really liked it and joined one. This also made me happy because I contributed his social life apart from lesson". However, the sparsity of the integration learning goals in their data suggested that they might not have engaged enough in higher-order reflections, and needed more time, practice and explicit instruction on reflection because their teacher education program was more oriented towards developing highly skilled technicians.
Among the personal growth goals, the human dimension (14%) was mentioned less frequently. As in ST11's example from Table 6, their reflections concentrated on working as a team member and contributing to the young people's wellbeing. Apart from their social skills, STs recounted how they developed personality traits such as benevolence, diligence and patience, which they believed they lacked as prospective EFL teachers. ST3, who did her best to reduce test anxiety, expressed gratitude for this character-building experience: "We sacrifice ourselves for helping our students. They are the reason we attend CS. If they don't need this kind of help, we never experience to help people. Thanks to CS, we have a chance to take the taste from helping people". ST4 clearly took pride in her endeavours to promote learning: "When I look back at the road I have taken, I cannot deny I was sometimes about to lose hope, but the desire to achieve success helped me to continue. It is great to feel that I have done all these despite the difficulties during the process". In four instances, they indicated that the course enabled a better understanding of citizenship: e.g. "People in the same society are responsible for each other. If we want to reach our targets, everyone should give hands voluntarily to others in need of help. If we ignore them, we lose our unity, and this means corruption for a community" (ST12).
As for the caring element (21%) in their reflective writing, STs predominantly conveyed joy of teaching, careful attention and commitment to become a good teacher as exemplified by ST10 from Table 6. They enjoyed investing time, effort, energy and affection into their English learners, whereas the eventual satisfaction from their team accomplishments helped to confirm their future career choice as follows: ST2: "The more time I spent with my student, the more fun it came to me… One day he said, 'I got 95 out of 100 from my quiz!' cheerfully. That sounded like as if the most beautiful news in the world to me, and I knew that eventually I started to pick my fruits up".
ST14: "In the beginning of the semester the idea of being a teacher did not seem very realistic but after this course, I started to believe that I will really be a teacher. The feeling of responsibility is what has changed me in terms of how I look at the profession".
The last type of significant learning exhibited in their reflections was about learning how to learn (19.5%). This personal growth goal necessitates using the content knowledge to better understand oneself and others especially in rich learning tasks such as simulations, role-plays and real-life projects (Fink, 2003). As indicated by ST8 in Table 6, they appreciated the duality in which benefactors and beneficiaries influence each other's learning during the smallgroup tutoring. In the current study, ten STs found peer teaching mutually beneficial because they were able to test the validity of their existing theories of language learning, identify what works and what doesn't in a realistic context, and develop a personal theory of teaching on the basis of concrete experience as shown below: ST4: "I used to believe the teacher is the person who dictates knowledge to the minds of learners. Now I believe a teacher is their guide. They do not take each word said by teacher, they question what they hear and make connections between new and existing information. They produce group work collaboratively just by the help of a person more experienced and knowledgeable".
As ST2 put it, their teaching approach was previously "too idealistic", and "[they] didn't know the reality doesn't correspond to what [they] imagined" (ST2). The tutoring process led them to "rearrange all [their] organizing principles in terms of teaching", and "enabled [them] to settle the decisions [they] made on a real ground" (ST2). In fact, peer tutoring deepened their overall understanding of the teaching-learning process. They realised that just as the teacher's encouragement, efforts, and materials stimulate student motivation and performance, so too the learner's enthusiasm and investment stimulate teacher's self-esteem and self-efficacy.
The interdependence of their roles came to be recognised by more now. For instance, ST7, who identified a mutualistic relationship between the teacher as "an odorous flower" and her students as "bees", commented: "The teacher helps students to be efficient and productive. Students also give and teach things to the teacher and this teacher-student relationship is grown with the help of both sides". ST6, too, viewed students as "feedback mechanisms", and likened "this short-term teaching practice" to "a TV talent show, where [they] managed to get over stage fright, see [their] development as well as that of the students as [they] got rated and scored by the improvements of [their] students". Despite such increased awareness of their teaching performance, these participants yet avoided mentioning their personal development plan like ST8: "I confess I did not consider myself so successful in teaching firstly. However, I think I developed myself by experience through the end of the course though I did not get over my weaknesses completely". Therefore, they may have appeared to greatly value the instructiveness of the informal learning arena provided by peer teaching, but their overall lack of a learning agenda for developing teacher competencies prevented them from becoming a fully reflective practitioner.

Discussion
The metaphor analyses have shown that perspective transformation was fostered professionally and personally, when the service work was linked with STs' academic learning. The eventual dominance of the constructivist teacher images, and reciprocally altruistic service metaphors indicated that the conceptual change was directed more towards mutual empowerment, and regulated by their authentic practice experiences and reflective activities throughout the course. A similar trend was previously observed in diverse contexts, ranging from the native (American, British) to the nonnative (Indonesian, Polish, Singaporean, Turkish), where beginning teachers with little/no professional experience abandoned conventional knowledge-transmission models of education, and assigned the learner a more active role as a result of pedagogical coursework, practical training and reflective practice (Afrianto, 2014;Can, Bedir & Kilianska-Przybylo, 2011;Cortazzi & Jin, 1999;Farrell, 2006;Joram & Gabriele, 1998;Leavy et al., 2007;Martinez et al., 2001;Culha-Ozbas, 2015;Rusznyak & Walton, 2014;Simsek, 2014a;Simsek, 2014b;Wade, 1997;Wood, 2000). The importance of direct classroom experiences and reflective inquiry in teacher cognition was also noted in Alger's (2009) comparative study of the teaching metaphors experienced teachers chose to associate with their entry, current and ideal teacher beliefs, and the move from the teacher-centered to student-centered conceptual metaphors over their career span was similarly well-received in Buchanan's (2015, p. 33) research, for preservice teachers with teachercentered metaphors were found more likely to experience "praxis shock" as their unrealistic expectations of power and control got deflated by the demands of the teaching situation over the course of time.
This comparison once again proved that despite continuous exposure to contemporary theories of education at the faculty, STs initially clinged to the outdated image of the teacher, moulding students -as if they were amorphous materials -into a uniform product to the society's liking. To illustrate how deep-rooted such behavioristic beliefs can be, Cole (2005) used an archaeological image of probably the earliest lockstep classroom from the Sumerian era with rows of desks, facing the teacher at the front of the room. Two other studies standing nearly three decades apart documented the more than a century old persistence of teacher-centered practices in our classrooms (Cuban, 1984;Portes & Smagorinsky, 2010). The main culprit thus remains the autobiographical knowledge teachers had obtained while observing their own teachers as school learners. Bailey et al. (1996) and Peacock (2001) maintained that rather than the methodology they have been trained to follow, their "apprenticeship of observation" -a term coined by Lortie (1975) -may become much more determinative of not only their own, but also their students' future performance; and urged that teacher candidates should be coerced into changing their negative beliefs through guided reflection, preferably upon entering the teacher education program.
However, the integration of the third-year preservice English teachers into this service-learning project yielded positive results, demonstrating that peer teaching supplied a freer, more exploratory and relaxed kind of testing environment for judging the accuracy of their prior beliefs about teaching and volunteering. It enabled the majority to make modifications on the basis of their more memorably acquired knowledge from this informal on-the-job-training. In a similar study with 19 preservice English teachers from the US context, Hallman and Burdick (2011, pp. 354, 363) advocated that one-on-one tutoring "placed the preservice teachers closer to students, and further from curriculum, loosening up the authoritarian, traditional role", and creating "a pedagogical third space". In more recent research by Cone (2012, p. 901), who investigated 74 preservice elementary teachers' perceptions about effective teaching for diverse learners, and by He and Prater (2014, p. 32), who analysed 12 ESL teacher candidates' reflections from their tutoring journals, the use of service-learning was found efficient in providing real-world learning opportunities in nonschool settings, challenging "narrowed views", and enhancing the understanding of "their roles as facilitators".
As indicated by their evolving course imagery, this service-learning project owes much of its transformative power to the reciprocity of peer teaching. Instead of an academically-unrelated, and otherwise unrewarding task, these STs were engaged in a more meaningful type of service, which helped foster more positive attitudes to the course itself. Numerous studies spanning almost two decades showed that preservice teachers expressed increased appreciation, enjoyment, interest and amazement at the amount of their own learning from their community partners, when the service-learning project addressed their teacher education coursework (Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Chupp & Joseph, 2010;Cone, 2012;Dodd & Lilly, 2000;Donahue et al., 2003;Hallman & Burdick, 2011;O'Connor, 2012;Pak, 2013;Simons & Cleary, 2006;Wade, 1997). But for the obvious link between the selected site and undergraduate courses, this service-learning project might have proved ineffective or even counterproductive (Chupp & Joseph, 2010).
Unlike the current scheme, the community service experiences in Butcher et al.'s (2003, p. 116) and Petersen's (2007, pp. 172, 175) studies -i.e. caring for black workers and HIV-infected children -were not directly linked to the university-based subjects, and led their participants to identify with the "superior" giver, extending charity to the "less fortunate", while those even feeling "exploited" resembled their community service to the court-ordered community sentence. Flower (2002, p. 181) asserted that the superficial, "guerrilla" forms of service cannot provide the thoughtprovoking experiences undergraduates need to reframe their beliefs, whereas Wilczenski and Coomey (2007) believed in the more definitive role of reflection in channelling service-learning experiences into charity or change. In this study, Toole and Toole's (1995) as well as Eyler, Giles and Schmiede's (1996) advice on combining powerful personal experiences and continuous critical reflection was followed in order that the intended perspective transformation can be achieved.
As revealed by the content analysis of their written reflections, this study group almost equally invoked significant learning in both spheres, while Barnes and Caprino's (2016) participants almost totally ignored academic learning goals, and instead focused on the human dimension of personal growth. Despite participation in similar service, our 14 EFL teacher candidates provided a more detailed view of how they improved their understanding of core concepts in ELT, tested out and sharpened workplace and people skills, built character, and developed a personal theory of teaching, whereas Barnes and Caprino's (2016) eight English teacher candidates concentrated on labelling the issues they experienced, identifying their own weaknesses, and expressing concern for the tutees. This can be explained by the fact that service learners, when engaged in critical reflection, not only incorporated "the affective, the personal and the empathic dimensions of the experience", but also reported "a better sense of application of ideas" and "a transformed understanding" of issues (Eyler & Giles, 1999;Eyler et al., 1996, p. 16).
Besides meaningful engagement with their academic content, the use of multiple (i.e. oral-written, individual-group and ongoing-summative) modes of reflection (i.e. metaphor productions, class discussions and reflective reports) can also account for the wider scope of reflective knowledge in this research. Consequently, previous literature and the present study recognised the significance of integrated coursework coupled with structured reflection in maximising the benefits of service-learning for both novice professionals and institutions of higher education and larger communities (Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Boyle-Baise, 2002;Boyle-Baise & Kilbane, 2000;Butin, 2010;Carver, 1997;Chupp & Joseph, 2010;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Eyler et al., 1996;Hatcher & Bringle, 1997;Jacoby, 2003;Moely, McFarland, Miron, Mercer & Ilustre, 2002).
As a result of the further classification of their reflections by Fink's (2003) taxonomy, three major positive learning outcomes were identified in this community service partnership. The first of these involved the continuous interplay between the declarative (know-what), procedural (know-how) and strategic (know-when) types of knowledge in teacher performance. As demonstrated by their greater reliance on foundational knowledge and application in their comments, the peer-tutoring service enhanced their understanding of the subject matter, enabled them to put it into practice in realistic situations, and stimulated critical thinking in peer groups. On the academic learning front, the current research corroborated the findings of many earlier studies, which emphasised the facilitating influence of academically-based community service on the real-life application of the specialised knowledge and job skills trainees have merely encountered in the comfort zone of their university classrooms (Ash & Clayton, 2004;Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Butcher et al., 2003;Carver, 1997;Chupp & Joseph, 2010;Cone, 2012;Dodd & Lilly, 2000;D'Rozario et al., 2012;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Eyler et al., 1996;He & Prater, 2014;Hildebrandt, 2014;Kistler & Crosby, 2014;Litke, 2002;Molee, Henry, Sessa & McKinney-Prupis, 2010;O'Connor, 2012;Pak, 2013;Petersen, 2007;Schelbe et al., 2014;Simons & Cleary, 2006). A cursory overview of such self-reported practices as activating schema, and employing classroom management and motivation strategies had been provided in a few similar studies, but the present study extended previous research by highlighting the more immediately perceived teacher concerns and their justified pedagogical choices in the face of contextual challenges (Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Cone, 2012;Hallman & Burdick, 2011;He & Prater, 2014;Hildebrandt, 2014;Simons & Cleary, 2006). Although these STs appeared to care more about their own part to play, namely the essential skills they need to master (e.g. varying techniques and activities, selecting appropriate materials, structuring lessons), they did not overlook the centrality of learner motivation, involvement and diversity in their mutualistic teaching-learning process.
Despite self-perceived satisfaction with their problem-solving actions (e.g. adapting materials, code-switching, scaffolding grammar) and overall service-learning experience, they recited some challenges commonly voiced in the previous literature: i.e. lack of control over site selection, time and logistical constraints and lack of student enthusiasm (Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Chupp & Joseph, 2010;Dodd & Lilly, 2000;Hallman & Burdick, 2011;Pak, 2013;Schelbe et al., 2014;Wade, 1997). Congruent with their precedents' critical evaluations, the course was requested to be removed from their third-year curriculum, so that after completing core methods courses, the future course-takers can be better equipped to respond to diverse learner needs, and feel less overwhelmed by the community service demands due to the lighter workload in their final year. Though not very often mentioned, seeking greater flexibility in service-learning arrangements was considered to counteract the negative effects of student demotivation on each party's performance. Rather than tutoring the instructor-assigned groups of low-achieving students, they might have been allowed to select community partners among alternative groups (e.g. at-risk students, disadvantaged university candidates, hospitalised children, children of incarcerated parents, migrant workers in Turkey), develop their own tutoring program, and work together towards mutually agreed-upon goals, thereby making the service even more "intellectually stimulating" (Eyler & Giles, 1999, p. 179).
Yet, facing these challenges seemed to bring about the desired personality changes. Apart from academic enhancement, the peer-tutoring service aided them in developing effective teacher dispositions, interpersonal communication skills and a strong sense of social responsibility. In terms of the personal growth gains, the present research confirmed the findings of prior studies, in which compassion, patience, tolerance and diligence were shortlisted as core values, and confidence, empathy, self-awareness and commitment as key competencies to develop as a result of service-learning (Ash & Clayton, 2004;Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Carver, 1997;Cone, 2012;D'Rozario et al., 2012;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Eyler et al., 1996;He & Prater, 2014;Hildebrandt, 2014;McFadden et al., 2002;Moely et al., 2002;Molee et al., 2010;O'Connor, 2012;Pak, 2013;Schelbe et al., 2014;Simons & Cleary, 2006).
Considering the increased focus on the human dimension, and caring element of their peer tutoring, STs, who used to have no hands-on experience, excluding their make-believe micro-teaching sessions, got to know how to communicate, collaborate, and connect with real students, explored their own abilities and emotions in an equally stress-free, albeit more organic learning environment, and decided for themselves whether they made the right career choice. Their contributions to the youth welfare aroused positive emotions of satisfaction, gratitude and pride in their common achievements as community members. In line with our findings, intrinsic rewards, bonding, and supportive relationships were reported earlier in other contexts, and the attained abilities were similarly deemed as important assets preservice teachers can bring along to their future classrooms (Butcher et al., 2003;Carver, 1997;Cone, 2012;Dodd & Lilly, 2000;D'Rozario et al., 2012;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Eyler et al., 1996;McFadden et al., 2002;Petersen, 2007;Schelbe et al., 2014;Simons & Cleary, 2006).
The contribution of personal relationships to student learning had been echoed in various ways by other researchers, but the present study expanded on the existing literature on service-learning benefits by showing its potential for creating lifelong learners. It can be concluded from the considerable amount of the learning how to learn objectives addressed in their reflections that the peer-tutoring service contributed to the validation of informal professional learning contexts to improve teacher quality. It provided a safe space for the STs to play about with different teaching approaches, see for themselves their usefulness and practicality, and to finally formulate personal practical theories about what it takes to teach effectively, and how to keep it going. Past researchers, too, regarded service-learning as a conduit through which naive trainees were socialised into their future profession, and identified similar reflective practices, where they developed working understandings of professional knowledge (Barnes & Caprino, 2016;Carver, 1997;Eyler & Giles, 1999;Hallman & Burdick, 2011;He & Prater, 2014;Hildebrandt, 2014;Kistler & Crosby, 2014;McFadden et al., 2002;O'Connor, 2012;Petersen, 2007;Schelbe et al., 2014;Simons & Cleary, 2006).
The reflexive experimentation of these STs, however, led to a more fundamental understanding of positive interdependence between the learning partners. They acknowledged that the teacher's/individual's success is intimately bound up with the learners'/community members' success even in communities as small-scale as the foreign language classroom. Although this result was found promising, and inspired confidence that STs, with a more democratic classroom in mind, may implement cooperative and experiential learning, or adopt other participatory approaches to language instruction in the future, it was worth noting that they nevertheless neglected to devise a personal learning plan for filling the knowledge gaps they had identified during their peer teaching. In conclusion, while service-learning can help STs to "transition more gracefully from college to work", and "prepare them to be more engaged citizens", a third major benefit -becoming lifelong learners -"does not happen automatically or easily" because it requires more "attention to both structure and faculty leadership" in order for teacher trainees to "be able to use throughout their lives the knowledge, critical abilities, and habits of mind acquired in their studies" (Eyler, 2009, p. 31). Given the low levels of lifelong learning tendencies among the teachers in Turkey, it becomes even more important to equip practicing teachers with key competences for lifelong learning such as digital skills, interpersonal skills, active citizenship, multilingualism and cultural awareness, so that they can act as role models, and help their prospective students to take control of their own learning and individual development (Demir-Basaran & Sesli, 2019). Besides developing their technology-based skills, the integration of digital platforms can even further enhance the quality of similar teaching practices, as they provide a smart meeting place for seeking solutions, overcoming barriers, and actively participating in the design of their own learning environments (Ballesteros-Regana, Siles-Rojas, Hervas-Gomez, & Diaz-Noguera, 2019).

Conclusion
In summary, results from the current analyses of their metaphors and written reflections provided evidence for the use of service-learning both to overcome entrenched misconceptions about foreign language instruction and helping behaviour, and to immunise novice trainees against the real-life challenges of classroom teaching without complicating their initial encounter with the constraints of the formal practicum experience. Apart from the lack of control over site selection, and timing of the community service course, the majority of these Turkish EFL teacher candidates responded positively to tutoring low-achieving students, and reported gains in: enhanced understanding of pedagogical knowledge, better application of essential teaching skills, increased self-awareness, confidence, and commitment to both teaching and community, teacher character development, and career confirmation.
In this regard, service-learning projects can be a vital tool in bridging the gaps between i. the heart and mind, ii. theoretical and experiential knowledge, iii. personal and academic development, and iv. an individual's schooling and democratic society on a larger scale. In order to promote the effectiveness of this holistic approach to both student learning and teacher professional learning, practitioners and researchers are recommended to: i. add service-learning components to the already existing courses in their teacher education program, and develop more sustained and intimate connections with the academic coursework, ii. provide explicit instruction and encouragement on the use of Fink's (2003) taxonomy of significant learning for deeper and more structured reflections, iii. use mixed methods research designs to explore the comparative efficiency of alternative service-learning programs, and attitudes of service receivers and other community stakeholders, and iv. establish a national league of city-university partnerships that share best practices, expertise, and research results for solving their local educational problems.