In recent years students in higher education in Macau have been found to possess a lack of motivation in learning due to Macau being a comfort zone and the out-of-class activities students engaged in. Service learning is one of the high impact learning areas and a service learning project in Thailand will be introduced to all students majoring in Spatial and Exhibition Design at MPI in the Fall semester of 2015. This qualitative paper explores the motivation factors of the project in Thailand and students’ motivation in participating in the project. As there is no rigorous research done in Macau on service learning and the unknown motivation of students’ participation in international service learning, the paper is significant in informing design educators in Macau of how to implement successful service learning as a pedagogy to arouse students' interest in their study.

Ada Tam Nga Ian
Assistant coordinator and lecturer of the design department in School of Arts at Macao Polytechnic Institute.