Student Effects of Service-Learning: Tracking Change Across a Semester
Randall E. Osborne,
Indiana University East

Four sections of a pharmacy communications course were randomly assigned to include either a traditional laboratory project or a service-learning project. Beginning and end of semester data was collected, and there were no significant differences between the non-service-learning and service-learning samples at the outset. Data collected late in the semester revealed significant positive changes for the service-learning participants in cognitive complexity, social competency, perceived ability to work with diverse others, and self-certainty. Service-learning participants also showed a significant decline in global self-esteem. Analyses of students' written work illustrates important differences between the two groups of participants on major course learning objectives.

This paper compares Carol Gilligan's two perspectives on moral reasoning - care and justice - with the discussion in service-learning circles regarding the relationship between charity and social activism as orientations of service and service-learning. The comparison informs the questions of what constitutes "mature" service and of how to structure service-learning experiences to move students toward mature service.

This paper describes how the theory and practice of situated learning forms an appropriate model for focusing attention on the learning claims of service-learning, and for guiding research into its effectiveness. While service learning has placed its stress on the nature of the service and the students' engagement with communities typically outside of the school which leads to various forms of learning, situated learning focuses on the nature of the learning that takes place in certain sorts of communities of practice typically outside of school. Included in this article are a history of situated learning's theoretical evolution and an overview of its present educational interpretations, applications, and challenges.

This study contributes to more effective practice by assessing how student outcomes are affected by amount and kind of contact with service beneficiaries, and frequency and variety of reflection activities. In particular, the impacts of these pedagogical variations are examined in relation to students' (1) personal social values, (2) civic attitudes, (3) perceived course effects on civic attitudes and (4) self-reported academic benefits. Results suggest service-learning is more effective as a civic and academic pedagogy when students have (1) at least fifteen to twenty hours of service, (2) frequent contact with the beneficiaries of their service, (3) weekly in-class reflection, (4) ongoing and summative written reflection, and (5) discussions of their service experiences both with the instructors and the site supervisors

This article presents the results of three studies that replicate and complement one another in examining the psychometric properties of the Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale (CSSES), which was developed for service-learning program evaluation. The CSSES was constructed to assess the individual's confidence in his or her own ability to make clinically significant contributions to the community through service. In regard to reliability, results indicate high levels of inter-item consistency and test-retest stability for the CSSES. Examination of criterion-related validity indicated that: (a) CSSES scores of service-learning students are higher at pre-semester than are CSSES scores of students who do not pursue service-learning opportunities; (b) students who engaged in service have higher CSSES scores relative to non-participants; and (c) among a number of measures of student development, self-efficacy as measured by the CSSES corresponded best with students' levels of involvement and satisfaction in course-related service, summer service, and extracurricular service. In addition, factor analysis yielded evidence of construct validity for the CSSES. In light of the complexities of Bandura's self-efficacy theory, recommendations for further research and program applications are provided.

This article presents the voices of young college students who were engaged in community-based service-learning in multicultural settings. The journals of these 30 child development students were content-analyzed for recurring themes. Three of the themes that emerged in the journals involved students 1) articulating their own approaches or philosophies regarding racial issues, 2) expressing their concerns regarding specific multi-cultural or race-related incidents, and 3) discussing the resources they relied upon to put their multicultural experiences into a larger perspective. The emerging themes are presented and offered in the students' own words. Suggestions for supporting students' multicultural service-learning experiences are discussed.

This article describes how the authors combine service-learning and composition theory in Freshman Composition to construct and publish profiles of Cincinnati-area social service agencies on the Internet. They assign their students the profiles as the capstone experience of a year-long Freshman Composition sequence which has examined a number of American social issues, drawn upon a variety of texts and genres, and employed a pedagogy that emphasizes social construction, active learning, the reading-writing process, collaboration, audience, reflection, analysis, synthesis, and social responsibility. The authors argue that a service-learning and composition pedagogy provides clear benefits to students, teachers, and the community. They offer the Internet writing project as a new service-learning model, one that extends the service-learning curriculum across disciplines and colleges.

This article is a case study of a neighborhood-based, democratic decision-making process involving university students as researchers. The study focuses on the place of power and expertise in the process, and the roles that the university students and educators carried out in support of a group of citizens as they attempted to make informed decisions about the future directions of their community. Some of the questions addressed within the article are, "How can forums be created and facilitated that allow for genuine, democratic decision-making?" and "What roles should university students and educators assume in the execution of such citizen forums?"

This article uses a case study to demonstrate how community service can contribute to community building. It begins with a conceptual discussion of community building in the context of urban school reform, then describes and discusses how one program promoted community building - developing local capacities, creating networks of support, and building relationships across borders - and concludes with a discussion about how to further the community-building potential of service programs.

This article discusses what has been learned about building community partnerships through the Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN), a national demonstration program of service-learning in health professions educational programs. The findings are discussed in the context of: the challenge of distinguishing service-learning from community-based clinical training experiences, community perspectives of the university and partnerships, reciprocity and mutuality in community-university relationships, social and economic benefits arising from the community-university partnership, benefits for community organizations of participation in university partnerships, and motivation for universities to respond to the community perspective. The systematic approach to data collection and analysis from the community perspective suggests that the findings are generalizable to other professions and to general education.

This article argues that service-learning practitioners have a great deal to learn from previous struggles within higher education - in this case, extension programs during the Progressive Era. By analyzing one such struggle, the author argues that service-learning programs will have a difficult time in their current efforts to make universities into civic-minded institutions.

This paper describes an effort to institutionalize service-learning within the academic departments of a major research university. The Bennion Center, through the leadership of its Faculty Advisory Committee, developed campus-wide support for incorporating service-learning into the core offerings of fourteen academic units. Models developed by the academic units are presented, along with key elements for integration.

Last Updated March 01, 2001