Impact Of Service Learning Research Articles

Impacts of Service-Learning on the Professional Social Responsibility Attitudes of Engineering Students

This research explored correlations between the social responsibility attitudes of engineering students and their participation in service-learning and/or extracurricular engineering service activities, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Social responsibility attitudes were measured using a survey with fifty Likert items. The survey also collected information about students’ participation frequency in service-learning courses, EWB, and service trips. Survey responses were received from students at five institutions who were primarily in their first or senior year and majoring in civil, environmental, or mechanical engineering. Findings showed that incoming first-year students with higher frequency of service-learning participation during high school had higher average social responsibility. College service-learning courses had a beneficial impact on social responsibility attitudes. In open-ended responses, a number of students directly cited service-learning courses as impacting their views of social responsibility. Students who participated in EWB had more positive social responsibility attitudes than students who did not participate in EWB. This is due, primarily, to students with high social responsibility opting into activities like EWB. Future research is needed to determine the specific aspects of the service-learning experiences that foster positive attitudes toward social responsibility in engineering students, such as types of structured reflection and reciprocal partnerships with the community.

Student Perspectives on the Impact of Service Learning on the Educational Experience

A research study investigated student perspectives on service learning during the TRAIL to Wellness program, a four-week leisure education program for veterans being treated for substance abuse. The research explored the students' perspectives on their own learning at the end of 15 weeks. Based upon the content analysis of open-ended questions about the service learning program, several themes emerged: 1) classroom preparation improves the service learning experience, 2) service learning activities improve students' understanding of the therapeutic recreation process, and 3) the experience prompts self-awareness.

Impact of service learning on medicine clerkship performance

Impact of service learning on medicine clerkship performance

Teaching Future Providers about Dementia: The Impact of Service Learning

In this article, we describe an innovative approach for providing speech-language pathology graduate students with exposure to long-term care settings and clinical training in service delivery for persons with dementia. Our pedagogical approach emphasizes leading learners through distinct stages of creating awareness and a foundation of knowledge, teaching clinical skills, hands-on practice via service learning, and ongoing self-reflection. Outcome data presented in this article are derived from learner evaluations and written reflections as well as social validation data provided by dementia patients in a long-term care setting. Our findings reveal that a combination of high-impact practices, community-based service learning, and ongoing reflection can result in transformative learning and attitude shifts for speech-language pathology graduate students toward serving persons with dementia. This is a key finding given that a majority of our learners had little exposure to long-term care environments or had any prior interaction with persons with dementia.

Crossfire in the Kitchen: Race and Class Role Tensions in Service-Learning

This study approaches service-learning through a critical dramatistic perspective. Erving Goffman’s concept of human interactions as staged performances combines with the structuration of race- and class-based power hierarchies to provide a theoretical framework for examining the interaction patterns between African-American college student volunteers and African-American clients at a faith-based community meal center. Employing an ethnographic method, the paper explores how intersectional identities foreground class differences in ways that fragment shared ethnicities. Observation of how volunteers and clients at the site react to each other’s backstage activities (moments when actors depart from roles scripted as appropriate within the service-learning context) reveals how class-based tensions reveal systemic power imbalances that can influence the conduct and impact of service-learning.

Service learning as a social work pedagogy of China

The powerful boost of the Chinese Communist Party and the central government in developing the social work policy initiatives has projected a radiant future for social work education and social work profession in the decades to come. This strong stimulus, however, further intensifies the predicament of social work education already shaped by professional colonization, nativistic reaction, commodification of higher education and political appropriation into a vicious spiral. This article argues that service learning can become an alternative in indigenizing social work pedagogy to the above-mentioned predicament, as well as a pedagogical strategy to cope with the postmodern uncertainties of social work education. With reference to the five years' experience of service learning in the Social Work Research Institute of Yunnan University, the authors illustrate the implications of service learning to the indigenizing pedagogy through four approaches: experiential learning, civic responsibility, political and anti-foundational perspectives, as alternatives to the predicament of social work education and the development of social work in China. Citing the impact of service learning on social work education, the authors advocate that service learning should be promoted not just as a social work pedagogy, but also as a community engagement movement, as well as an intellectual movement in China.

Impact of Service Learning on Dietetics Students

Methods: Service learning is considered a high-impact practice. Two seven-point Likert scales (7 strongly agree) were designed to explore attitudes about service learningandperceivedcognitiveandaffectivegains resulting fromparticipation ina community health fair. Dietetics students planned content, researched topics, createdinteractiveboothsandhandouts,andeducatedattendeesat thehealthfair.Supportwas provided by faculty and student assistants. The questionnairewas administered to the dietetics students (N 44) following the service learning activity.

The Impact of Service-Learning on Health Education Students' Cultural Competence

Background: Development of cultural competence in future health educators is often mentioned as a goal of health education preparation programs; however research demonstrating evidence-based methods for development of cultural competence is limited. Purpose: To determine the impact of a service-learning project on development of cultural competence and health education skills among health education students. Methods: All students in the community health courses completed the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) survey at the beginning of the courses; then, 17 students participated in a three-week service-learning project with members of a low-income community. Students repeated the CCA at the end of the course and CCA scores were compared to measure the impact of the service-learning project; additionally, students completed weekly reflective narratives regarding their experiences. Results: Analysis of data indicated that students participating in the service-learning project scored significantly higher on the cultural competence behavior post-test than those that did not; there was a strong association between service-learning participation and cultural competence behavior; and students had increased perceived self-efficacy and cultural competence. Discussion: Service-learning activities can improve health education students' cultural competence. Translation to Health Education Practice: Students completing health education preparation programs having developed cultural competence are better prepared to design and implement culturally appropriate interventions.

The Meaning of Service Learning in an MSW Course

Service learning is an educational practice that bridges the gap between academics and the real world. Knowledge generated within educational institutions is offered to a community with the goal of strengthening student learning and increasing students' civic engagement. There is a pedagogical congruence between service learning, civic engagement, and the educational and professional values of social work given the field's commitment to social justice and the empowerment of oppressed groups at the macro-level. Though social work may hold an affinity for service learning, there has not been a corresponding connection to research regarding service learning's impact on civic engagement. The following research contributes to knowledge by understanding the experience of a group of graduate-level social work students who demonstrated civic engagement after the completion of a service learning experience.

A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Service-Learning on Students

A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Service-Learning on Students

Service-Learning's Impact on College Students' Commitment to Future Civic Engagement, Self-Efficacy, and Social Empowerment

Information from surveys of undergraduate college students is used to investigate whether or not service-learning affects students' commitment to future civic engagement, self-efficacy, and social empowerment. Results indicate that some applications of service-learning do have positive effects on students' commitment to future community involvement, efficacy, and empowerment. Analysis reveals that higher levels of commitment to be engaged are mediated by students' experiences of social empowerment. The findings can be used to improve the practice of service-learning as a pedagogical tool to strengthen students' commitment to becoming active citizens in their communities.

Assessment Of The Impact Of Service Learning On Academic Growth Of College Students

Research studies on service learning and teacher education have concluded that one of the major challenges is the lack of assessment studies that document the impact of service learning on students’ academic development. In this research study, the perceptions of 65 preservice teachers on service learning were assessed. The major goals of the study were (1) to assess the perceptions of preservice teachers on service learning, and (2) to analyze the impact of service learning on preservice teachers’ academic growth and achievement. The results from the analysis showed that participation in service learning activities resulted in students’ gain in the area of diversity, fairness, strong work ethics, and patience. The result on the impact of service learning on achievement was inconclusive.

Whom Does Service Learning Really Serve? Community-Based Organizations' Perspectives on Service Learning

One of the major selling points of service-learning courses is their potential to mutually benefit communities, universities, and students. Although a great deal of research reports numerous pedagogical and personal benefits for students—from improved grades and increased civic engagement to increased understanding and appreciation of diversity—there is relatively little research on the impact of service learning on the community. To understand when and how service-learning courses benefit the community, we conducted in-depth interviews with representatives of local community-based organizations that have worked with service learners. We report on the primary benefits and costs associated with service-learning courses. We identify three types of obstacles to successful service-learning courses: issues related to student conduct, poor fit between course and organizational objectives, and lack of communication between instructors and organizations. We develop practical guidelines for addressing these obstacles and for ensuring that service learning fulfills teaching and learning goals and provides valuable service to community-based organizations.

Service-Learning's Impact on Developmental Reading/Writing and Student Life Skills Courses

Designed to investigate the impact of service-learning on developmental-level students' success and retention, this study reports the results of pre-and postcourse surveys with service-learning and nonservice-learning sections of developmental courses at Miami-Dade College. Knowledge gained, course pass rates, and both in-class and semester-to-semester retention are reported.

Does service learning promote adult development? Theoretical perspectives and directions for research

AbstractWithin the context of adult development, theories are highlighted that suggest research on the impact of service learning on adults.

The Impact of Service-Learning on Ethnocentrism in an Intercultural Communication Course

This study analyzes a project involving students enrolled in an intercultural communication class that employs service-learning. Participants were given the Generalized Ethnocentrism (GENE) scale developed by Neuliep and McCroskey at the beginning and conclusion of a semester of service-learning with a cultural group different than their own. Results indicate a significant decrease in ethnocentrism from the beginning to the end of the semester. Analysis of students' written reflections about their service experiences reinforces the conclusion that service-learning played a part in reducing ethnocentrism. Although further research is needed to provide a control for the manipulation, there is a preliminary indication that service-learning with diverse cultures may provide a type of consistent, deep, and meaningful contact that leads to lower levels of ethnocentrism.

The Impact of Service-Learning on Ethnocentrism in an Intercultural Communication Course

The Impact of Service-Learning on Ethnocentrism in an Intercultural Communication Course

Impact of Service-Learning and Social Justice Education on College Students' Cognitive Development

This study used the Measure of Epistemology Reflection to explore the impact of service-learning and social justice education on college students’ cognitive development. Six service-learning courses taught with or without a social justice emphasis were studied. Results showed that service- learning courses in general had a positive impact on students’ cognitive development, while service-learning courses with a social justice emphasis appeared to have more impact on students’ cognitive development than those without a social justice emphasis.

Service-Learning Projects: Meeting Community Needs

The University of South Dakota’s (USD) nursing program is an associate degree (ADN) level program. In recent years, learning objectives for the students in the ADN level at USD have been updated to include the National League for Nursing’s position statement, which includes recommendations to design new methods to meet students’ learning needs. This article discusses the evolution of service-learning projects between USD’s nursing program and the community. It will discuss four specific projects in terms of (a) matching the academic needs of the students with community needs, (b) commitment by academia to the community, (c) the impact of service learning on faculty productivity, and (d) the quality of student learning. Finally, some of the challenges of participating in service-learning activities are outlined.

The Impact of Service-Learning on Student Development

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the personal, professional, interpersonal, social, and academic development of students who complete a 15-hour service-learning assignment as part of the requirements for a family diversity course. A content analysis of 36 students' reflection papers revealed that service-learning was extremely beneficial, even when the experience was brief. Numerous valuable lessons were learned by the students about themselves and their future careers. Specifically, they became more accepting of others, and they realized the importance of service to one's community. In addition, they were able to process and synthesize the information they learned in the classroom by experiencing the course content in a real-world setting.