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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Service Learning has the potential to help students grow and develop personally in several areas. However, documenting its effectiveness has been a slower process than documenting its practice. The challenge is finding effective ways to demonstrate the impact. Practitioners in the field and Decision-Makers outside the field of service learning have called for more rigorous evidence. The authors have developed an evaluation tool to measure the impact of service learning on student development.
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Background
Service Learning as a teaching/learning/research/service methodology has been practiced for more than two decades (Conrad & Hedin, 1987; Lyday, Swick, & Winecoff, 1999). Although the adoption of the method into practice began slowly, it has been spreading rapidly in recent years (Cairn & Kielsmeier, 1991; Lyday, Swick, & Winecoff, 1999; Miller, 2000; & Martin, 2002). Many major professional organizations and conferences, those with a relationship to education at any level K-16+ or with a focus on community development and citizenship participation, provide professional development in service learning.
Documenting the effectiveness of service learning presents unique challenges (Conrad & Hedin, 1991) and has been a slower process than documenting its practice (Astin & Sax, 1988; Martin, 2002; Weatherford, Duckenfield, & Wright, 1997). Practitioners of service learning personally observe the power of the method to motivate, teach, engage, and even save lives for students who had previously felt hopeless or that their lives had no meaning. Often practitioners are reluctant to spend time trying to convince others that service learning works because they "already know...
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