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Service-learning & college student success.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This study investigates the linkages between service-learning, academic and social integration and undergraduate persistence. Results reveal that first-year college students who engaged in service-learning had significantly higher levels of integration into university communities than those who did not. These data support the notion that service-learning is an effective strategy to engage undergraduates intellectually and socially during their first year in college.

Introduction

The higher education community has produced much research regarding the impact of service-learning on undergraduates' development of knowledge and intellectual skills, perceptions of moral development or personal efficacy, and civic or social responsibility among other factors. Scholars and practitioners, alike, have demonstrated the connections between involvement in service-learning and undergraduates' cognitive and emotional development (see for a review Eyler, Giles, Stenson & Gray, 2001). Only recently have scholars considered the role of Tinto's theory of student departure for examining the impact of service-learning on undergraduates' perceptions of integration into an educational institution's intellectual and social communities (Mundy & Eyler, 2002). Understanding the relationship between service-learning and integration is particularly important in light of the few empirical studies demonstrating a positive relationship between service-learning and retention. In a recent review of literature, Eyler and colleagues suggested higher retention rates for students who participated in service-learning experiences (Eyler et al., 2001; Mundy & Eyler, 2002).

The current study provides a unique opportunity to fill a lacuna in the literature by exploring the interconnectedness of service-learning, undergraduate academic and social integration, and individual student persistence. The current research is particularly appropriate given the emphasis being placed on applied learning as an influential and powerful programmatic component in undergraduate education (Campus Compact, 2004; Ehrlich, 2005) and its link to persistence (see Eyler et al., 2001; Mundy & Eyler, 2002). Provided this rationale, the goal of the current study is to examine the unique contribution of engagement in service-learning on full-time, first time freshmen's perceptions of academic and social integration into a mid-sized, public doctoral research extensive university, and their subsequent enrollment over time.

Engagement in Service-Learning

The concept of service-learning is multi-faceted. It can be defined as a teaching and learning pedagogy, connecting discipline-specific theories to real-life problems or issues; a practical and direct application of resources from an educational institution to a community to address a defined need, with the expectation that, in turn, students will learn from their experience; and, a mechanism for translating what we know about civics and our country's history into action (Goldsmith, 2005). No matter how it is defined, engagement in service-learning is thriving among certain segments of our nation's population. While only 30 percent of all of our country's citizens volunteer to serve their fellow citizens, the "9/11 generation" (young adults, 18-24 years) has rallied around the...

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