Research On Service Learning

The purpose of this set is to improve service learning research and practice through strengthening its theoretical base. Contributing authors include both well-known and emerging service learning and community engagement scholars, as well as scholars from other fields. The authors bring theoretical perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines to bear as they critically review past research, describe assessment methods and instruments, develop future research agendas, and consider implications of theory-based research for enhanced practice. This set constitutes a rich resource that suggests new approaches to conceptualizing, understanding, implementing, assessing, and studying service learning. Each chapter offers recommendations for future research.Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment will be of interest to both new and veteran service learning instructors seeking to enhance their practice by integrating what has been learned in terms of teaching, assessment, and research. Staff and faculty who are responsible for promoting and supporting service learning at higher education institutions, evaluating community service programs, and working with faculty to develop research on service learning, will also find this volume helpful. For scholars and graduate students reviewing and conducting research related to service learning, this book is a comprehensive resource, and a knowledge base about the processes and outcomes of innovative pedagogies, such as service learning, that will enable them to locate their own work in an expanding and deepening arena of inquiry.Both volumes open with chapters focused on defining the criteria for quality research. Volume 2A, then begins with research related to students, comprising chapters that focus on cognitive processes, academic learning, civic learning, personal development, and intercultural competence. The concluding faculty section presents chapters on faculty development, faculty motivation, and faculty learning. Volume 2B addresses community development, and the role of nonprofit organizations in service learning. It then focusses on institutions, examining the institutionalization of service learning, engaged departments, and institutional leadership. The final section on partnerships in service learning includes chapters on conceptualizing and measuring the quality of partnerships, inter-organizational partnerships, and student partnerships.Both volumes are also available separately.

Presents innovations in research methodology as these are implemented in the study of service-learning, and provides recommendations to professionals doing research on service-learning and on any form of experiential education or educational reform.

Provides an extensive compilation of scales for use in studying students in service learning classes. The scales measure a variety of constructs, such as attitudes, moral development, and critical thinking. In addition, the text includes a primer on measurement theory. The authors advocate the use of multiple-item scales, present the rationale for their use, and explain how readers can evaluate them for reliability and validity. This book is a valuable resource for program evaluators and researchers who want to inform the practice of service learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

This fifth book in the Advances in Service-Learning Research series continues to expand the discussion of service-learning research and practice. The chapters were selected through a refereed, blind-review process from papers presented at the 4th Annual International K-H Service-Learning Research Conference held October 2004 in Greenville, South Carolina. The chapters focus on topics that address a variety of issues in higher education and teacher education and are organized into four sections.

The purpose of this series of books is to advance the knowledge in the service-learning research field. More importantly, this research is to be used to transform the field. This transformation will come from realizing both the history of service-learning and trying to imagine what the future may look like. The chapters in this book all demonstrate just how far service-learning research has come. Researchers, practitioners, and students alike have benefited from its dissemination and use the research to improve practice. The research does not simply inform educators how to create a better pedagogy. Rather, it informs a service-learning practice that can transform both individuals and institutions.

This volume represents a breakthrough discussion of the research issues surrounding innovative pedagogies. Using service-learning as its focus, it explores ways in which researchers and evaluators can study a teaching and learning approach that has multiple goals, including both academic and affective development. The chapter authors show how to study a topic that is multilayered, complex, and involves the ways in which individuals make meaning of their experiences. Seven challenges that researchers need to grapple with in studying service-learning are identified and addressed: defining service-learning; basing service-learning research on strong theoretical foundations; refining service-learning research design and methodology; interpreting service-learning results; disseminating service-learning research findings; improving service-learning practice; and building funding to support service-learning research. In addition, practical recommendations are provided for professionals involved in doing research on service-learning and more broadly on any form of experiential education, community service and development, or educational reform. Studying Service-Learning: Innovations in Education Research Methodology is an essential resource for researchers who are interested in studying innovative teaching and learning strategies and for students who are learning about a range of research methodologies.

The Advances in Service-Learning Research book series was established to initiate the publication of a set of comprehensive research volumes that would present and discuss a wide range of issues in this broad field called service-learning. Service-learning is a multifaceted pedagogy that crosses all levels of schooling, has potential relevance to all academic and professional disciplines, is connected to a range of dynamic social issues, and operates within a broad range of community contexts. In terms of research, there is much terrain to cover before a full understanding of service-learning can be achieved. This volume, the first in the annual book series, explores various themes, issues, and answers that bring us one step closer to understanding the essence of service-learning. The chapters of this volume focus on a broad range of topics that address a variety of research issues on service-learning in K-12 education, teacher education, and higher education. Through a wide-scoped research lens, the volume explores definitional foundations of service-learning, theoretical issues regarding service-learning, the impacts of service-learning, and methodological approaches to studying service-learning. Collectively, the chapters of the book provide varying and, at times, opposing perspectives on some of the critical issues regarding service-learning research and practice.

The purpose of this set is to improve service learning research and practice through strengthening its theoretical base. Contributing authors include both well-known and emerging service learning and community engagement scholars, as well as scholars from other fields. The authors bring theoretical perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines to bear as they critically review past research, describe assessment methods and instruments, develop future research agendas, and consider implications of theory-based research for enhanced practice. This set constitutes a rich resource that suggests new approaches to conceptualizing, understanding, implementing, assessing, and studying service learning. Each chapter offers recommendations for future research.Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment will be of interest to both new and veteran service learning instructors seeking to enhance their practice by integrating what has been learned in terms of teaching, assessment, and research. Staff and faculty who are responsible for promoting and supporting service learning at higher education institutions, evaluating community service programs, and working with faculty to develop research on service learning, will also find this volume helpful. For scholars and graduate students reviewing and conducting research related to service learning, this book is a comprehensive resource, and a knowledge base about the processes and outcomes of innovative pedagogies, such as service learning, that will enable them to locate their own work in an expanding and deepening arena of inquiry.Both volumes open with chapters focused on defining the criteria for quality research. Volume 2A, then begins with research related to students, comprising chapters that focus on cognitive processes, academic learning, civic learning, personal development, and intercultural competence. The concluding faculty section presents chapters on faculty development, faculty motivation, and faculty learning. Volume 2B addresses community development, and the role of nonprofit organizations in service learning. It then focusses on institutions, examining the institutionalization of service learning, engaged departments, and institutional leadership. The final section on partnerships in service learning includes chapters on conceptualizing and measuring the quality of partnerships, inter-organizational partnerships, and student partnerships.Both volumes are also available separately.