Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Service-Learning As A Tool For Enhancing Student Outcomes In A College-Level Lecture Course, Amy Strage

Faculty Publications

This article reports on the effects of infusing a 20-hour per semester service-learning requirement into a large Introductory Child Development course. Analyses of student outcomes on course assignments revealed that the 166 students in the service-learning cohorts (2 classes) out-performed the 309 students who took the course during the three semesters prior to the introduction of the service-learning requirement. The advantage for the service-learning students appeared to stem primarily from stronger performance on narrative assessments (midterm and take-home final essays), and appeared to manifest itself only later in the semester. Analyses of students’ journals confirmed that students reflected thoughtfully about …