Educating Students to Make-a-Difference covers a range of issues related to service learning, addressing the “who,” “why,” and “so what” of service-learning experiences. It provides information that will aid in the development of service-learning programs and courses. The in-depth studies on student volunteerism found in this book will show you how incorporating student service objectives into your curriculum can improve your students’self-esteem and school involvement, as well as alleviate depression and problem behavior. Educating Students to Make-a- Difference will enhance your knowledge and understanding of volunteerism and its many benefits, showing you how to ignite the volunteer in each of your students. By encouraging volunteerism, you’ll increase your students’problem-solving and leadership skills, as well as their awareness of social issues, and see the positive impact service learning has on students, faculty and the community. Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives qualitative and quantitative assessments of attributes that predict volunteerism in student populations and the social values that are developed or enhanced as a consequence of service-learning experiences. You’ll learn about student predispositions and motivations for community service across a variety of student populations. In addition to promoting moral and social values, service-learning opportunities present educational benefits as well as benefits to personal and professional growth. You will see this as the book explores: the “who”, “why”, and “so what” of service learning educational benefits of service-learning opportunities self-esteem and self-efficacy faculty benefits comparisons between volunteers and nonvolunteers motivations and predispositions for student volunteerism selection and retention of student volunteers Your colleagues will want to borrow your syllabus after seeing the results of your new community service incorporated class material. Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives you the insight on student patterns and volunteerism and data to service learning activities that enhance your students’educational experiences.

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.

This collection presents essays on service-learning and its role in the education of first-year college students. Following a preface by John N. Gardner and an introduction by Edward Zlotkowski, the chapters of section 1, "Making the Case for Service-Learning in the First Year of College," are: (1) "High School Service-Learning and the Preparation of Students for College: An Overview of Research" (Andrew Furco); (2) "Service-Learning and the First-Year Experience: Outcomes Related to Learning and Persistence" (Lori J. Vogelsang, Elaine K. Ikeda, Shannon K. Gilmartin, and Jennifer R. Keup); and (3) "Service-Learning and the Introductory Course: Lessons from across the Disciplines" (Edward Zlotkowski). Section 2, "Looking at Today's Students," contains: (4) "Look Who's Coming to College: The Impact of High School Service-Learning on New College Students" (Marty Duckenfield) and (5) "A Matter of Experience; Service-Learning and the Adult Student" (Tom O'Connell). Section 3, "Learning from Practice," contains: (6) "The University of Rhode Island's New Culture for Learning" (Jayne Richmond); (7) "Institutional Strategies To Involve First-Year Students in Service" (Julie A. Hatcher, Robert G. Bringle, and Richard Muthiah); (8) "Inquiry as a Mode of Student Learning at Portland State University: Service-Learning Experiences in First-Year Curriculum" (Dilafruz Williams, Judy Patton, Richard Beyler, Martha Balshem, and Monica Halka); (9) "A Positive Impact on Their Lives: Service-Learning and First-Year Students at Le-Moyne Owen College" (Barbara Frankle and Femi I. Ajanaku); (10) "Service-Learning in a Learning Community: The Fullerton First-Year Program" (Kathy O'Byrne and Sylvia Alatorre Alva); and (11) "Writing as Students, Writing as Citizens: Service-Learning in First-Year Composition Courses" (Thomas Deans and Nora Bacon). The final section, "Summing Things Up," contains one essay: "What, So What, Now What: Reflections, Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations on Service-Learning and the First-Year Experience" (John N. Gardner). An appendix contains profiles of 4 additional programs. (SLD).

This book outlines how undergraduate students engage with civic and community projects and how this can be encouraged by their universities. It also explores how universities can build on this involvement and develop undergraduates' civic and democratic capacities, including programmatic strategies and conceptual frameworks for understanding the students' activities. As higher education across the globe experiences increasing student numbers it is important to understand how students engage with civic and community service.

As academic service-learning continues to grow rapidly, practitioners are discovering a pressing need for solid empirical research about learning outcomes. Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? helps define learning expectations, presents data about learning, and links program characteristics with learning outcomes. It is the first book to explore the experience of service-learning as a valid learning activity.