Program Characteristics of Effective Service Learning

Placement

Quality refers to the establishment of community connections that will provide productive learning situations for students as well as genuine resources useful to the community.

Application

Refers to the degree to which students can link what they are doing in the classroom to what hey are experiencing in the community and vice-versa.

Reflection

The quantity and quality of reflection was most consistently associated with academic learning outcomes: deeper understanding and better application of subject matter and increased knowledge of social agencies, increased complexity of problem and solution analysis, and greater use of subject matter knowledge in analyzing a problem.

Community Voice

Community voice was a predictor of tolerance, a cultural appreciation, reward in service, valuing a career, better understanding of the community, and identifying with community partners.

Note: This information is from Campus Compact, June 2002.   Excerpted from Eyler, Janet and Dwight Giles, Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.