This study extends a line of research focused on motivational factors that contribute to first-year students' reasons for engaging in service-learning. Among first-year students, altruistically-motivated students (Christensen, Stritch, Kellough, & Brewer, 2015) and minority students (Pearl & Christensen, 2016) were not only more…

This research employed Event History Analysis to understand how service-learning participation is related to students' graduation within six years. The longitudinal dataset includes 31,074 new undergraduate students who enrolled in a large western U.S. public university from Fall 2002 to Fall 2009. The study revealed that service-learning…

This article presents the Psycho-Ecological Systems Model (PESM)--an integrative conceptual model rooted in General Systems Theory (GST). PESM was developed to inform and guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of transdisciplinary (and multilevel) community-engaged scholarship (e.g., a participatory community action research project…

This dissertation consists of a theoretical essay and two empirical studies exploring the associations between students' perspectives on knowledge, the processes they use to negotiate dissonance, and their subsequent service-learning outcomes. The overarching goal of this research is to better understand why some students productively negotiate…

Rubrics have attained considerable importance in the authentic and sustainable assessment paradigm; nevertheless, few studies have examined their contribution to validity, especially outside the domain of educational studies. This empirical study used a quantitative approach to analyse the validity of a rubrics-based performance assessment. Raters…

In this article, the motives for voluntary work and work values in higher education contexts are examined in a cross-border region in Central Eastern Europe. Our goal is to find out what kind of relationship exists between different types of volunteering and work values among young people. In the theoretical section, we deal with the definition of…

The education system is responsible for the choices and chances provided to the students it serves. Although racial disparities continue to impede some students' chance of success in education, service-learning in the classroom context may be the transformative strategy needed to make institutions of higher education the "great…

Service learning is becoming a more utilized method of instruction in collegiate settings, and holds the potential to provide a deeper, more transferable meaning of course material for students. The purpose of this research was to examine if therapeutic recreation (TR) concentration students perceived service learning to be more personally and…

This study explored perceptions of community-based learning in a sample of 176 students at a liberal arts college in Cairo, Egypt, and a sample of 176 students at a liberal arts college in the Midwestern United States. Students responded to a 38-item rating scale that assessed gains in several domains as a result of engaging in community-based…

An increased focus on high-impact pedagogical practices at a small, residential, higher education institution led to a grant-funded project to gather and analyze multidimensional data on 10,155 residential foreclosures in central Illinois from 2006 to 2013. Student researchers applied skills gained through academic coursework to investigate a…

Service-learning as a transformative pedagogy within university education is becoming increasingly popular in Australia. Advocates of service-learning indicate that the practice of combining community based voluntary work with theoretical in-class academic knowledge leads to a greater awareness about diversity and difference in students. While…

The use of structured reflections for promoting personal understanding and community self-efficacy was examined in 65 occupational therapy college students in a service learning course. Students in the experimental group wrote structured reflections throughout the semester while students in the control groups used non-structured reflections.…

Summer offers the opportunity for sustained community engagement through immersions in summer service-learning programs. A group of 16 colleges and universities that sponsor domestic and international summer service initiatives have formed a Summer Service Collaborative (SSC) to enhance preparation, immersion, and follow-up in light of the unique…

Preparing students to be engaged participants in our democratic society has long been an important college outcome. Over the past few decades, postsecondary institutions have primarily attempted to improve civic outcomes by integrating service activities into their curricula. While research on the effects of service-learning are plentiful,…

Introduction: The low productivity that prevailing in recent years in Higher Education requires urgently institutional responses aimed to improving quality of university education contributing to the development among students of key competences for lifelong learning. In this sense, the aim of this research was to explore the effects of an…