This article investigates the theoretical link between two approaches to civic character education: Service Learning and the Just Community, given that the two share a strong democratic ethical component. Based on historical research and bibliographical review, we show that John Dewey's pragmatism forms a theoretical foundation of both approaches.…

The literature on student development cautions that social responsibility attitudes may stagnate or decline as students proceed through college. Given the importance of students' future professional obligations to society, identifying ways to reverse this trend is crucial. In turn, an important aim of this study, situated at a large public…

This study explores the relationship between service learning and moral development. During a phenomenographic examination of a service-learning project in the Midwest, researchers identified ways that participants conceived of justice. These conceptions were analyzed with a Neo-Kohlbergian approach to post-conventional moral thinking and mapped…

The extent to which sports build character is an increasingly contested topic, and scholarship has recently been focused on how coaches may (or may not) facilitate character development in their programs. Although existing literature examines coaches in youth sport and "big-time" college athletic programs, research on coaches in smaller…

Service-learning is a teaching methodology that promotes students' learning through active participation in experiences of community service. This methodology allows students to engage directly with those to whom it offers a needs- and context-adapted service, very often outside the classroom. While there are numerous projects that follow the…

The article proposes the 4-Es (namely Exposure, Explanation, Experience, and Evaluation) pedagogical model in empathy building that can facilitate moral development in students. This research reveals that the 4-Es pedagogy, which has been adopted in a university's service-learning course to study the living conditions of disadvantaged residents in…

For a service-learning course focusing on poverty, students from a Hong Kong university took a 12-day trip to engage in various poverty alleviation services in Cambodia. This course was border-crossing on five dimensions: (1) urban versus rural, (2) developed versus developing world location, (3) classroom versus practical and experiential, (4)…

With nationwide concerns about the declines in youth voting turnout across the United States, increased attention has focused on schools to promote "civic education," a broad curricular approach aimed at facilitating students' development of key civic knowledge, skills, and behaviors. However, less is known about how civic education…

This mixed methods study exploring student outcomes of service learning experiences is inter-disciplinary, near the intersection of higher education research, moral development, and nursing. The specific problem examined in this study is that service learning among university students is utilized by educators, but largely without a full…

The development of the college student is influenced inside and outside of the classroom. Research supports that the traditional college experience assists or influences the students' identities relating to moral development. More and more students are completing a portion of their course work online. Yet higher education experts are not aware of…

This study examined differences in participants' perceptions of their Character Development, Leadership, and Environmental Service prior to and immediately following participation in a North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) course using the NCOBS Course Impression Survey (NCOBCIS). The three-fold purpose of this study was to confirm the…

Service-learning is a method of teaching that is increasingly used in higher education. Studies are few though on how local placements in service-learning can bring about global citizenship and promote social justice. Hence, this study used multi-sited ethnography to examine the teaching-learning process of service-learning to better understand…

Transformative learning is a compelling approach to learning that is becoming increasingly popular in a diverse range of educational settings and encounters. This book reconceptualises transformative learning through an investigation of the learning process and outcomes of International Service-Learning (ISL), a pedagogical approach that blends…

With the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), nations' engagement with sustainability has differed considerably on the basis of their socio-political priorities. Since reviewing research trends is one way of getting a broad understanding about the value attached to an internationally prioritized issue, such as Education for…

Short-term service-learning experiences such as alternative breaks are increasing in popularity due to the focus on service in higher education and the institution's responsibility to ensure students are graduating with the skills needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive, global economy and contribute to a democratic society as citizens…