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Service-Learning Research Findings

1. Service-Learning is practiced at over 1,000 universities and by over two million college students nationwide. Service-Learning is offered at an increasing number of colleges and universities.

2. Service-learning has a positive effect on students’:

  • personal and interpersonal development
  • leadership and communication skills
  • reducing stereotypes and facilitating cultural & racial understanding
  • sense of social responsibility and citizenship skills
  • commitment to service
  • academic learning
  • ability to apply what they have learned in “the real world”
  • career development
  • relationships with faculty involved in service-learning
  • satisfaction with college
  • physical health (benefits of volunteering)

3. Service-Learning is part of a national movement in higher education to increase civic and political engagement. See the national survey findings of civic engagement in U.S. colleges and universities.

4. Service-Learning helps prepare students for the job market. Seventy-three percent of employers would like to see “The ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through internships or other hands-on experiences” emphasized more in higher education.

5. Service-Learning provides useful services in the community and communities report enhanced university relations. See the study.

Additional SL Research Resources

The Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, insert “Research” into search box
Campus Compact’s  SL resources for research universities
National Society for Experiential Education