Abstract
Service learning places teaching and learning in a social context, facilitating socially responsive knowledge. The purposes of this meta-analysis were to summarize evidence on (a) extent and types of change in participants in service learning programs, (b) specific program elements (moderators) that affect the amount of change in participants, and (c) generalizability of results across educational levels and curricular versus noncurricular service. We included 103 samples and found positive changes for all types of outcomes. Changes were moderate for academic outcomes, small for personal outcomes and citizenship outcomes, and in between for social outcomes. Programs with structured reflection showed larger changes and effects generalized across educational levels. We call for psychologists to increase their use of service learning, and we discuss resources for doing so.
Notes
a The mean d values for no reflection versus reflection were significantly different according to both random- and fixed-effects Q tests (for citizenship the random-effects p value was .072)
b Differences in mean d values were significantly different according to random-effects test only (p = .067).
a Means for adult/mix/other differ significantly from other means on fixed-effects but not random-effects Q tests.