The Impact of Service-Learning on General Education Outcomes at a Community College in Virginia

Service-learning is an instructional method designed to cultivate interaction between students and their communities in order to improve the learning process. Although there is a wealth of information available pertaining to the development and implementation of service-learning in higher education, evidence supporting the impact of service-learning on general education outcomes at a community college is minimal. The current study investigated the impact of service-learning on two general education outcomes at a local community college: critical thinking and personal growth (measured by two subtasks on the Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment). The researcher used an Analysis of Variance with repeated measures to assess the impact of service-learning on critical thinking skill. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance with repeated measures was used to assess the impact of service-learning on personal growth. Although the findings indicated a positive impact on critical thinking skill, they did not indicate a significant impact on personal growth. Possible explanations, limitations, implications, and recommendations are discussed