Measuring learning outcomes of students in service-learning considering diversity and degree of experiences

Although Dan Butin (2011) has been critical of the place of service-learning in higher education institutions as a social movement and an intellectual movement, he actually had opened up four modes of service-learning outcomes of students exposed to this pedagogy that makes it a fertile field for scholarly research in education, in particular, and the social sciences, in general. These modes of learning which he categorized into technical, cultural, political and anti-foundational do not only suggest the diversity of learning that is offered by service-learning, but this typology also points out to the degree or different levels of learning that the students will experience. And this clearly demonstrates the value-adding relevance of service-learning as compared to when students are only exposed to highly conceptual classroom instructions devoid of the experience of applying their knowledge and skills in real life situations by serving while still in school. But given the limited time the students can be engaged with the community, which is certainly dependent upon the disciplines that they are enrolled in and the activities they are doing, there is a need for the teacher to consciously include in the course syllabus what learning outcomes are expected when service-learning engagement will be employed and what corresponding services the students can offer that will enhance classroom instruction. So while service-learning students may be categorized into specialists or generalists according to the services they can offer, they may be also engaged in direct or indirect service-learning depending on the types of people they are working with. These distinctions are necessary because they have implications on the type and amount of learning the students will experience which ultimately determine the grades they will earn from the course. Therefore, this paper examines the importance of what type of learning is expected of students, how much weight is awarded to particular type of learning that the students had demonstrated, and in what ways the learning outcomes will be measured considering the diversity of service-learning experiences of students