Students entering Tulane University in 2006, 2007, and 2008, the years following Hurricane Katrina, were surveyed soon after arriving on campus and again after they had been at the university for two years. Attitudes toward a new public service graduation requirement, established after the storm, remained positive after students had completed two…

As New Orleans began to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University also began its recovery process. A new initiative in the recovery was the establishment of a public service graduation requirement for undergraduate students. Attitudes toward the requirement were assessed for 290 first-year and 257 advanced students in fall 2006. The…

This article presents a holistic approach to understanding the activities that constitute faculty engagement. After setting an historical context for the public service roles of faculty, the authors define specific activities involving service-learning, community-based research, and certain forms of professional service as the most relevant to…

Draws from self-descriptions of national and community service organizations, and from service-learning history and literature, to reveal and examine underlying metaphors of service. Then describes and develops purposeful metaphors for service, which can be used to clarify service-learning's multiple meanings and facilitate reflective learning.…

This multi-site study of candidates in programs in the National Service Learning in Teacher Education Partnership measured gains in participants' teaching efficacy, commitment to teaching, service ethic of teaching, and acceptance of diversity, as well as their intent to personally engage in community service and use service learning in their own…

Examines service learning as a bridge between practical courses such as professional communication, which are linked to the market economy, and the ideal of public service. Explores the charge of "vocationalism" regarding service learning and describes a partnership with a non-profit organization over several semesters that illustrates how it can…

Four sections of an undergraduate pharmacy communications course were randomly assigned to include either a traditional laboratory project or a service-learning project. Data collected late in the semester revealed significant positive changes for the service-learning participants in cognitive complexity, social competency, perceived ability to…

Relates Carol Gilligan's two perspectives on moral reasoning (care and justice) to discussions in service learning circles concerning the relationship between charity and social change as orientations of service and service-learning and to the nature of "self." The discussion informs the questions of what constitutes "mature" service and of how to…

A study found that college service learning is more effective as a civic and academic pedagogy when students have: (1) at least 15 to 20 hours of service; (2) frequent contact with the beneficiaries of their service; (3) weekly in-class reflection; (4) ongoing and summative written reflection; and (5) discussions of their service experiences with…

Presents three studies examining the psychometric properties of the Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale developed for program evaluation of service learning in college. The scale was constructed to assess an individual's confidence in his or her ability to make clinically significant contributions to the community through service. Reliability,…

Journals of 30 college students of child development engaged in community-based service learning in multicultural settings revealed three themes. Students: (1) articulated their own approaches or philosophies regarding racial issues; (2) expressed concerns about specific multicultural or race-related incidents; and (3) discussed the resources they…

Describes a neighborhood-based democratic decision-making process in which college students conducted research to support a group of citizens as they attempted to make informed decisions about the future directions of their community. Discussion looks at how to create forums that allow for genuine democratic decision making and the roles of…

Describes an externally funded program that enabled twelve urban elementary schools to expand community outreach by hiring community residents and a program coordinator who worked with service agencies and teachers to develop a wide variety of activities catering to students and neighborhood members. One school's program is profiled. (Author/MSE)

Discusses what has been learned about building school/community partnerships through the "Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program," a national demonstration program of service-learning in health-professions education. Issues include: the challenge of distinguishing service learning from clinical experience; community attitudes…

Argues that service-learning practitioners have much to learn from previous struggles within higher education, particularly the history of extension programs during the progressive era (1908 to 1910). In view of this history, it is proposed that service-learning programs will have a difficult time in their current efforts to convert universities…