ERIC Number: EJ1139440
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1936-346X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Developing Students' Twenty-First Century Skills through a Service Learning Project
Sabat, Isaac E.; Morgan, Whitney B.; Perry, Sara J.; Wang, Ying C.
Journal of Learning in Higher Education, v11 n2 p23-32 Fall 2015
It is increasingly important for students to develop practiced and applied knowledge, teamwork skills, and civic engagement in addition to core curriculum knowledge in order to be prepared for the demands of the 21st century workforce. We propose that service-learning, or learning through an applied community service project, can uniquely address these essential 21st century skills. Thus, in this paper, we outline a specific service-learning project geared towards improving these skill-sets. Then, we design an experiment to test the efficacy of this project in increasing these skills by comparing students who completed this project to those in a control condition. Results support study hypotheses that service-learning increases teamwork and civic engagement, and partially support the hypothesis that it increases practiced and applied knowledge. Additionally, students in the service-learning condition outperformed students in the control condition on a test of core-curriculum knowledge. Thus, this study supports the overall assertion that service-learning can be used to successfully teach students 21st century skills.
Descriptors: Service Learning, Skill Development, Teamwork, Citizen Participation, Hypothesis Testing, College Students, Business Administration Education, Program Effectiveness, Student Evaluation, Multiple Choice Tests, Outcomes of Education, Likert Scales, Data Interpretation
JW Press. P.O. Box 49, Martin, TN 38237. Tel: 731-587-4010; Fax: 731-588-0701; Web site: http://JWPress.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A