Chapter 7: Beyond Surveys: Using the Problem Solving Interview to Assess The Impact of Service-Learning on Understanding and Critical Thinking

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in published research on the impact of service-learning on college students and a modest increase in studies that focus on the impact of this instructional approach on communities and institutions. As a result, we can have some confidence that service-learning leads to positive outcomes in personal development and in civic engagement and that it is well received by community partners and gaining support in colleges and universities (Eyler, Giles, Stenson, & Gray, 2001). There is even some very limited evidence that service-learning may lead to future community involvement (Astin, Sax, & Avalos, 1999; Beane, Turner, Jones, & Lipka, 1981). Evidence for academic or cognitive impact is less persuasive for several reasons. Data gathered has been weak. There has not been clear specification of academic outcomes expected through service-learning, and measures have not been devised to assess these outcomes. Surveys, which do a fair job of capturing student attitudes about social engagement and personal characteristics like efficacy, are not as convincing when they rely on simple student reports that ‘I have learned more’ in service-learning classes. Gracies are a more impressive measure because they presumably measure performance, but attempts to link them with service-learning experiences in college classes have been mixed. Although one experimental study (Markus, Howard, & King, 1993) shows improved class performance, attempts to replicate have not been successful (Berson & Younkin, 1996; Kendrick, 1996; Miller, 1994) or have not used the same assessment standards for students in service-learning and traditional classes (Balazadeh, 1996; Sugar & Livosky, 1988). There has been a need to show how sendee-learning might lead to improved academic performance and then to use measures that allow students to convincingly demonstrate this performance.