CHAPTER 3: Promoting Secondary Students’ Character Development in Schools Through Service-Learning

This chapter provides an examination of the ways in which service-learning can be used to promote students’ character development in schools. After a brief discussion of why service-learning has promise in this area, authors provide the results of a 3-year quasi-experimental study of middle and high school students in the School District of Philadelphia. Case studies of schools with the highest student gains in civic engagement and citizenship, prosocial attitudes and behaviors, and resilience and academic efficacy are presented. Discussion of the cases illustrates the components of servicelearning most highly associated with outcomes and the factors that appear to be associated with sustainability.