CHAPTER 8: A Research Study Investigating the Impact of Service-Learning on Ethical Decision Making

This study evaluated the potential impact of service-learning on ethics education by comparing student scores in Ethical Decision-Making Abilities (ED-MA) before and after a service-learning experience. An important next question for the field is whether a project-based ethics-education model can be developed and used to predict resulting impacts on ethical decision making. The findings of this study suggest that service-learning has a positive impact on Ethical Decision-Making Abilities (ED-MA). However, statistically significant higher mean differences in ED-MA were reported only when students participated in particularly intense and engaged service experiences. The study included a pre- and posttest of more than 800 students involved in service-learning experiences at 21 universities. The study has implications for the understanding of and application of best-practice models in ethics education and service-learning when using James Rest’s construct explaining ED-MA.