A COMPENDIUM OF SCALES for use in the SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

Chapter 9: Measuring Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Lori Simons
Widener University
During the past three decades, the distribution of academic-based service-learning courses has
expanded in undergraduate liberal arts programs in public and private post-secondary
institutions (Giles & Eyler, 2013; Marxen, 2003). Institutions of higher education have
incorporated academic-based service-learning courses in liberal arts curricula as a way to teach
undergraduate students to think critically about the conditions that lead to social and racial
disparities in the community and to develop into responsible citizens (Quaye & Harper, 2007).
Academic-based service-learning (ABSL) is a pedagogical approach that requires students to
connect the course content to the service context through application, reflection and discussion
(Eyler & Giles, 1999).
Investigations on ABSL have assessed the impact of service-learning on student learning,
community partnerships, and faculty engagement. In fact, the majority of these studies have
focused on the benefits from ABSL on student learning outcomes (i.e., critical thinking, civic
engagement). For example, students who participated in ABSL reported a deeper
understanding of the course content compared to those students who did not participate in
ABSL (Litke, 2002, Strage, 2000). Studies have also documented the impacts of ABSL on the
development of leadership attributes (Moely, McFarland, Miron, Mercer, & Ilustre, 2002;
Vogelesgang & Astin, 2000), interpersonal skills (Eyler, 2000; Moore, 2000), diversity attitudes
(Boyle-Baise & Kilbane, 2000; Rockquemore & Shaffer, 2000), and social responsibility and civic
engagement (Reinke, 2003).
Much of this research indicates that civic engagement is a service-learning outcome (Eyler &
Giles, 1999). Civic engagement a broad term with multiple definitions (Hatcher, 2010). Civic
engagement activities are designed to promote socially-responsible leadership in students by
having them work with community recipients to solve problems. Examples of these activities
include volunteering in a soup kitchen or writing a letter to an elected official (APA, 2015). In
addition, civic engagement often refers to civic professionalism, social responsibility, and
community engagement (Hatcher, 2010; Steinberg, Hatcher, & Bringle, 2011). Academic
endeavors ranging from service-learning, internships, and other forms of experiential learning
are used to instill the values and characteristics associated with civic engagement (Association
for Experiential Education, 2011).
The scholarship on ABSL has evaluated the impact of service-learning from one of two research
methodologies. Quantitative methods have assessed student attitudes before and after service
with single, convenient samples. With this method, it is not possible to detect whether the
reported changes are attributed to the service experience because the studies lack a
comparison group (Payne, 2000; Reinke, 2003; Root, Callahan, & Sepanski, 2002) and measure
attitudes instead of skills with either single-item surveys (Rockquemore & Schaffer, 2000),
reflective essays (Green, 2001) or ethnographic techniques (Boyle-Base & Kilbane, 2000).
Surveys are also used to measure changes in student skills from the beginning to the end of the
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