A Meta-Analysis of Collegiate Service-Learning Teaching Strategies

Undergraduate students in in-person service-learning (SL) courses demonstrate higher gains than their peers in academic achievement (AAO), civic engagement (CEO), social skills (SSO), and attitudes toward themselves (ATS) and learning (ALO), but these gains are inconsistent across SL literature. Diverse SL strategies are considered a source of this disparity, yet little is known about how specific strategies influence students’ learning outcomes. This study describes the effectiveness of undergraduate SL and details how instructional strategies impact undergraduate learning outcomes. We synthesized findings from 62 SL studies that compared SL to a control group. Moderator analysis demonstrated impacts of instructional strategies and contextual factors. Aggregated results showed SL had a positive effect on student outcomes (d = 0.37, p < .001). ATS demonstrated the largest effect followed by SSO, AAO, ALO, and CEO. The aggregated effect was moderated by the study’s design, the type of instrument used to measure outcomes, and four common SL strategies. Our findings provide further support for SL’s efficacy and demonstrate that SL strategies influence students’ learning outcomes. Recommendations for future research include exploring the consequences of SL strategies, including contextual information for SL programs, and more thorough reporting of statistical data.