Research

For the third year, the OSL is sponsoring a Faculty Learning Community on Service-Learning Research. The FLC provides a venue for faculty to share ideas, workshop research projects, and collaborate on SoTL and other research on service-learning, and has resulted in several presentations at forums including Gulf-South Summit and IARSLCE.

The OSL, as well as UGA faculty members engaged with service-learning work, have documented the impacts and outcomes of these activities through research and publication. Here is a sampling of recent work:

  • Development of and presentations/workshops on the Service-Learning Quality Assessment Tool (SLQAT), an instrument to rate the quality of implementation/design of service-learning courses
  • Borron, A., Urban, E., & Cabrera, E. (2017). Closing the professional gap between journalism and civic engagement using the culture-centered approach. Journal of Mass Communication Quarterly.
  • Washington, T., & Tachman, J. (2017). Gerontological social work student-delivered respite: A community-university partnership pilot program. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 60(1), 48-67.
  • Cotwright, C., Bales, D., & Lee, J. S. (2016). Healthy Child Care Georgia: Improving teacher self-efficacy to implement wellness policies and increase wellness education. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 48(7), S36-37.
  • Matthews, P. H., Dorfman, J. H., & Wu, X. (2015). The impacts of undergraduate service-learning on post-graduation employment outcomes. International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement, 3(1).
  • A 2014 book, Service-Learning in Literacy Education: Possibilities for Teaching and Learning, co-edited by Peter Smagorinsky (UGA Dept. of Language & Literacy Education)
  • A 2014 book, Feminist Community Engagement: Achieving Praxis, co-edited by Jennifer Hauver James (UGA College of Education)
  • Book chapter, by Paul Matthews, on experiences of non-tenure-track faculty engaged in service-learning, in the 2017 book, Service learning: Perspectives, goals and outcomes
  • Book chapter, by Paul Matthews, on online service-learning outcomes, in the 2015 book, eService-Learning: Creating Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement Through Online and Hybrid Courses
  • Matthews, P. H., Karls, A. C., Doberneck, D., & Springer, N. (2015). Portfolio and certification programs in community engagement as professional development for graduate students: Lessons learned from two land-grant universities. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 19(1), 157-184.
  • Wilder, S. O., Berle, D., & Knauft, D. (2013). Long-term effects of service-learning on students’ civic engagement after college. Journal of Community Engagement & Scholarship, 6(1), 125-126.
  • Thompson, K. F. (2013). Service-learning: Connecting curriculum to community. In G. Andrews (Ed.), Research to guide practice in middle grades education. Columbus, OH: Association for Middle Level Education.

In addition to UGA's own Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, other possible venues for publishing research articles on service-learning include:

Presentation opportunities for service-learning and community-engagement conferences include:

Please contact the OSL if you'd like more information or support relating to research.

Additional Resources for Service-Learning Research

Additional research resources include: