Benefits of Service-Learning in a Youth Development Program
Abstract
Undergraduate students majoring in child and family development (CHFD) at a southeastern public doctoral/research university were required to complete 14 hours of service learning in a local after school program as part of the course requirements in a class titled Youth Development. The course is a required course for majors and reviews research, theory, and practice as they relate to the development of children ages 6 to 18 years as well as planning and implementing developmentally appropriate youth programming. A two-page survey measure called the Benefits of Academic Community Engagement (BACE) developed by Miller, Mehta, and McCauley (2018) was used to assess the benefits of the service-learning requirement in this course. Findings from this three-year (six semester) study found evidence in support of service learning as means of hands-on pre-services learning experiences with children ages 6-12 in an undergraduate class (N=219).
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