Service-learning seeks to impact not just what students write on a test, but what they value and what they believe dispositions that are a challenge to collect and measure. At Vanderbilt University, service-learning researchers Janet Eyler and Dwight Giles use a collection of socio-psychological scales such as personal efficacy, tolerance, and locus of control to measure values that service-learning purports to instill in students. By surveying students and correlating data to external factors, they seek to isolate the impact of service-learning on citizenship, social justice, civic responsibility and similar dispositions. Among their findings: service-learning appears to have particular effect on students confidence and belief in their own effectiveness.
