Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-299) and index.

Identifying the learning outcomes of service -- Personal and interpersonal development -- Understanding and applying knowledge -- Engagement, curiosity, and reflective practice -- Critical thinking -- Perspective transformation -- Citizenship -- Program characteristics of effective service-learning -- Strengthening the role of service in the college curriculum.

Are students really learning from service-learning programs? Until now, that question has gone unanswered in a field where the rush to practice has left serious gaps in the knowledge base. To find the answer, Professors Janet Eyter and Dwight Giles interviewed more than 1,500 students at more than 20 colleges and universities. Their research provides a rich source of data on the effect of service learning on students' personal, social, and cognitive growth; the types of programs that yield the richest learning; and the practical strategies educators can use to design institutionalized service-learning programs on their campuses.

According to the authors' findings, service-learning programs that work tend to be continuous, connected, contextualized, and challenging. Eyler and Giles show practitioners, scholars, and policy makers how to put these four Cs into practice and address the major concerns of higher education professionals about the importance of service-learning programs to their academic mission.