COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 24 (UPI) -- College students who participate in service projects increased their understanding of course material, U.S. researchers suggest.
To determine the impact of service learning on undergraduate horticulture students, Tina M. Waliczek of Texas A&M University in College Station and colleagues incorporated service projects into an undergraduate landscape design course. Students were taught landscape design using activities that included developing designs for campus gardens, the city post office, neighborhood parks, the campus childcare center, city road median areas and the city women's shelter.
The researchers developed a survey tool to measure how students felt about service learning as a means to learn skills in class and to measure their perceptions of social impact. Enrolled students and alumni from five classes taught in a similar manner in previous years were surveyed.
The study, published in the HortTechnology, showed students felt more positive about community involvement after the course compared with before the course; students rated their feelings of social impact and learning course material above the neutral levels in both categories.
"Past research has found that students appear to perceive more benefits from service-learning experiences if they have the opportunity to reflect on the experiences with peers or their professors. Because alumni have had more time to reflect and process the past course experience, they may have noted the benefits of those experiences more," the researchers say in a statement.
