Service-Learning Outcomes: Guidelines for Educators and Researchers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to survey, organize, and evaluate extant research on service-learning to provide guidance to both educators and researchers. Because little has been written about service-learning in academic accounting, the research cited comes primarily from other disciplines. Our literature survey is divided into two sections: (1) student outcomes related to intellectual skills, and (2) student personal outcomes. After surveying the literature, we synthesize the results to offer guidance for educators interested in using service-learning and make suggestions for how accounting researchers could contribute to the literature regarding the student outcomes of service-learning. In addition, to illustrate our recommendations for educators, we provide examples of desired outcomes and assessment criteria for several accounting service-learning projects.