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…

Intermediate Phase students in the Bachelor of Education programme who elect art as one of their majors often experience problems in the teaching of art at schools during teaching practice. To overcome this problem, a service-learning project was designed by which students were granted the opportunity to teach art to children from a children's…

Play has been globally recognized as valuable to children's learning and development (Frost et al., 2012). The value of play is acknowledged as a developmentally appropriate practice in part because it fosters cognitive, physical, emotional, and social benefits to children. Play is also known as a human right that should be protected. However, in…

In this article, we present initial findings of an exploratory-pilot research study that focuses on "service learning" as a framework to examine "real learning" and identity changes of university students participating in a community based educational activity known as "La Clase Mágica." Student's reports and…

This paper shares the survey results of students' perceptions of the benefits of their experiences with service learning. The service learning experiences were related to children and their physical growth and development and/or to children and their health education. An open-ended questionnaire was sent to 376 graduated students (representing 11…

Analyses of 22 reflection journals of students enrolled in a service-learning-based child-development course at Connecticut College revealed 85 themes. Themes concerning initial adjustments and rapport building, setting limits on child behavior, and closure issues are discussed and accompanied with journal excerpts. Sharing these reflections with…

A Head Start volunteer project was designed for a college-level child development course and implemented in three different sections of the class across two semesters. Overall, 70 students participated (65 females and 5 males) with assessment data collected from student volunteers and Head Start teachers and administrators. Students reported a…

Journals of 30 college students of child development engaged in community-based service learning in multicultural settings revealed three themes. Students: (1) articulated their own approaches or philosophies regarding racial issues; (2) expressed concerns about specific multicultural or race-related incidents; and (3) discussed the resources they…