Service-Learning in Undergraduate General Chemistry: A Review

Abstract

Background: Service-learning is gaining recognition as a valuable pedagogy for students to gain both academic and psychosocial benefits. This high-impact practice allows students to achieve course learning objectives while contributing to their community's needs. A review from 2007 revealed a lack of research focused on the topic in the prior decade, despite the interest that was shown by the American Chemical Society in 2000. Purpose: This review of recent case studies on the topic provides future researchers and practitioners with an understanding of the current state of service-learning in undergraduate chemistry courses. Methodology/Approach: To create a representative sample of recent literature for a non-exhaustive scoping review, only peer-reviewed articles addressing service-learning in undergraduate chemistry, published in reliable journals in the last two decades were included. These studies were analyzed in terms of course design, research design, and research quality. Findings/Conclusions: While the scoping review identified papers with notable contributions to establishing service-learning in undergraduate general chemistry, the review also identified several key gaps in the literature, including small sample size, reliance on subjective and indirect measures, and qualitative measures that exclude correlation analysis. Implications: Recommendations for future work for both practitioners and researchers are provided.