Service Learning as a Vehicle for Promoting Student Political Efficacy

By combining deep student reflection and service in the nonprofit sector with a strong foundation in public policy theory, this service learning project sought to foster undergraduate students' improved understanding of the policy process and contributed to a greater sense of internal political efficacy. Viewed in this way, two critical components of service learning emerge. First, service learning should be considered one more important instrument in a professor's pedagogical toolkit, particularly in terms of engaging students in active learning. Second, engaging students in service learning projects presents opportunities for them "to come to recognize that individual and collective action can make a difference in the quality of civic life" (Waterman 1997, 5). The author discusses each of these components subsequently in this paper.