social competency

Service-Learning (SL) aims to improve students’ academic knowledge and perfor­mance, as well as their civic and social com­petencies. This study uses the meta-analy-sis technique to summarise up-to-date re­search findings on SL in scientific papers that used mixed methods research. The findings indicate that SL leads to signifi­cant improvements in students, especially in terms of knowledge acquisition (d=1.07), with a similar effect size for the few stud­ies using a control group (d=0.89), although this effect size is smaller in terms of atti­tude toward service (d=0.45). There are no significant effects when these variables are compared with dependent variables such as programme duration, gender, or sample size. Moreover, there is high heterogeneity in the evaluation methods and measurement instruments used in the articles. Although research on SL is increasing significantly, the methodological quality of most of the studies reviewed is quite low. It can be con­cluded that SL is beneficial to the students involved in the service, however, in order to properly appreciate the different scenar­ios of the findings, more rigorous research designs are required. We would recommend creating uniform research protocols and ex­tending SL using mixed methodology across every discipline, including the arts, and at every level of education.

Please, cite this article as follows: Bonastre, C., Camilli, C., García-Gil, D., & Cuervo, L. (2021). Implicaciones educativas y sociales del Aprendizaje-Servicio con métodos mixtos a través de un meta-análisis | Educational and social implications of Service-Learning using mixed methods: a meta-analysis. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 79 (279), 269-287. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP79-2-2021-05