Building Decision Skills combined with service learning has potentially positive effects on high school students' knowledge, attitudes, and values¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2006 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The WWC rated Building Decision Skills combined with service learning as having potentially positive effects on knowledge, attitudes, and values, based on one quasi-experimental study. → Building Decision Skills 2006 q2 i1 The domain-average effect size across seven outcomes was 0.36, which the WWC considered substantively important (greater than 0.25), though not statistically significant; the average improvement index was +14 percentile points (range +3 to +30). → Building Decision Skills 2006

Evidence¶

Building Decision Skills 2006¶

Building Decision Skills. (2006). WWC Intervention Report, What Works Clearinghouse. https://www.globalethics.org/services/edu/bds.htm

q2 · i? · causal · r?

WWC synthesis of one quasi-experimental study (Leming, 2001) comparing 283 twelfth-graders in an elective BDS-plus-service-learning course with senior English literature classes. The domain average effect size was 0.36 and the improvement index "+14 percentile points, with a range of +3 to +30 percentile points across findings."

"When the WWC aggregated all seven outcomes the average effect size was substantively important (greater than 0.25). So the WWC rated the program as having potentially positive effects in the knowledge, attitudes, and values domain."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• All three instructional groups began at comparable, mostly low decision-making levels and all improved over the intervention — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Service-learning within integrated projects is associated with improvements in students' self-efficacy, self-esteem, social responsibility, and community participation — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Building Decision Skills plus service learning significantly improved twelfth-graders' ethical perspective relative to a no-character-education comparison — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The WWC rated Too Good for Drugs and Violence as having positive effects on knowledge, attitudes, and values, with a cross-study domain-average effect size of 0.42 — related
• In a quasi-experimental study, Too Good for Drugs and Violence produced statistically significant effects on attitudes toward violence, emotional competence, social and resistance skills, and goals and decisionmaking — related
• Effects favoring the curriculum-plus-service-learning condition over service-learning alone appeared only for ethical awareness and ethical perspective — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Building Decision Skills plus service learning showed no statistically significant effects on self-esteem, general social responsibility, or anticipated community participation — related