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Child with beautiful painted hands.
Community-Based Learning
Home > Academics > Community-Based Learning
Child with beautiful painted hands.
Community-Based Learning
Home > Academics > Community-Based Learning

Community-Based Learning

Students "high five-ing" each other.

Benefits to Students

  • Thinking Skills: creative thinking, problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, knowing how to learn.
  • Life Skills: communication, leadership, conflict resolution, self-esteem, sense of efficacy, appreciation for diversity.
  • Citizenship Skills: commitment to service, sense of personal and social responsibility, civic engagement, advocacy, social justice.
  • Career Skills: teamwork, active exploration of career interests, increased confidence in career choice, realistic understanding of the world of work, hiring advantages.

--DOL SCANS Report (1990), RAND Survey (1996), UCLA HERI Survey (2000), AACC Surveys (2007, 2010, 2012)



Faculty enjoying teaching his students.

Benefits to Faculty

  • Addresses core competencies and course outcomes.
  • Enriches and enlivens teaching.
  • Builds stronger relationships with students and creates a new understanding of learning.
  • Encourages greater awareness of current societal issues as related to discipline and academic interests.
  • Identifies new areas for research, increasing professional recognition and reward opportunities.

--Garcia and Robinson (2005), AACC Survey (2010)

Student teacher hugging child.

Benefits to Community

  • Gain substantial human resources to meet needs.
  • Become educational partners with the college or university.
  • Students commit to a lifetime of service - some as nonprofit employees.
  • Renew a sense of community and encourage participatory democracy.
  • Build reciprocal relationships.

--Sandy (2007), Prentice, Robinson, and Patton (2012)