Service-Learning as Values Education

While values education has become quite ubiquitous within today’s school systems across the globe, there is no consensus among educators as to which values are most essential for securing students’ character development and overall personal success. Traditionally, values education efforts have sought to advance the prosocial development of young people – broadly defined to include socio-moral cognition, personal morality, prosocial behaviors and attitudes, communicative competency, character knowledge, positive relationships, and active citizenship. In recent years, the concept of values development has expanded to incorporate aspects of social-emotional character (e.g., self-concept, coping, problem solving), risk behaviors (e.g., protective skills, violence, and aggression), and school-based outcomes (e.g., school behavior, attitudes towards teachers, academic skills, school attachment). The narrative has expanded to include values education as a strategy for improving students’ academic performance and success, and this chapter speaks into that space, especially in relation to service- learning.