Abstract

Service-learning incorporates community-based projects with reflection and assessment for promoting deeper student learning. The purpose of this study was to assess service-learning incorporated in landscape horticulture programs in the U.S. An on-line survey was emailed to 132 faculty members at 2- and 4-year schools and 41 completed surveys were returned for a 32% response rate. Fifty-six percent of respondents included community or service-learning projects in their courses, but 59% reported that there was no service-learning training available at their institution. Eighty-one percent of respondents indicated they have not participated in service-learning training. Seventy-two percent of respondents who were engaged in service-learning rated its assessment as very or extremely important, however they rarely performed pre- and post-learning assessment. Forty percent of respondents indicated that they had received recognition or awards for their com-munity or service-learning projects and 12% had per-formed Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research related to service-learning. However, 70% of respondents reported that they did not receive credit for service-learning projects in their yearly performance evaluation. As institutions of higher education emphasize civic engagement, campus communities may wish to examine service-learning efforts already underway in landscape horticulture programs and determine effective ways to train faculty on service-learning methodologies.