Tandem Pedagogy: Embedding Service-Learning into an After-School Program

Educators continually seek effective strategies to address the educational needs of students. Two popular strategies are service-learning and after-school programs. The purpose of this study was to begin to explore the value of embedding service-learning into after-school programs. This study utilized a historical database and compared two groups of students participating in an after-school program at four elementary schools. Preliminary results suggested that students participating in the service-learning component of the after-school program had greater improvement in their grade point averages and conduct grades and were less likely to be suspended than students who did not participate in the service-learning component.