Qualitative inquiry of best practices and challenges faced by faculty engaged in learning through service efforts

Learning Through Service (LTS) is a pedagogical method that encompasses curricular and extracurricular service learning in engineering. Though the numerous benefits of LTS are apparent to those who engage in it, the barriers are also plentiful, as evident by the reluctance of many instructors to engage in LTS. As a joint effort to create a community of LTS scholars, a summit held in Fall 2011 brought together faculty members actively engaged in LTS activities in a wide variety of capacities and from a wide variety of disciplines. In addition to the many workshops conducted as part of the summit, three semi-structured focus groups were held during which open dialogue ensued regarding the best practices and challenges in the execution of LTS. The current study presents thematic findings that emerged from these focus groups.