Service-learning is a teaching strategy that offers students opportunities to learn both in the classroom and in the wider world. This pedagogical tool provides students with chances to directly interact with local agencies and effect change in the community. Thus, service-learning holds the potential to broaden and significantly enhance the learning climate for students. Based on an established theoretical model of academic motivation, the present study examined the effectiveness of service-learning to enhance the learning climate across a variety of academic disciplines. More than 600 students registered in service-learning courses from more than 30 different disciplines took part in the study. Results showed that when service-learning contributes to an enhancement of the positivity of the learning climate, then positive forms of motivation, civic skills, problem solving, and appreciation of diversity significantly increased over the course of the semester. Results also showed that type of involvement, amount of in-class discussion, and reflections are important factors contributing to the effectiveness of the service-learning environment.

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Using survey and interview information, the impacts of job loss 011 former employees of a Zenith Corporation plant in Springfield, Missouri, are identified and placed in the context of existing research findings. Even in the "New Economy" period of national economic expansion and in a robust local job market, many displaced workers endured significant drops in earnings and benefits and experienced decreased work satisfaction. Although women took longer than men to become reemployed, displacement did not lead more women than men to withdraw permanently from the labor force. Additionally, the plant closing led some workers to adopt more critical attitudes toward big business and government and to strengthen their support of organized labor. A model that predicts perceived negative impacts of displacement and links them to disaffection with business and government is presented. The study also explores reasons why programs for displaced Zenith workers were not broadly effective and suggests ways that such programs could be reformed to be of greater use for future dislocated workers.As America crossed the bridge to the twenty-first century, many people were enjoying the fruits of a thriving "New Economy." The national unemployment ratc hovered around 4 percent, real wages had risen for middle-income earners for four years running, and the threat of recession then seemed remote. However, even in a sea of good financial news, an economic undertow of plant closings and job displacements continued to affect millions of Americans. An average of nearly 5,700 "mass layoff events" took place each year between 1996 and 1999, and about 1.2 million people annually lost work in such "events" (BLS 2001a).While many studies of plant shutdowns have been conducted, most have analyzed the impacts of job displacement during national economic recessions or in areas where multiple closures had created a severe regional employment downturn. We undertook a case study of a Zenith Corporation plant closing in Springfield, Missouri, to document Direct all correspondence to Tim Knapp, Dcpartmcnt of Sociology and Anthropology, Southwest Missouri State LJniversity, 901 S. National Ave.. Springfield, MO