Service-learning has been defined as both a program type and a philosophy of education.

In other words, according to the organization: Facing the Future, Service Learning is a "teaching tool that ties academic curriculum to a service project that both reinforces and expands students' learning. It is aimed at creating experiential education for young people so that they can connect the learning to their own lives and provide a benefit to the local or global community." (www.facingthefuture.org)

Features Include:

"Service-learning programs are explicitly structured to promote learning about the larger social issues behind the needs to which their service is responding. This learning includes a deeper understanding of the historical, sociological, cultural, economic and political contexts of the needs or issues being addressed." (Jane Kendall, NSEE, 1990)

Teaching and advising, research and scholarship, outreach and the community can all be enhanced through student and faculty involvement in community service-learning. The goals are to involve students in the community, to get students into explorations of the workplace, to provide learning opportunities that integrate the skills learned in school with realities of community life.

Students benefit through:

"It brings books to life and life to books"

Faculty benefit through:

Inspiration and invigoration of teaching methods

Increased student contact through greater emphasis on student-centered teaching

A new perspective on learning and an increased understanding of how learning occurs Connecting the community with curriculum

Becoming more aware of current societal issues as they relate to academic areas of interest

Identifying areas for research and publication related to current trends and issues

"It changes faculty role from the expert on top to the expert on tap"

The Community benefits through:

Access to university resources

Positive relationship opportunities with the university

Awareness-building of community issues, agencies, and constituents

Opportunities for contributing to the educational process

Affordable access to professional development

Short and long term solutions to pressing community needs

"It shifts from community as laboratory to community as classroom"

The School benefits through:

Enhanced teaching, research and outreach activities

Faculty and student engagement in local and state community issues

Opportunities to extend university knowledge and resources

Positive community relationships

Increased development and preparation of university graduates

"It serves to light the fire rather than fill the bucket"

REQUIRED READING

Service Learning Faculty Manual: Colorado State

PDF File below:

Service Learning Faculty Manual: Colorado State

Worldwide Service Learning Projects (html only)

Service Learning consists of essential ideas listed below, adapted from Teachers Without Borders' partner, New Horizons for Learning

Learning

Service-learning activities establish clear educational goals that require the application of concepts, content, and skills from the academic disciplines, and the construction of one's own knowledge.

Students engage in tasks that challenge them cognitively and developmentally.

Assessment is used to enhance student learning and to document and evaluate how well students have met content and skills standards

Service

Students engage in service tasks that have clear goals, meet genuine needs in the school or community and have significant consequences for themselves and others.

Service-learning activities employ formative evaluation of the service effort and its outcomes.

Critical Components that Support Learning and Service

Service-learning activities maximize student participation in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating the service project.

Service-learning activities value diversity in participants, practice, and outcomes.

Service-learning activities promote communication and interaction with the community and encourage partnerships and collaboration.

Students prepare for all aspects of their service work, including getting a clear understanding of the task, assessing the skills and information required to complete the task, gaining an awareness of safety precautions, and accessing knowledge about and sensitivity to colleagues.

Student reflection takes place before, during, and after service; uses multiple methods to encourage critical thinking; and is central in the design and fulfillment of curricular objectives.

Multiple methods are designed to acknowledge, celebrate, and validate student service work.

Recommended Reading:

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (online only)

Service learning resources, including syllabi by discipline

(a HIGHLY recommended site - online only)

To do this assignment, click on the Word icon below. When it appears, press "Save" so that you can work on this assignment "off-line."

Assignment 7: Designing Your Service Learning Project

There are TWO parts to this assignment:

Part One

Design your program incorporating the ideas in the previous "Benefits of Service Learning" and "Elements of Successful Service Learning Programs" sections. Please understand that you will not be able to include everything - just incorporate the basic components and alter them to meet your particular needs. Here is a suggested form for doing this program:

Learning Characteristics

Describe what you will be doing.

Describe what you want students to learn and how it will contribute to and enhance your goals.

Inventory of learning objectives and skills.

Group agreement on problems they wish to address.

Problem-solving with group session - whole class

Group students together in like-minded projects (3-4 students each).

Focus on questions they may raise about how to go about creating a plan.

Narrow the questions to those that can be reasonably pursued.

Organization and leadership

Working session to make the plan, including setting up responsibilities and a system of evaluation.

Have a conference with each team to ensure that they are following through.

Work with students to link service possibilities with course content.

Making connections

Connect those activities to assignments that meet your national or local academic goals.

Describe the connection to the community, including representation at your school.

Provide clear markers of what is to be accomplished, including a time-frame and structure.

Provide the structure by which students are to present their material to the class and community.

Demonstration of learning objectives

Have students use a variety of ways. An art exhibit? Video? Paper? Music?

Describe the form of assessment of individuals and the group.

Assessment plan

Creating and reinforcing school-community partnerships

Celebration and acknowledgment of achievements

Analysis of benefits and challenges

PartTwo