Course 4, Chapter 6 - Service Learning
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Defining Service Learning
Service-learning has been defined as both a program type and a philosophy of education.
- As a program type, service-learning includes myriad ways that students can perform meaningful service to their communities and to society while engaging in some form of reflection or study that is related to the service.
- As a philosophy of education, service-learning reflects the belief that education must be linked to social responsibility and that the most effective learning is active and connected to experience in some way."
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:
- Students, teachers and community partners develop learning objectives that meet educational standards and address the change in knowledge, skills and attitudes they expect to see as a result of the service project.
- The project addresses a real community need and is linked to learning objectives.
- Students have an opportunity to reflect on and learn from their project before, during and after their service.
"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.
Benefits of Service Learning
Students benefit through:
- Hands-on skills/knowledge that increases relevance of academic skills
- Opportunities that accommodate different learning styles
- Interaction with people of diverse cultures and lifestyles
- Increased sense of self-efficacy, analytical skills, and social development
- Valuable and competitive career guidance and experience
- Opportunities for meaningful involvement with the local community Increased civic responsibility
"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)
Elements of Successful Service Learning Programs
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)
Assignment 7: Designing Your Service Learning Program
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
- Write a one-page reflection on the process of designing and completing this service learning program with your students.
- Share your written reflection with your learning circle and read their reflections. Write about 3 things you learned from others in hearing about their programs.
Comments, questions, feedback, criticisms?
Send feedback
- E-mail the author of the module, Course 4, Chapter 6 - Service Learning
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Last edited by Fred Mednick on Feb 21, 2006 9:09 am US/Central.