What is Service Learning?
"A credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized activity that meets community needs, and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of the course content and a broader appreciation of the discipline.”
- adapted from Bringle and Hatcher, 1996
Academic Service Learning connects concepts in the classroom to service experiences in the community. In a very real sense, the community becomes a text for the class. Through reflection, students gain a further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal and civic responsibility. Service learning is a mutually beneficial relationship where students gain professional skills while providing community partners and their communities a beneficial service.
What’s the Difference between Service and Service Learning?
Picking up trash on a riverbank is service. Studying water samples under a microscope is learning. Science students collecting and analyzing water samples, documenting their results, and presenting findings to a local pollution control agency is service learning.
In this example, the students are providing a useful service to the community while simultaneously learning about water quality, laboratory analysis, and pollution. The students are also learning to interpret science issues to the public while practicing communications skills by speaking to residents. Finally, the students are encouraged to reflect on their personal and career interests in science, the environment, public policy or other related areas. Thus, we see that service learning combines service with learning in practical and intentional ways to achieve a deeper, more personally relevant education.
How the Experiential Learning Center Can Assist You
The Experiential Learning Center’s Community Engagement Program offers support for academic service learning. We coordinate projects and partnerships for and with faculty, students and student groups. Our office provides information and resources for faculty members who are interested in integrating service learning into their courses. We:
- Maintain VolunteerLink, our online database of service options and community partners.
- Provide discipline-specific experiential learning resources
- Identify community organizations relevant to the academic goals of your course
- Serve as liaison to community partners and coordinate service learning activities
- Recommend reflection activities and resources
- Support discussions in and out of classroom
- Survey community partners to ensure needs are being met
- Maintain institutional records on service learning activities
- Coordinate risk-management issues associated with experiential learning
- Characteristics of Service Learning
- Service Learning Benefits
- Service Learning Outcomes
Characteristics of Service Learning
Although each service learning project is unique to the individual, there are some similarities. Service Learning:
- Involves students in helping to determine and meet specific community needs
- Is reciprocal in nature, benefiting the student and the community
- Promotes learning through active participation and structured reflection
- Provides opportunities to use skills and knowledge in real-life situations
- Fosters a sense of caring for others
- Experiences are cooperative rather than competitive
- Supports social, emotional and cognitive learning and development
- Students are given the opportunity to acquire the skills and values critical for succeeding in a professional environment.
Benefits of Service Learning*
Service Learning benefits students by:
- Linking theory to practice
- Deepening understanding of course materials
- Enhancing the sense of civic responsibility through civic engagement
- Allowing students to explore possible career paths
- Stressing the importance of improving the human condition
- Developing relevant career-related skills
- Providing experience in group work and interpersonal communication
- Promoting interaction with people from diverse backgrounds
- Instilling a sense of empowerment that enhances self-esteem
Service Learning benefits faculty by:
- Providing exciting new ways to teach familiar material
- Offering professional development challenges
- Engaging faculty in meaningful interactions with the community at large
- Encouraging faculty to form close, interactive, mentoring relationships with students
- Reminding faculty of the direct consequences of their teaching for society
- Connecting faculty across academic disciplines through a shared approach to teaching
Service Learning benefits communities by:
- Forming partnerships that foster positive campus-community interactions
- Providing access to faculty experts and the next generation of experts
- Identifying, addressing, and solving local problems in effective, creative ways
- Cultivating future generations of engaged citizens
- Encouraging multi-generational and cross-cultural interactions
- Establishing cooperation and collaboration as values within the local culture
*Compiled from:
Cairn, R. & J. Kielsmeier, eds. (1995). Growing Hope: A Sourcebook on Integrating Youth Service into the School Curriculum. St Paul, MN: National Youth Leadership Council.
Eyler, J., D. Giles, C. Stenson, and C. Gray. (2001). At a Glance: What We Know about the Effects of Service- Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Communities. Vanderbilt University
Service Learning Outcomes*
Service Learning outcomes for Learners
- Learning does not necessarily come from the experience of service alone, but from reflection on and creating meaning from that experience
- Service learning can help young people grow from the natural dependence and egocentrism of childhood into mature personal interdependence and engagement in community
- Young people who serve learn holistically. All functions of personality contribute to development of the self
- Students learn and grow as they feel and think about service experiences (i.e., through behavior, affect and cognition). Because learning begins with behavior, students gain efficacy and self-direction
- Service learning empowers youth to become service-oriented citizens and leaders
- Students who serve develop communication and leadership skills which aid in their ability to apply what they learn to the “real world”
- Service-learning participation has an impact on such academic outcomes as demonstrated complexity of understanding, problem analysis, critical thinking, and cognitive development
- Service-learning contributes to career development
Service-Learning outcomes for Education
- Service-learning addresses many key education reform objectives
- Partnerships between universities and communities, which result in citizen and community development, enhance public relations
- Service-learning can improve student satisfaction with the college
- Students engaged in service-learning are more likely to graduate
Service-Learning outcomes for the Community
- Service-learning contributes to community development and renewal
- Recipients of service benefit from direct aid, human involvement, and personal empowerment
- Agencies receive an infusion of creativity and enthusiasm from participating students
- Service-learning helps students become invested in their communities as community-minded citizens
- As students contribute through service to meet a community need, they are seen to be one of the community’s greatest resources
Social Outcomes of Service-Learning
- Service-learning has a positive effect on reducing stereotypes and facilitating cultural and racial understanding
- Service-learning may subvert as well as support course goals of reducing stereotyped thinking and facilitating cultural and racial understanding
- Service-learning has a positive effect on sense of social responsibility and citizenship skills
- Service-learning during college has a positive effect on commitment to life-long service and volunteering
*Compiled from:
Cairn, R. & J. Kielsmeier, eds. (1995). Growing Hope: A Sourcebook on Integrating Youth Service into the School Curriculum. St Paul, MN: National Youth Leadership Council.
Eyler, J., D. Giles, C. Stenson, and C. Gray. (2001). At a Glance: What We Know about the Effects of Service- Learning on College Students, Faculty, Institutions, and Communities. Vanderbilt University
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