Service-learning is a method of teaching, learning and reflecting, frequently youth service, throughout the community. As a teaching method, it falls under the philosophy of experiential education. More specifically, it integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, encourage lifelong civic engagement, and strengthen communities for the common good.The Community Service Act of 1990, which authorized the Learn and Serve America grant program, defines service-learning as: nbn
"a method under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and helps foster civic responsibility; and that is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled; and provides structured time for the students or participants to reflect on the service experience." [1]
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.[2] Alternatively, the National Youth Leadership Council defines service learning as "a philosophy, pedagogy, and model for community development that is used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards." [3]
"Service-learning is a method of instruction in which classroom learning is enriched and applied through service to others” (Florida Department of Education).
Service-learning combines experiential learning and community service opportunities. It can be distinguished in the following ways:
In 2008, the National Youth Leadership Council released the K–12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice that used research in the field to determine eight standards of quality service-learning practice. The standards are:
Further, to distinguish high quality from low quality service learning experiences, Youth Service California has published the "Seven Elements of High Quality Service Learning" [5] that include:
Florida Department of Education. Florida Campus Compact. Standards for Service-Learning in Florida: A Guide for Creating and Sustaining Quality Practice. Retrieved from http://www.fsu.edu/~flserve/resources/SL%20Standards%20for%20SL%20in%20FL.pdf 1. Direct Service-Learning: Person-to-person, face-to-face projects in which service impacts individuals who receive direct help from students (tutoring, work with elderly, oral histories, peer mediation, etc.). 2. Indirect Service-Learning: Projects with benefits to a community as opposed to specific individuals (i.e., environmental, construction, restoration, town histories, food and clothing drives). 3. Advocacy Service-Learning: Working, acting, speaking, writing, teaching, presenting, informing, etc., on projects that encourage action or create awareness on issues of public interest (i.e., promoting reading, safety, care for the environment, local history, violence and drug prevention, disaster preparedness). 4. Research Service-Learning: Surveys, studies, evaluations, experiments, data gathering, interviewing, etc., to find, compile, and report information on topics in the public interest (i.e., energy audits of homes or public buildings, water testing, flora and fauna studies, surveys).
As Defined by Robert Sigmon, 1994:
In this comparative form, the typology is helpful not only in establishing criteria for distinguishing service-learning from other types of service programs but also in providing a basis for clarifying distinctions among different types of service-oriented experiential education programs (e.g., school volunteer, community service, field education, and internship programs)[7]
Although service learning has broad support among contemporary academics, there have been some objections to this approach to education. Towson University Professor John Egger, writing in the Spring 2008 issue of the journal "Academic Questions", argued that service learning does not really teach useful skills or develop cultural knowledge. Instead, Egger maintained, service learning mainly involves the inculcation of communitarian political ideologies.[8] Tulane Professor Carl L. Bankston III has described his own university's policy of mandating service learning as the imposition of intellectual conformity by the university administration on both students and faculty. According to Bankston, by identifying specific types of civic engagement as worthy community service, the university was prescribing social and political perspectives. He argued that this was inconsistent with the idea that individuals in a pluralistic society should choose their own civic commitments and that it was contrary to the ideal of the university as a site for the pursuit of truth through the free exchange of ideas.[9]
Community-engaged writing is a method of getting students to write toward and about public problems and issues. A variety of approaches are used by instructors, depending on age group of students and theoretical approach. Two illustrative/related summaries follow.
In “Literacy as Violence Prevention,” Ena Rosen, Associate Director of Need in Deed, describes a specific example of the teaching methods of Need in Deed, a Philadelphia-based education agency. This newsletter article is based on an anecdotal set of reports on an eighth grade teacher’s work with one classroom in 2005. Rosen’s purpose is to promote the effectiveness and work of Need in Deed, and Rosen ultimately shows that this method of working with urban youth is an effective teaching method and social intervention: “Meaningful service that addresses a root cause and meets an authentic community need: the best of service-learning and civic engagement” (Rosen).
In “Rogue Cops and Health Care: What Do We Want from Public Writing?” Susan Wells argues that writing teachers should not merely have students write within classrooms on socially relevant issues, such as gun control. She uses Habermas’s definition of the public sphere to analyze an example of a “citizen” attempting to enter the public sphere through discourse—President Clinton’s speech on health care reform—and ultimately demonstrates the failure of that effort. However, Wells contrasts Clinton’s failed strategies to get health care reform passed with a more local example of a Temple student who successfully entered the public sphere by writing a citizen’s complaint about his arrest and subsequent beating by a Philadelphia police officers. Wells concludes by suggesting four alternatives for writing teachers interested in helping students move their rhetoric into the public sphere: classroom as one type of public sphere itself, analysis of public and academic discourses, writing with and for public/community needs, and analysis of academic discourses as they intervene in the public sphere.
Works cited
Rosen, E. (2006). Literacy as violence prevention. Retrieved March 2, 2011, from Need in Deed: http://needindeed.org/static/LiteracyAsViolencePrevention.pdf Wells, S. (1996). "Rogue cops and health care: What do we want from public writing?". College Composition and Communication , 47 (3), 325–41.
Service learning can be used in all standard disciplines and recently has been explored for use in improving language instruction. A recent study found that integrating environmental issues with foreign language study provides significant opportunities for students to increase their language proficiency, develop their understanding of concepts related to the environment, and become more involved in a global community through a virtual service learning project.[10] Similar work has found that students can contribute to sustainable development while improving their language skills.[11]
Many engineering educators see service-learning as the solution to several prevalent problems in engineering education today. In the past, engineering curriculum has fluctuated between emphasizing engineering science to focusing more on practical aspects of engineering. Today, many engineering educators are concerned their students do not receive enough practical knowledge of engineering and its context. Some speculate that adding context to engineering help to motivate engineering students’ studies and thus improve retention and diversity in engineering schools. Others feel that the teaching styles do not match the learning styles of engineering students.
Many engineering faculty members believe the educational solution lies in taking a more constructivist approach, where students construct knowledge and connections between nodes of knowledge as opposed to passively absorbing knowledge. Educators see service-learning as a way to both implement a constructivism in engineering education as well as match the teaching styles to the learning styles of typical engineering students. As a result, many engineering schools have begun to integrate service-learning into their curricula and there is now a journal dedicated to service learning in engineering.[12]
There are a number of substantial national efforts in the United States that promote service learning in its myriad forms. They include the following organizations:
The State Education Agency K–12 Service-Learning Network (SEANet) is a national network of professionals committed to advancing school-based service-learning initiatives in K–12 schools and school districts all across the country (seanetonline.org). Our members are directors, coordinators, specialists, or other staff working in a State Education Agency (SEA), or in an organization designated by a State Education Agency, who provide leadership in their respective states for the advancement of school-based service-learning. They promote, develop, and expand school-based service-learning to K–12 schools and school districts; they provide direct assistance in the form of technical support and professional development opportunities to local school-community partnerships; and they administer and dissiminate the annual K–12 school-based state formula grants from Learn and Serve America, the primary federal funding source for service-learning.
Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) provides the world's largest database of Service-Learning materials, electronic resources, and job listings. It supports and encourages service-learning throughout the United States, and enables over one million students to contribute to their community while building their academic and civic skills. This organization instills an ethic of lifelong community service; supports and encourages service-learning throughout the United States, and enables over one million students to contribute to their community while building their academic and civic skills. By engaging our nation’s young people in service-learning, Learn and Serve America instills an ethic of lifelong community service.[13]
National Service-Learning Partnership is a national network of members dedicated to advancing service-learning as a core part of every young person's education. Service-learning is a teaching method that engages young people in solving problems within their schools and communities as part of their academic studies or other type of intentional learning activity. The Partnership concentrates on strengthening the impact of service-learning on young people's learning and development, especially their academic and civic preparation.
The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation fosters academic service-learning in higher education with awards and grants to students/faculty and their 501(c)(3) community partners who demonstrate best practices or innovative approaches in the field. These programs can be found at [14] The Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur grant program seeks to motivate students to develop innovative service-learning projects by providing $1,000 grants to the community organization partner of the student with the most innovative proposal in a state-wide or school-wide competition. ServiceBook sponsored and maintained by JRCPF, is the online community for academic service learning. JRCPF programs have been held in 16 U.S. states, India and the United Kingdom.[15][5] [6]
The Leadership, Ethics, and Social Action Minor at Indiana University-Bloomington focuses on civic participation, community decision-making, and citizenship skills: how to communicate and organize and lead while serving as a citizen. The LESA program is a chance to develop your own voice and interests while you research, serve, and take action in the community. A student who enjoys thinking and working independently and who would like to develop his or her professional presentation through serving the needs of the community will find opportunities to do so with LESA. Pre-professional students who wish to be involved in a community setting are attracted to the program. Pre-law and pre-med, as well as pre-business, students find opportunities to develop their professional presentation.[16]
A partnership between Youth Service America, America’s Promise Alliance, and State Farm Companies Foundation launched GoToServiceLearning. It is recognized as a resource for teachers seeking to learn how to incorporate service-learning into their lessons. GoToServiceLearning.org is an interactive Web site housing a database of quality service-learning lesson plans from across the country, all tied to state academic standards.
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