April 13, 2001

Zlotkowski outlines practical effects of service learning

Edward Zlotkowski, founder the Bentley Service-Learning Project, spoke to faculty, staff and students about implementing service learning March 22. He explained service learning as a process where students and the community work together so both sides benefit.

Zlotkowski focused on the definition, many-sided dimensions, and application of service learning. He emphasized the importance of implementing service learning, or experiential learning, in a way that does not end up one sided for either the university or the community partner. Zlotkowski outlined the interwoven factors in service learning as this: student-centered, academic expertise, community good, and mentor, with service learning at the focal point and center of all these factors, but no one factor standing on its own.

Student involvement and academic pursuit serve a many-sided purpose. Students in effect become better citizens, learn the benefits of interacting with the community, reflect on what they've done, and become working scholars. Because experiential learning moves beyond the classroom (though incorporating knowledge from classes), this approach creates a need to change the "classroom only" structure inherent in a university. Zlotkowski believes there is need to pursue "structural change. Students need to become knowledge producers rather than knowledge consumers."

An obstacle Zlotkowski notes is "pedagogical pathology." Students often leave the classroom with one or more of the following problems: 1) Amnesia. Students forget what they learned in class. 2) Fantasia. Students know the subject but are unable to use it in any practical way. 3) Inertia. The subject is learned, knowledge is retained, but there is no incentive to practice what's been learned. "Integrating practice and knowledge that will stay with students is paramount to successful service learning," Zlotkowski surmised.

What is needed is to make the institutionalized service learning office work to help professors help their students and the community. Zlotkowski noted that beyond this, faculty must be trained how to use the office as well as how to teach students in new and experiential ways. He feels confident that service learning will flourish here because Loyola's dedication to the ideal of service to the community and social justice.

Zlotkowski's is professor of English at Bentley College, senior associate at the American Association for Higher Education, and a senior faculty fellow at Campus Compact.

Michael Rerick A'02, Intern in the Offices of Public Affairs and Publications