General Information
Service Learning is a process of integrating community service combined with active, guided reflection into the curriculum to enhance and enrich students' learning of course material. It directly engages students in the phenomena being studied with the expectation that richer learning will result. The critical difference and distinguishing characteristic of Service Learning is its twofold emphasis on both enriching student learning and revitalizing the community.
Service Learning initiatives involve students in course relevant activities, which address the real human, safety, educational, and environmental needs of the community. Students' course materials such as texts, lectures, discussions, and reflection improve their service, and the service experience is brought back into the classroom to improve the academic dialogue and the quest for knowledge.
The pedagogy of Service Learning represents a substantial change from the traditional lecture driven, content-based, and faculty-centered curriculum.
Despite the fact that we remember only 10% of what we hear, 15% of what we see, and 20% of what we see and hear, these remain the basic sense modalities stimulated in most educational experiences. Service Learning strategies recognize that we retain 60% of what we do, 80% of what we do with active guided reflection, and 90% of what we teach or give to others. It views education as a process of living, not a preparation for life. In a culture characterized by information overload, effective teaching must encourage information processing as well as accumulation. In a complex society, it is almost impossible to determine what information will be necessary to solve particular problems.
Service Learning provides students with real-life, meaningful experiences that by their very nature force critical thinking. In Service Learning, students encounter events that conflict with their assumptions. Students deal with issues or incidents that challenge their competency or understanding. These experiences create perplexity or dissonance, which is often the beginning of learning.
Unlike most teaching methods, which are deductive relying on presenting theory and then encouraging application to specifics, Service Learning is more inductive, using experience provided by students to learn conceptual or theoretical understanding.
Service Learning is best understood in the context of a continuous learning cycle where meaning is created through concrete experience, reflection, assimilation, abstract of conceptualization or theory building, and active experimentation or problem solving.
