What is Service Learning?
Service-Learning, Community Service, and Volunteerism

There are big differences between service-learning, community service, and volunteerism. As you think about service-learning it's important to know how it relates to things like community service.

Volunteering

Volunteers are people who do work of their own free will and without pay. The emphasis is on the work being done. An example is young people who visit a hospital or nursing home to spend time with Alzheimer patients. The patients are who benefit and the focus of the activity is on providing service to them.

Community Service

Community service is like volunteering. The emphasis is on the people being helped and the service being offered.

An example of a school-based community service project is a food drive in which students bring food items to school. They collect the food in a large box and at the end it is donated to a local food bank. This is not service-learning because there is no emphasis on learning through doing the project.

Service-Learning

Service-learning seeks to benefit both the provider and recipient of service. This sort of service focuses equally on the service being performed and the learning that is occuring. For example, if your health class was studying nutrition you could investigate how items collected in a food drive could be form a healthy diet. You might design a flyer teaching people about good nutrition and send it to the foodbank to hand out to people getting food. At the end of the project you would spend some time reflecting on what you had learned by writing the flyer and collecting the food. These activities put more focus on learning while also making the service you provide more effective.

Service Learning Outcomes For STUDENTS

Personal Growth and Development

• Self-esteem
• Personal efficacy and sense of responsibility
• Moral development and reinforced values and beliefs
• Exploration of new roles, identities, and interests
• Willingness to take risks and accept new challenges

Intellectual Development and Academic Learning

• Basic skills, including expressing ideas, reading, and calculating
• Higher level thinking skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking
• Skills and issues specific to service experience
• Motivation to learn
• Learning skills, including observation, inquiry, and application of knowledge
• Insight, judgement, and understanding

Social Growth & Development

• Social responsibility and concern for others
• Political efficacy
• Civic participation
• Knowledge and exploration of service- related careers
• Understanding and appreciation of. and ability to relate to, people from a wide range of backgrounds and life situations (Conrad and Hedin. 1989)

Service Learning Outcomes For SCHOOLS

• Paradigm shift - teachers as coaches and facilitators; student responsibility for their own learning.
• Motivated learners engaged in authentic and significant work.
• Cooperative learning environment
• Teachers as reflective practitioners engaged in planning, curriculum development, and inquiry.
• Collaborative decisionmaking among administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members.
• Positive, healthy, and caring school climate.
• Community involvement, resources, and support in the education process.
  

Service Learning Outcomes For COMMUNITY

• Valuable service to meet direct human, educational. health, and environmental needs.
• Schools as resources - School/teacher/student teams serving as researchers and resources in problem- solving and community development.
• Empowerment - School/community partnerships to assess, plan, and collaboratively meet needs.
• Citizenship - Students become active stakeholders in the community.
• Infusion of infusion towards improving the institutional practices of schools and communities.
• Understanding and appreciation of diversity - across generations, cultures, perspectives, and abilities.

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