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Service Learning: Adding Service that Matters to the Curriculum

What is Service Learning?

"Service-learning is a particularly fertile way of involving young people in community service, because it ties helping others to what they are learning in the classroom. It enables them to apply academic disciplines to practical, everyday problems. In the process, it provides a compelling answer to the adolescent's perennial question, 'Why do I need to learn this stuff?'" - Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State

Service learning provides students with opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom to “real world” issues in the community. It can be structured in many ways, but most often takes the form of a collaborative, closed-ended project in which individuals, groups or entire classes have the opportunity to demonstrate and relate what they are learning in a way that helps others. Well-designed service-learning projects ensure a balance between student learning and the needs addressed by service sites, to make sure that both are considered in any projects they create.

Service learning, by definition has three primary components:

Addresses a real and compelling issue or problem.
Apply skills learned in an academic setting, and that are connected to an academic course.
Uses purposeful reflection to help students understand what they are learning, the context in which the social issue they are addressing exists and how a society might best approach this issue.

By participating in service learning, students should:

Demonstrate an increased commitment to the class project because the outcomes are not only theoretical, but impact the lives of real people.
Increase their commitment to serving others by better understanding the impact of their services on the issues that people are facing.
Gain critical thinking skills through high impact learning that maximizes both practical and theoretical elements. Studies suggest that this sort of praxis can improve not only information recall but also the ability to apply the information gained from the course content to complex issues and problems.

Interested?

The Office of Student Life has teamed up with the Teaching Excellence Center to offer workshops on service learning and how you can apply it to your class. We will offer educational workshops in the Teaching Excellence Center on;

October 13th at 3 PM
October 20th at Noon
October 27th at 9 AM

At these sessions you will receive information on defining service learning, unique ways to enter it into your curriculum and resources available. Service learning is not only a national hot topic for dozens of colleges it has become a center feature of the learning outcomes of a university. To register for one of these sessions, call the Teaching Excellence Center at 468-1831.

Service Learning Guide

The Office of Student Life along with the Teaching Excellence Center has collaborated to provide our faculty with a guide to help facilitate the process of service learning and answer many of your questions on how to integrate this program into your course syllabi. This guide is designed to allow for the Office of Student Life to much of the heavy lifting and allow for you to develop your curricular program to provide for the best learning outcomes. We have also listed a PDF which includes contacts for local non-profits. These organizations are usually best suited to provide service opportunities.

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Stephen F. Austin State University

Service Learning: Adding Service that Matters to the Curriculum