Service Learning: Definition and Philosophy

Service-Learning is a form of experiential learning where students apply academic knowledge and critical thinking skills to address genuine community needs.
-Pamela and James Toole, 1994

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning is a teaching and learning methodology which fosters civic responsibility and applies classroom learning through meaningful service to the community. The strongest service-learning experiences occur when the service is meaningfully immersed in ongoing learning and is a natural part of the curriculum that extends into the community. Service-learning is an essential strategy in providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum which will prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.

Service-Learning Elements

The following elements are necessary for schools to provide high quality service-learning, as documented in research conducted by RMC Research:

Clear educational goals that are challenging and standards-based
Service-learning projects require the application of concepts, content, and skills from the academic disciplines. Such projects involve students in the construction of their own knowledge through challenging tasks that stretch them cognitively and developmentally.
Meet genuine needs through direct service
Service-learning projects have clear goals and significant consequences for participants and others. Service-learning promotes communication and interaction with the community. The projects of greatest impact involve students in advocacy work for at least a semester.
Diverse student voice in decision making
Service-learning projects seek to maximize student voice in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating the experience. Service-learning values diversity through its participants, its practice and its outcomes.
Thorough student preparation and thoughtful reflection
Students are prepared for all aspects of their service work. Student reflection takes place before, during, and after service using multiple methods that encourage critical thinking. Students are a central force in the design and fulfillment of curricular objectives.
Assessment evaluates and enhances learning
Assessment is used as a way to enhance student learning as well as to document and evaluate how well students have met content and skills standards.

When planning a service-learning project it helps to consult the Rubric for Assessing Quality of the Service-Learning Experience.

Benefits of Service-Learning

Service-learning can improve academic and social outcomes for students by providing them with opportunities to apply academic knowledge to real-world issues. Research has also demonstrated that service-learning can have a positive impact on:

Attendance and drop-out rates
Academic and civic engagement
Reducing youth risk behaviors
Reducing discipline problems
School and classroom climate

The Learn and Serve America-School Based program has provided funding for service-learning in Wisconsin since 1992-93. As a result of this funding, service-learning has grown tremendously in Wisconsin over the last 14 years, from four projects the first year to approximately 175 mini-grants at present, with over 16,000 student and adult volunteer participants.

The current focus of the Learn and Serve grant is to support ongoing professional development and establish an infrastructure to nurture the practice of high quality service-learning throughout local districts.

The Alliance for Service-Learning in Education Reform (ASLER) states that

Service-learning is a method by which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully-organized service experiences...

That meet actual community needs
That are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community
That are integrated into each young person's academic curriculum
That provide structured time for young people to think, talk, and write about what they did and said during the service project
That provide young people with opportunities to use newly acquired academic skills and knowledge in real life, situations in their own communities
That enhance what is taught in the school by extending student learning beyond the classroom
That help to foster the development of a sense of caring for others

The Corporation for National Service

The Corporation for National Service (CNS) uses the service-learning definition listed in the 1993 National and Community Service Trust Act. Following is both the definition and the purpose of the Trust Act.

Service Learning: Federal Definition

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning combines service to the community with student learning in a way that improves both the student and the community. According to the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993: (23) SERVICE-LEARNING— The term 'service-learning' means a method—

A) under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that—

(i) is conducted in and meets the needs of a community;

(ii) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and

(iii) helps foster civic responsibility; and

(B) that—

(i) 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

(ii) provides structured time for the students or participants to reflect on the service experience.

The purpose of the 1993 Trust Act:

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 2 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12501) is amended to read as follows:

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) FINDINGS— The Congress finds the following:

(1) Throughout the United States, there are pressing unmet human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs.

(2) Americans desire to affirm common responsibilities and shared values, and join together in positive experiences, that transcend race, religion, gender, age, disability, region, income, and education.

(3) The rising costs of postsecondary education are putting higher education out of reach for an increasing number of citizens.

(4) Americans of all ages can improve their communities and become better citizens through service to the United States.

(5) Nonprofit organizations, local governments, States, and the Federal Government are already supporting wide variety of national service programs that deliver needed services in a cost-effective manner.

(6) Residents of low-income communities, especially youth and young adults, can be empowered through their service, and can help provide future community leadership.

(b) PURPOSE— It is the purpose of this Act to—

(1) meet the unmet human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs of the United States, without displacing existing workers;

(2) renew the ethic of civic responsibility and the spirit of community throughout the United States;

(3) expand educational opportunity by rewarding individuals who participate in national service with an increased ability to pursue higher education or job training;

(4) encourage citizens of the United States, regardless of age, income, or disability, to engage in full-time part-time national service;

(5) reinvent government to eliminate duplication, support locally established initiatives, require measurable goals for performance, and offer flexibility in meeting those goals;

(6) expand and strengthen existing service programs with demonstrated experience in providing structured service opportunities with visible benefits to the participants and community;

(7) build on the existing organizational service infrastructure of Federal, State, and local programs and agencies to expand full-time and part-time service opportunities for all citizens; and

(8) provide tangible benefits to the communities in which national service is performed.