What is Service Learning?
- Service Learning is a pedagogical model (method of teaching and learning) that intentionally integrates:
- Enhanced academic learning
- Purposeful civic learning
- Relevant and meaningful service with the community
- For further details on each of these elements and how to apply for designation of an academic course as a Service Learning Course, please see Service-Learning Course Designation page.
How does service learning benefit students?
- Higher gains in academic skills, life skills, and personal and social responsibility
- Helps students to clarify career goals
What resources and support does UAB Office for Service Learning provide?
- Assists faculty to integrate service learning with classroom curricula
- Serves as liaison for faculty, students and community partners
- Manages and structures community engagement to ensure quality service-learning experiences
- Addresses concerns such as academic rigor, time constraints, and liability
- Tailors service-learning opportunities for individual students, classes, and programs
Standards for Service Learning
by Marybeth Neal, PhD
1. Meaningful service -- Is the service truly based on a mutually agreed-upon assessment of community needs? Do those making the assessment include the voices of both service-recipients and service-providers?
2. Reflection: Are there regularly occurring opportunities for participants to reflect on the service-experience in ways that prompt deep thinking that reinforces learning and inspires innovation?
3. Progress monitoring: Are there opportunities for those engaged in service to monitor progress for purposes of program improvement?
4. Voice: Are the volunteers given a voice to make decisions regarding the planning, implementation and evaluation of projects instead of simply being directed by a volunteer manager?
5. Reciprocal partnerships: Is the service done with a sense of being a sense of respectful, mutually beneficial reciprocal partnership between service-providers and service-recipients?
6. Curriculum integration: Is the quality of service enhanced by knowledgeable volunteers who understand that the service involves the application of skills and knowledge? For example, a volunteer can build a better Habitat for Humanity house if she or he understands about house construction as well as the broader need for affordable housing. Integrating the service with the kinds of knowledge needed to understand and implement the program will help empower as well as educate both service providers and receivers. One could query: Is the service connected with a body of knowledge that is applied in the service? Is there training/instruction on the skills and knowledge that help participants to understand and implement the program?
7. Diversity: Is the service connected to a continual attempt to be inclusive and to gain a deeper understanding of all perspectives? The Diversity Standard is founded upon the belief that through diversity we learn more about what problems entail and gain deeper insight into how to solve them. We also learn more about each other in ways that help appreciate and celebrate differences instead of being threatened by diversity. Diversity, in this view, becomes a valued resource for learning and problem-solving.
8. Duration and intensity: Is there enough time to build the relationships between service providers and recipients? So much about service-learning is about relationship-building and in learning how to organize to act to solve problems. An effective, high quality program takes time. In service-learning, research shows that programs that afford regular contact between service-recipients and service-providers create relationships which function to sustain engagement.
This last Standard draws attention to the need for service to be of a sufficient duration and intensity. Perhaps one of the frustrating aspects of quality service is that it may take longer to achieve the products of service (the house that it is built, the meals that are served, etc.) It means paying attention and valuing the process of service as well as the products of service. I believe that the investment in service-learning and its standards should lie at the heart of all CNCS efforts. It will help provide the underlying philosophy, the pedagogy, and community development practices that will help both promote lifelong civic engagement, creative innovation and effective coordination for maximum impact across all the streams of service.