Service-Learning

When I decided to focus my research on the implementation of community service in the classroom, I was concerned that there would be a lack of literature on the topic. I was surprised to find ample research and data on the teaching method, service-learning. After closer inspection, I found that service-learning was exactly what I was intending to incorporate into my teaching practice. Billig (2002) defines service-learning as “a teaching method that involves students performingcommunity service in order to learn knowledge and skills connected tocurricular objectives…meeting authentic community needs, student involvement in planning and implementing service activities, reflection…and celebration…”(p. 184). Essentially service-learning is the interaction between community service and curricula in the school and classroom. The National Youth Leadership Council gives the following example:

*Picking up trash on a river bank is service.

*Studying water samples under a microscope is learning.

*When science students collect and analyze water samples, document their results, and present findings to a local pollution control agency – that is service-learning.

Now that I had defined service-learning for myself, I sought to know how it was going to inform my practice and give insight into my tension. I wanted to discover and comprehend service-learning's impact on students who had been involved with this teaching strategy. The following diagram indicates the results service-learning had on students whose schools were engaged in a service-learning program.

(Preliminary Findings Community Service and Service-Learning in Public Schools, Growing to Greatness, 2004). The research revealed that if a meaningful, high quality service-learning program was put into action, teachers, particularly those teaching low socioeconomic students, saw positive growth in the areas of academic achievement, personal-social awareness, civic responsibility and career awareness.