Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs.

Service-learning involves students (k–12, higher education) in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community.^[1] The National Youth Leadership Council defines service learning as "a philosophy, pedagogy, and model for community development that is used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards."^[2]

Author Barbara Jacoby defines service-learning as "a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes."^[3]

Service learning combines both experiential learning and community service.^[4]

Typology

As defined by Robert Sigmon, 1994:

• Service-learning: learning goals are primary; service outcomes secondary.
• SERVICE-Learning: Service outcomes are primary; learning goals secondary.
• service learning: service and learning goals completely separate.
• SERVICE-LEARNING: Service and learning goals are of equal weight and each enhances the other for all participants.

Examples

Service-learning, as defined by Robert Sigmon, "occurs when there is a balance between learning goals and service outcomes."^[5]: 72 As follows, there are various methods of hands-on learning that fall into this category, these include:

• Volunteerism: Volunteerism is acts of service performed out of free will without expectation of recompense and is generally altruistic in nature; the main beneficiaries (at least in a visible sense) are generally those served by the student.
• Community Service: Community service is quite similar to volunteerism, the main difference being that it is said to "involve more structure and student commitment than do volunteer programs."^[5]: 74
• Internship: Internships can provide students with experience in various fields of work; however, unlike volunteerism and community service, students gain a more measurable benefit from this aspect of service learning.
• Field Education: Field education, like internships, is generally more materially beneficial to the student. Field education involves programs that "provide students with co‐curricular service opportunities that are related, but not fully integrated, with their formal academic studies."^[5]: 75

The primary objective of service learning is to confer mutual benefits upon both the provider and the recipient of the service, while simultaneously giving equal importance to the service rendered and the learning acquired. This educational approach embodies the core values of service learning through various forms, including volunteerism, community service, internships, and field education. Each of these experiences is designed to equally benefit the student and the community served, with the distinction between them lying primarily in the tangibility of the benefits realized. These methods also tend to focus on ensuring that the student not only serves but also learns something, whether it is interpersonal skills, work experience in their future field,^[5] or a change in how they view themselves and others.^[6]: 25 Service-learning also addresses the critique of higher education to function more as a gatekeeper and reifier of social stratifications rather than a knowledge-making enterprise that benefits society. Service-learning allows for publicly engaged scholarship (PES),^[7] which allows students to collaborate with their local communities to promote peace and social betterment. The value of reciprocity between students and community is prioritized through relationships that are not hierarchical; they are collaborative.^[8]

History

In Building Partnerships for Service-Learning, Barbara Jacoby writes that Service-learning "is based on the work of researchers and theorists on learning, including John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Kurt Lewin, Donald Schon, and David Kolb, who believe that we learn through combinations of action and reflection."^[9]

Service learning programs have developed rapidly within the last 30 years. From 1995 to 1997, 458 universities received grants from the Corporation for National Service's Learn and Serve Higher Education (LASHE). This facilitated development of 3,000 new service-learning courses that benefit an average of more than 60 students per course.^[6]

In 1979, Robert Sigmon said the term, which was relatively new, was being used to describe a number of different volunteer actions and experiential education programs.^[10] In the late 1960s, Sigmon wrote that the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) popularized a service-learning internship model that defined service-learning as "the integration of the accomplishment of a public task with conscious educational growth."^[10]: 9

In American education

In 1992 Maryland adopted statewide service-learning requirements for high school graduation.^[11] In the same year, the District of Columbia also adopted such requirements.^[12]

A number of other states have allowed credit toward graduation for service-learning/community service.^[13]

Methods

1. interpersonal learning: students re-evaluate personal values and motivations by channeling a passionate interest to service-learning projects, as well as build a connection and commitment to the community.^{[citation needed]}
2. practical application and reflective instruction: academic material may be practiced outside classrooms and test-taking.^{[citation needed]}
3. cognitive development: students are challenged to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a context that provides additional information and experience for student evaluation, because service-learning deals with numerous problems in complex situations.^{[citation needed]}
4. transformation: within the students, which "is about thinking about things in a new way and moving in new direction—creating a new picture without relying on the old lines." ^{[citation needed]}
5. effective citizenship and behavioral issues: helps the students better understand social issues relevant to their own community.^{[citation needed]}

Impacts

1. Personal Connections: When a person is passionate about a certain topic or cause, they are likely to want to make a difference by trying to mend help in that area.^{[6]: 14–15} Lifelong learners develop from students who are personally connected with their passion.
2. Usefulness of service-learning: according to Eyler, can impact a student for the rest of their lives.^{[6]: 15–16}
3. The development of learning: Much of the knowledge that students have is not self-consumed, but rather developed from training obtained from the classroom and from daily life. Any thought or active development attained during service is more liable to impact the student and the students' surroundings.^{[6]: 16–17}
4. Transformational aspect of service-learning: Students who participate in service are likely to develop different ways of thinking and approaching life. It may be a service-learning course that impacts the students' frame of thinking, while transforming the community as well.^{[citation needed]}
5. Finding citizenship in our communities: While students are serving and impacting the community, they are very likely to find their role in society. Students can realize that they can make a difference, which can lead to citizenship and active involvement in their communities.^{[citation needed]}

Factors

According to Eyler and Giles Jr., who conducted nationwide studies on service-learning, factors that influence its impact on students include placement quality, duration, and reflection.^{[6]: 54–56 [14]} A recent sample study assessed the benefits of service learning in undergraduate public health education course using the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire. Overall, students reported increases in their civic attitudes and skills. However, individuals reporting poor team dynamics consistently reported lower levels of improvement than those reporting great team dynamics.^[15]

Placement quality

According to Eyler and Giles, "Placement quality refers to the extent that students in their community placements are challenged, are active rather than observers, do a variety of tasks, feel that they are making a positive contribution, have important levels of responsibility, and receive input and appreciation from supervisors in the field."^[6]: 33 According to their research, placement quality has measurable effects on such things as "personal development outcomes," "increased leadership and communication skill," and connection to community, faculty, and other students.^{[6]: 54–56}

Duration

In The Importance of Program Quality in Service-Learning, Eyler and Giles state: "a program or a sequence of experiences needs to be of a long enough duration to have a developmental impact."^[14] This view is expanded upon by Alexander W. Astin and Linda J. Sax. In their opinion, "the amount of time devoted to providing service carries additional benefits beyond those benefits associated with the type of service performed, especially in the areas of civic responsibility and life skill development."^[16]

But how much time is enough? According to J. Beth Mabry, "students should spend at least fifteen to nineteen hours in their service activities to have adequate exposure to the people and issues their service addresses."^[17]

Reflection

An essential feature of service-learning programs, reflection is a period of critical thinking performed by the student. For many advocates of the pedagogy, reflection may symbolize the learning that occurs in the student. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles provide an example of this opinion in their book, Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? when they state: "learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection, not simply through being able to recount what has been learned through reading and lecture."^[6] Also, the National Service Learning Clearinghouse considers reflection a "core component" of service-learning.^[18]

It is important to point out the importance of the role of reflection in service-learning. The hyphen in between the service and learning links to the key role of reflection or “learning” after the physical act of service has taken place.^[19]

Some higher education programs require a reflection component in their service-learning classes. The University of Minnesota is one such institution that includes required reflection activities with its service learning classes.^[20]

Reflection may be done individually or as a group activity. Wartburg College in Indiana published a list of reflection activity suggestions on their website. These included various types of journaling, brainstorming as a group, using quotes, writing essays and papers, structured class discussions, and class presentations among other ideas.^[21]

Effective service-learning programs also include required written reflection. Not only does writing permanently record a student's service-learning experience, but it also provides a helpful tool for continued reflection long after the program has been completed. Written reflection assignments also require students to stop, think, and articulate their learning. This evaluation is of incredible value to students.^{[22]: 171–177}

Cultural applications

In Native American communities

Service-learning has been applied across a host of cultural settings, including numerous Native American communities. Guffey (1997) notes credible service learning begins with tribal ways of knowing and value systems, which is to say that outsiders should not impose service learning projects.^[23] Rather, tribal communities should devise projects that reflect needs unique to the community being served. This parallels Matthew Fletcher's (2010) assertion that tribes, and other historically marginalized communities, should unique develop educational programs, as opposed to merely adopting Westernized forms of education.^[24]

According to this view, service learning provides a pedagogical framework for tribes to address community needs. One such example is provided by Sykes, Pendley, and Deacon (2017) who provide a qualitative case study of a tribally-initiated service learning project embedded within a partnership at a research university.^[25] This case is unique in that it recounts how service learning students (who were also tribal members) came to collectively understand their responsibilities of citizenship through service. Moreover, tribal elders came to appreciate the importance of young citizens in maintaining and growing tribal culture. Thus, service learning can also be a means to explore cultural identity.

Religious aspects

In Ephesious 6:6 it says: "Not by way of eyeservice, as man-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." Here, and elsewhere in the bible, it says that service must be done for the sake of service itself and not for some material benefit, like receiving a certain number of hours in order to graduate. Service learning as a concept offers material rewards, in the form of graduation and other honors.

In Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr. wrote, "Although fewer students chose spiritual growth as an important outcome of service-learning—20 percent selecting it as among the most important things they learned and 46 percent selecting it as very or most important—it was important to many students...Some saw service as a definite opportunity to fulfill their religious commitment."^{[6]: 36, 37}

Uses in academic fields

Engineering education

Many engineering faculty members believe the educational solution lies in taking a more constructivist approach, where students construct knowledge and connections between nodes of knowledge as opposed to passively absorbing knowledge. Educators see service learning as a way to both implement a constructivism in engineering education as well as match the teaching styles to the learning styles of typical engineering students. As a result, many engineering schools have begun to integrate service learning into their curricula and there is now a journal dedicated to service learning in engineering.^[26]

Benefits

Self-improvement

Students have reported developing personal leadership skills from their participation in service-learning.^[27] Service-learning has also been shown to create a sense of meaning and purpose in their academics.^[6]

Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles Jr. identify five key personal growth outcomes of service-learning: self-knowledge, spiritual growth, the reward of helping others, career benefits and careers in service, and changes in personal efficacy.^{[6]: 35–39} As one goes out into the community with the intent of reaching out to those within it, this broader social context causes one to see himself more clearly.^[6]: 35

Service-learning may motivate individuals to become better citizens of their communities, as it has "cultivated civic and social responsibility as part of education for citizenship."^[6]: 12 As individuals acquire knowledge about serving those around them, they can apply that knowledge to community problems.

Those serving may encounter certain social problems for the first time, thus transforming their view on the world. Beyond that, students may be transformed in the way of developing better problem-solving skills to address those problems about which they now know. A service-learning experience may be the catalyst in the life of a student to dive into the complexities of the social issues they have encountered and to seek to develop innovative solutions.^[20]

Community interaction

According to Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, among the students in their survey, "40 percent reported that learning to work with others was among the most important things they learned from service-learning, and 81 percent indicated that it was the most or very important." Service-learning also encourages connection within the community. As stated in Where's the Learning in Service-Learning?, "Service participants in their assessment of Learn and Serve America were more likely than their peers to spend at least an hour a week interacting with a faculty member." Service-learning has a tremendous impact on students and how they learn, but also how they interact with others.^{[6]: 45–52}

High quality placements are a key to the success of a service-learning program. This requires the service learning establishment to have a broad network of connections within the community. Students must have a positive connection with the establishment they serve, to maximize their learning.^{[22]: 167–170}

Diversity awareness

Service-learning offers an opportunity for students to experience and learn about many different cultures. The appreciation of different cultures in service-learning may happen because of the interaction that often occurs while completing a service. A survey on students who participated in service-learning found that, "57 percent reported that they had frequent chances to work with people from ethnic groups other than their own."^[22]: 26

By working with people of different ethnicities, lifestyles, and socioeconomic statuses, a student's learning and tolerance increases.^{[citation needed]} By serving in a diverse learning environment, students are more likely to reduce stereotypes and increase their cultural appreciation. This can help a student learn how to more effectively serve a broader array of people.^{[22]: 177–178}

One of the goals of service-learning is positive interactions^[22]: 26 and service-learning provides the opportunity for students to not only appreciate other cultures, but to appreciate their shared humanity.^[22]: 31

Serving communities

Service-learning contributes to the presence of more volunteers, which enables the organizations to accomplish more^{[28]: 35–36} and to serve more clients.^[29]: 5 Students can use specific skills they possess to benefit the organization,^[30]: 49 and can be a source of new ideas, energy, and enthusiasm.^[31]: 33 Through partnering with a college or university, the organization can gain access to new knowledge and opportunities to connect with other organizations that have partnered with the same school.^[28]: 36

Service brings community together as a whole, towards a common goal or purpose. The action of service in and among the community, provides challenges to socio-cultural norms and prejudices.^{[citation needed]}

Eyler and Giles Jr. have found that service-learning students, upon reflecting on their experience, find reward in helping others^[22]: 55 and in developing close personal relationships.^[22]: 56

Critiques

In 1979, Robert Sigmon acknowledged criticisms that called service-learning, "a utopian vision" and "too demanding and impractical." ^[10]: 11 Towson University Professor John Egger, writing in the Spring 2008 issue of the journal Academic Questions, argued that service learning does not really teach useful skills or develop cultural knowledge. Instead, Egger maintained, service learning mainly involves the inculcation of communitarian political ideologies.^[32] Tulane Professor Carl L. Bankston III has described his own university's policy of mandating service learning as the imposition of intellectual conformity by the university administration on both students and faculty. According to Bankston, by identifying specific types of civic engagement as worthy community service, the university was prescribing social and political perspectives. He argued that this was inconsistent with the idea that individuals in a pluralistic society should choose their own civic commitments and that it was contrary to the ideal of the university as a site for the pursuit of truth through the free exchange of ideas.^[33]

Communication with faculty is often inconsistent, so organizations do not always understand their roles and the roles of the faculty in students' service projects.^{[30]: 55–56} Some organizations' representatives stated that faculty assigned students projects that were not allowed in their organization.^[28]: 37Also, the small number of hours students are required to spend volunteering can cause problems for organizations and their clients. Some organizations require more hours for volunteer training than students are required to volunteer,^[28]: 39 and making a personal connection with clients only to break it off soon after can be more hurtful than helpful.^[30]: 52

Some scholars argue that service learning in itself only gives students satisfaction without little or no benefit to the communities.^[34] Eby makes the claim that traditional service learning has no real connection with communities and their problems.^[35] Without addressing the root of social issues, students gain no real understanding of the problems facing the communities in which they volunteer/serve.^[34] Instead, they will unknowingly be pawns in the systemic institutions and use their privileges to “preserve” these systems in place.^[34]  Service-learning has become popularized but it has less focus on the people and more focus on the individual's “good deeds”.^[35]  Another critique of service learning is that the research focus on this sector is mostly done by scholars, while community locals and organizations are left out from the discussion.^[35] These community organizations and partners are left without a voice and there is no connection between the academic learning and the service. The emergence of critical service learning as a new sector addresses some of these critiques of traditional service.

Variations of service-learning

eService-Learning

eService-Learning is either an online course that embeds service-learning into the curriculum or a traditional course where the service-learning action takes place online.^[36]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the availability of online courses, service-learning has been increasingly integrated online.^{[citation needed]} There are four types based on Faulconer's research.^[37] Type I eService-Learning has online course curriculum that involves some type of onsite service. Type II eService-Learning is an onsite course with online service-learning. Type III eService-Learning is a hybrid (traditional and online format) mixed with online service. Type IV eService-Learning (extreme service learning) is fully online.^[38]

Reflection

Online reflection assignments can be completed in multiple formats, including online discussion boards. This format allows students to participate in discussions with their peers regarding eService-Learning based on an instructor's prompted questions.^[39] Classes utilizing eService-Learning may also use Social Networking Services (SNS) as another form of online discussion. Examples of apps which have been used for this purpose include WhatsApp, Slack and Trello.

Advantages

Over time, educators have noticed the value of incorporating service-learning online.^[40] Students have the ability to meet with nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders through Zoom and/or Google Chat to collaborate when it is inconvenient or impossible to do so in person. Service-learning can be applied to students who have difficulties being in the traditional classroom, such as disabled students and rural students.^[41] Students can complete service-learning projects in any location and can make a direct impact in their own communities.

Nielson (2016) argues that online service-learning (aka e-learning) helps students take responsibility for their own education.^[42] A study of 81 students in an online business class found "that hours completed exceeded those assigned, and students identified outcomes for themselves, their university, and nonprofit organizations where they served" (p. 80).^[43] Another study involving 35 students demonstrated that e-learning fosters the development of generic skills, including global citizenship, adaptability, and teamwork.^[44]

Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning (CAPSL)

CAPSL Identifies four constituencies on which a program for service learning must focus its principal activities: institution, faculty, students, and community.

CAPSL also identifies a sequence of activities (Planning, awareness, prototype, resources, expansion,; recognition, monitoring, evaluation, research, and institutionalization) to pursue for each of the four constituencies (institution, faculty, students, and community).

CAPSL provides a heuristic for guiding the development of a service learning program in higher education. It is general enough that the execution of each cell can be tailored to local conditions, however, it is not possible to detail how each step can be successfully accomplished to take the sequence of activities from the whole CAPSL model and apply it to any cell in the matrix.^[45]

Critical service learning

Critical service learning allows students to take their learning discourses and use it to connect to their personal experiences  for  social development and the welfare of others ^[46] “Critical service learning forces students to see themselves as “agents of social change” and use their experiences of service to address and respond to injustice in their communities”.^[34] This sector's main focus is to address political and social power relations and how it leads to the systemic inequalities that marginalized communities face. The goal is to connect students' services to their learning discourses. Critical service learning gives students the chance to ask themselves how their services create political and social change in these communities.

According to Mitchell, there are three different approaches required to achieve a critical learning service status. These are: redistributing power to marginalized groups of people; developing meaningful partnerships with community members/partners and those in the classroom; and, approaching service learning through the lens of making impactful social change.^[34]

Notable people

Alexander Astin: the Allan M. Cartter Distinguished Professor of Higher Education Emeritus and founding director of both Cooperative Institutional Research Program and Higher Education Research Institute.^[47] Formed a Theory of Involvement which explains how student involvement in co-curricular activities positively affects college outcomes.^[48] Through a 1998 study of college seniors, Astin demonstrated that service greatly improves critical thinking skills.^[49]

Nadinne I. Cruz: works as an independent consultant.^[50] She gained enthusiasm for the cause of service learning through her work in the Philippines.^[51] Now, she is an advocate of service learning who argues that only a small portion of skills needed to address life's problems can be learned through traditional academia. Other skills, such as courage, forgiveness, and stewarding the earth, must be learned elsewhere. Therefore, she recommends service learning and community engagement, which “offer learning with and from wise people, who teach by example.”^[52]

Andrew Furco: Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota and a professor.^[53] Furco has contributed a variety of literature to service learning, including two books: Service-Learning: The Essence of the Pedagogy and Service-Learning Through a Multidisciplinary Lens, which he co-authored with S. Billig.^[54] He gives five reasons engagement programs differ from engaged universities: “Engagement differs from outreach… is at the heart of the university’s identity… focuses on partnerships… is with, not to, for, or in communities… is about institutional transformation.”^[55]

James Kielsmeier: Founded the National Youth Leadership Council, a nonprofit that became the service-learning movement.^[56] Kielsmeier posits that service learning involves a change in how schools see young people: from “resource users, recipients, and victims” to “contributors, givers, and leaders.”^[57]