Service-Learning, continued definitions

My apologies for not adding to the blog yesterday. I am fortunate to be on the committee charged with responsibility of building a new home for my department of Hospitality and Tourism management in what is to be named, Marriott Hall. We reviewed the five finalist architect firms from the pool that bid on the job and had to choose one to move forward. Quite a fascinating day and exhausting.

Here is another key definition of Service-Learning from which to compare what you may be doing or help shape a course that you are planning that has a service-learning component to it:

§ Clear educational goals that require the application of concepts, content and skills from the academic disciplines and involves students in the construction of their own knowledge.

§ Having students engaged in tasks that challenge and stretch them cognitively and developmentally.

§ Using assessment as a way to enhance student learning as well as to document and evaluate how well students have met content and skills standards.

§ Service tasks that have clear goals and meet genuine needs in the school or community and have significant consequences for themselves and others.

§ Formative and summative evaluation in a systematic evaluation of the service effort and its outcomes.

§ Ways to maximize the students’ voice in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating the service project.

§ Valuing diversity through its participants, its practice and its outcomes.

§ The promotion of communication and interaction with the community and encourages partnerships and collaboration.

§ The preparation of students for all aspects of their service work including a clear understanding of task and role, the skills and information required by the task, awareness of safety precautions, as well as knowledge about and sensitivity to the people with whom they will be working.

§ Student reflection before, during and after service, that uses multiple methods to encourage critical thinking, and is a central force in the design and fulfillment of curricular objectives.

§ Multiple methods are designed to acknowledge, celebrate and further validate students’ service work.

(Source: National Service Learning Cooperative, National Youth Leadership Council, April , 1998)