Service Learning

Service Learning is a method of teaching which students apply their academic skills and their soft skills to real-life needs in their own communities.

Service Learning provides a compelling reason to learn, teaches the skills of civic participation and develops an ethic of service and civic responsibility. Service learning increases motivation and retention of academic skills as specific learning goals are tied to community needs. By solving real problems and addressing real needs, students learn to apply classroom learning to a real world context. At the same time, students provide valuable services to social places and communities.

Service Learning emphasize both the service and the learning. By applying classroom content to community settings, service-learning is a way to provide more authenticity and purpose for classroom learning. By contrast, community service emphasizes the habits and soft skills.

Service-learning activities establish clear educational goals that require the application of concepts, content and skills from the academic disciplines, and teamwork. Students must doing some tasks that challenge them cognitively and developmentally. Assessment is used to enhance student learning and to document and evaluate how well students have met content and skills standards. Students also doing service tasks that have clear goals, meet genuine needs in the school or community and have significant consequences for themselves and others. Service-learning activities maximize student participation in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating the service project. Students prepare for all aspects of their service work, including a clear understanding of the task, the skills and information required to complete the task, awareness of safety precautions, and knowledge about and sensitivity to others.