Chapter 1
Understanding Service-Learning: History, Pedagogy, Philosophy
"By its very definition, civic responsibility means taking a healthy role in the life of one's
community. That means that classroom lessons should be complemented by work outside the
classroom. Service-learning does just that, tying community service to academic learning."
—Senator John Glenn
What is Service-Learning?
"Service-learning is the various pedagogies that link community service and academic study so
that each strengthens the other. The basic theory of service-learning is Dewey's: the interaction
of knowledge and skills with experience is key to learning. Students learn best not by reading
the Great Books in a closed room but by
opening the doors and windows of Related concepts and activities:
experience. Learning starts with a Academic Service-Learning, Experiential
problem and continues with the Learning, Experiential Education, Field
application of increasingly complex ideas Placement, Clinical Experience,
and increasingly sophisticated skills to Practicum, Field Projects, Learn and
Serve, and Field Education, Action and
increasingly complicated problems" Practitioner Research, Community
(Thomas Ehrlich, in: Barbara Jacoby and Service, Civic Engagement, Civic
Associates. Service-Learning in Higher Responsibility, Volunteerism, Internships,
Education: Concepts and Practices. San Charity, Youth Service, Professional
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass 1996) Development
SL blends meaningful community service
with course objectives and assignments to enhance the learning experience, gain a deeper
understanding of course content, promote professional development, teach civic responsibility,
encourage lifelong civic engagement, and strengthen communities.
“Service-Learning is a method which engages young people in service to their communities as a
means to enrich their academic learning, promote personal growth, and help them develop the
skills needed for productive citizenship” (from: Service-Learning Technical Assistance Packet –
Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service).
“Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the
activity changes both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by
combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-
discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content”
(http://www.servicelearning.org/what_is_service-learning/service-learning_is/index.php).
“Service-learning is still evolving and has not yet settled into a shared vocabulary, a set of
common ideas and theories and a generally accepted approach to validation. This has
encouraged a great deal of experimentation, discovery and local adaptation, but it is also
impossible to have one definition for all service-learning programs” (Learn and Serve America).
Service-learning is more than community service. Community service focuses on meeting the
needs of service recipients, with little or no emphasis on learning. Service-learning, on the
other hand, involves intentionally linking service activities with the academic curriculum to
address real community needs while students learn through active engagement and reflection.
“Service-learning incorporates community work into the curriculum, giving students real-world
learning experiences that enhance their academic learning while providing a tangible benefit
for the community” (http://www.compact.org/resources/service-learning_resources).
What NLU Students Tell Us about Service-Learning
“Service learning is taking an altruistic attitude
towards your community and at the same time,
looking introspectively at your beliefs, convictions,
and prejudices. From there, a desire to make a
change, must occur, and the new information must
be used to educate others and strive for further
social justice.”
“In service learning, volunteering is not enough. Where volunteering helps those whom social
injustices are affecting, service learning helps affect those who can change the social
injustices.”
“Service learning is designed to increase the consciousness of the person who is providing the
service. It is reciprocal in nature – everyone involved benefits. It is engaging, meaningful and
interactive. People involved in service learning adhere to the philosophy that it is important to
serve others in and out of their communities. Ideally, service learning will challenge our
stereotypical views and change our opinions.”
“Volunteering at *…+ made me realize again how just a little bit of time can make a big impact. I
will definitely be helping again beyond this course. I also realized throughout [SL] process how I
had transformed my thinking about the environment.”
“Service-learning project is a unique way to learn but gives the best possible outcome to a
social justice class. You’ll not only have the chance to impact the community around you but
you’ll hear about the impact others had in your class. If colleges across the nation were doing
these service-learning projects our communities would be so much more compassionate and
ready to volunteer and give their time for each other.”
“A service-learning project seems like such a simple thing. All I need to do is to volunteer a bit
of time and then move on with the rest of my life, right? Maybe I’ll do this a few times a year
so that I can pat myself on the back and know that I’ve done a good thing. It’s a nice gesture
and to be honest, that’s what most of my previous volunteer experiences have been. But with
this class, I was asked to look at the whole picture and to actually see the social injustice that
takes place in the community around me.
“After my [SL] project I realized that there are still kind hearted and selfless people out there
giving everyday to make a difference in other people’s lives. So many times we get caught up in
the hustle and bustle of our lives that we don’t take the time to help others. Through my
project I discovered a place with so many wonderful people all working together to create a
great community for those who are developmentally challenged. This experience changed me,
and if it weren’t for this class I’m not sure I ever would have had that experience.”
“Service learning has helped me to expand my understanding of social justice through the
things that I have lived through and the issues of others that I have come into contact with. I
want service learning to be a part of my curriculum and hope to teach my students about social
justice through service learning. I hope that I can teach my students that they can make a
difference in the world, even if they start small, they can still make a difference by making a
commitment to service learning. I believe that service learning can be part of our everyday
lives; we can make a difference by doing small things too.”
Service-Learning: Related Concepts and Key Elements
A Typology of Service-Learning
Service-LEARNING Learning goals primary; service outcomes
secondary
SERVICE-Learning Service outcomes primary; learning goals
secondary
.
service-learning Service and learning goals completely separate
SERVICE-LEARNING Service and learning goals of equal weight and
each enhances the other for all participants
(Sigmond, 1994)
SL is an extension of an academic course, which provides tangible, meaningful,
and valuable service to the community combined with a clear connection to a
course curriculum and gives students an opportunity for reflection in which
students explain how the activity clarified, reinforced, expanded, or illustrated
course concepts.
SL incorporates the following key elements:
Connection to course objectives
Service to the community
Structured and/ or unstructured opportunities for reflection
High quality SL projects promote learning that integrates key course concepts or skills taught in
college courses or programs and allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the course
content. SL projects meet authentic community needs and provide meaningful assistance to
community organizations.
The emphasis of SL is on reflection, which connects service as practice and its conceptualization
in relation to particular themes and issues with how students view themselves and their
activities as constructive and meaningful. Successful application of the key elements of SL
ensures the general success of the project, enriches learning experience, teaches civic
responsibility, and strengthens the community.
There are several related to SL concepts, notions, and activities. Community involvement
activities differ in their scope and intended audiences. It is important to draw distinctions
between service-learning and the following activities:
Volunteerism, where the primary emphasis is on the service being provided
and the primary intended beneficiary is clearly the service recipient.
Community Service, where the primary focus is on the service being
provided, as well as the benefits the service activities have on the recipients.
Internships that engage students in service activities primarily for the
purpose of providing students with hands-on experiences that enhance their
learning or understanding of issues relevant to a particular area of study.
Field Education that provides students with co-curricular service
opportunities that are related, but not fully integrated, with their formal
academic studies.
From Andrew Furco, “Service Learning: A Balanced Approach to Experiential Education.”
Expanding Boundaries: Service and Learn. Corporation for National Service, 1996.
Volunteering
Unlike volunteer activity, which may be unrelated to any curriculum objectives, SL links
community service with specific course goals. SL requirement must be stated in the course
syllabus so students are aware of it from the beginning of the term. Students should
understand how SL requirement is relevant to their mastering of course material. By clearly
explaining the link between the required community service and course content, students will
strengthen their commitment to SL assignments.
When this is explained to the student it must be emphasized that they are not being required to
volunteer. Required volunteerism is an oxymoron. The community service is an assignment
and its purpose is to facilitate student learning.
Professional Development
Through professional development, it is possible
for students to provide service to others while
learning a valuable skill, however providing a
benefit to the student is the primary objective of
professional development. Community service is
fundamentally different from professional
development in that the organization being
provided the service is the primary beneficiary.
SL as we have defined it thus far is of equal
benefit to both the student and the participating
community-based organization.
(Adapted from Stacey, Kathleen, et. al. Academic Service-Learning: Faculty Development Manual.
Eastern Michigan University)
Roots and Beginnings of Service-Learning
The development of SL initiatives has been accompanied by a renewed interest in progressive
education and in the philosophy of John Dewey, whose writings on the active nature of
understanding and the benefits of and conditions for participatory democracy “provide an early
theoretical foundation for a pedagogy in which students cooperatively engage actual social
problems” (Speck & Hoppe, 2004, p. 19).
Service-learning is a philosophy of “human growth and purpose, a social vision, an approach to
community, and a way of knowing” (Kendall, 1990, p. 23).
Service-learning is a pedagogy that is “grounded in experience as a basis for learning and on the
centrality and intentionality of reflection designed to enable learning to occur. It 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” (Jacoby, 2003, p. 4).
Like Jacoby (2003), we hope that service-learning will not become “something educational
researchers document in a historical review published in 2030 as a passing fad, an innovative
pedagogy, that disappeared as corporate influences remade the modern university into an
efficient vehicle for delivering standardized education in a low-cost, but highly profitable,
fashion. When we speak of campus-community partnerships and transformations, we mean
significant changes in how universities understand the world. Transformation promises a more
holistic and coherent understanding of our common situations” (p. 39).
The roots of service-learning are closely related to civic and political activism. At the turn of the
19th century, American colleges and universities became more prominent in community life and
civic engagement. The model for university graduate engagement in reform and democracy
was Wisconsin and its university in Madison. President Charles Van Hise called it “the Wisconsin
Idea,” a broadly conceived project to foster reform and civic improvement based on the
specialized knowledge embodied by the university and its graduates. The Wisconsin Idea
“rested on the conviction that students and university-trained experts could apply themselves
to the problems of modern society and make democracy work more effectively” (Speck &
Hoppe, 2004, p. 30).
Two other initiatives—precursors of SL—from the Progressive Era were cooperative education
at the University of Cincinnati and the establishment of the first community junior college in
Joliet, Illinois. Both were experiments to connect more closely the worlds of work and
education, and education with the community.
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn."
- Benjamin Franklin
In the early 20th century, civic and political activism shaped educational philosophy into a
vehicle for social change. A key development in SL was a massive employment program for
youth included in Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1935, the National Youth Administration, created
jobs and educational opportunities for more than 700,000 citizens age 16 to 25. The program’s
purpose was “to teach by example, the practice, responsibilities, and rewards of citizenship.
This philosophy spilled into other New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC),
which attempted to take youth out of one environment and place in another where they would
both learn and serve at the same time” (Speck & Hoppe, 2004 p.35-36).
Political and social upheaval in the
1960s and 70s also contributed "We are prone to judge success by the index of
enormously to the development of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather
SL. than by the quality of our service and relationship
to humanity." –Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1961, President Kennedy
established the Peace Corp. In
1964, President Johnson created VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). VISTA provides
opportunities for thousands of Americans to serve full-time within their communities. Calls for
linking service and learning became a main stay in the missions of American universities. In the
late 70s, the development of the National Society for Internships and Experiential Education
and the National Center for Service-Learning gave countless opportunities to Americans hoping
to learn and serve.
During the 1980s, national service efforts were launched at the grassroots level, including the
Campus Outreach Opportunity League (1984) and Campus Compact (1985), which helped
mobilize service programs in higher education. Other organizations, which had their beginnings
in the 80s, include the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (1985), which
helps replicate youth corps in states and cities; National Youth Leadership Council (1982), which
helps to prepare future leaders; and Youth Service America (1985), through which many young
people are given a chance to serve.
Since 1990s, there has been an incredible increase in the development of service-learning in
institutions of higher education. In 1990, Congress Passed, the National and Community
Service Act. The legislation authorized grants to schools to support service-learning and
demonstration grants for national service programs to youth corps, nonprofits, and colleges
and universities. Learn and Serve America was established at the same time. In September of
1993, President Bill Clinton signed the National and Community Service Trust Act, creating
AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National Service. The legislation united Senior Corps,
AmeriCorps, VISTA and Learn and Serve America into one independent federal agency.
(Adapted from Learn and Serve America. America’s National Service Learning Clearinghouse –
Historical Time Line)
Service-Learning: Conceptual Frameworks
Historically, SL has been evolving along the lines of the following basic models:
Philanthropic model: is “based on the perceived need for charity and philanthropy. It claims
neutrality with regard to social issues and argues for altruism and compensatory justice.
Philanthropic model is a tool of mitigation or immediate relief, best applied in cases and
situations where other models of service-learning have not yet been employed or considered”
(Speck & Hoppe, 2004, p. 69).
Civic engagement model: is “based on the premise that democracy demands equal
participation and voice of all citizens. Civic engagement has a broad appeal as a source of long-
term positive impact on communities, as faculty and students serve as agents of social change
consistent with democratic principles. Civic engagement model renews and alters the focus of
higher education institutions on service as the focal point of their mission of teaching, research,
and professional service” (Speck & Hoppe, 2004, p. 77).
Communitarian model: assumes that “humans are social beings, not self-interested individual
egotists who see their main concern in politics as protecting their liberty and property. Service-
learning is central to developing a sense of human community at the local level. Civic action is
public action and public action is collective action. Communitarian paradigm applies the notion
of the golden rule at the societal level, to characterize the good society as one that nourishes
both social virtues and individual rights” (Speck & Hoppe, 2004, p. 129).
NLU SL philosophies and initiatives integrate the above models and add emergent
paradigms to SL practice. We strongly encourage our faculty and students to pursue SL as social
and political activism, and as advocacy and transformational models and practices. As we
continue to develop and implement our projects, we aspire for creativity and innovation.
Examples of these practices and samples of various activities embedded in our course curricular
are presented in appendices of this manual.
SL is becoming increasingly popular among students and faculty in higher educational
institutions, and National-Louis University is no exception to this. Established in the 1880s, NLU
has made service the cornerstone of its mission, values, and strategic goals.
References
Jacoby, B. et al. (2003). Building partnerships for service-learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Speck, B. W., Hoppe, S. L. (Eds.). (2004). Service-learning: History, theory, and issues. Westport, CT:
Praeger.
