Service Learning is a teaching and learning method that enables students to link theory with action through guided reflection. It connects students to members of a community where they provide meaningful service that responds to community needs as defined by the community. For a service learning experience to work, it should include:

  • Ethical and meaningful collaboration with the community,
  • Meaningful integration of service into the course,
  • Ongoing reflection on the ethical, intercultural and interdisciplinary implications of the service experience,
  • Integrative journals.

These work best if they are more than diaries. Evaluating journals can, however, be incredibly time consuming and not that productive for the faculty or students. A good suggestion is to have the students do journaling (in one of the professional styles) with responses to course driven prompts or problems, and then have the students evaluate each others’ work. They learn a great deal from both ends of that experience. (Articles on journal work in courses will soon be available from CIS.)

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