FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT LEARNING IN DEED AND SERVICE-LEARNING

What is service-learning? How do you define it? What are some examples?

Service-learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. Critical to this type of learning is building in time for students to reflect on their service experience. Reflection time helps students make the connection between classroom and community learning, and ensures they understand the extent to which they can impact positive change.

Service-learning builds stronger academic skills. First, students take an active role in determining how the projects are accomplished, creating interest and excitement for learning. Second, service-learning accommodates many different learning styles.

By teaching students early-on about the role they can play in their community, service-learning also encourages life-long civic participation. Furthermore, by relating activities to real-life experiences, service-learning improves workplace skills and enhances personal development among youth. Finally, service-learning gives students a sense of competency; they see themselves as active contributors rather than passive recipients of adult support.

Examples include:

• High school foreign language students create English vocabulary books for elementary English as a Second Language students and other local organizations to help the community’s growing Spanish-speaking population, learn English. Through creating the books, the high school students increase their knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and Hispanic culture.
• As part of a history class, middle school students conduct research on the history of their community and write stories that are then displayed at the town hall. The students interview townspeople and visit local libraries to collect information. In addition to enhancing their writing and research skills, the students gain an understanding of their community history through their work and the subsequent classroom reflection.
• Fourth graders enhance their reading and writing skills and learn the importance of literacy for preschool children by developing ABC books for new preschool children. As part of the curriculum, students make bound volumes with specially designed book covers. They then “host” a preschooler during the first week of school – by helping with tours of the school and spending time reading their ABC book with the preschoolers. Through this project the fourth graders meet grade level objectives for punctuation, use of expressive words, multiple meaning words, creative writing and critical thinking, at the same time engaging in service to other students.
• As part of their science curriculum, middle grades students take water samples of their local waterway. They analyze the amount and nature of pollutants in the water and look for the source of that pollution. They write letters to their local government to inform the city officials of the problem and encourage them to take action.

How is service-learning different from community service, internships and cooperative education?

The key to service-learning is the link between community service and classroom studies. In other words, student service is designed around meeting curriculum objectives. Students improve their academic skills by applying what they learn in school to the real world; they then reflect on their experience to reinforce the link between their service and their learning. While internships and cooperative education are experiential and include a classroom component, they generally do not focus on service to the community.

Isn’t service-learning like mandatory service?

Service-learning is very different from mandatory service. Mandatory service is a school, district or state requirement which often is not closely linked with classroom instruction. Most often it takes place after school or on the weekends and is typically a stand-alone volunteer activity. Service-learning is not necessarily mandatory. Because it is intimately connected to classroom learning, it is a natural part of a student’s everyday classroom curriculum. With quality service-learning, the focus is more on meeting a real community need while also providing a hands-on learning experience. Mandatory service often focuses on completing a required number of hours.

Does service-learning hinder academic performance by taking students out of the classroom?

To the contrary, service-learning generally enriches a student’s educational experience. Service-learning can boost academic achievement by helping students to learn new concepts and skills through hands-on, creative, real-life learning in and beyond the classroom.

For example, Florida Learn & Serve has gathered data about the impact of service-learning on students for the last three academic years. Each year students have shown strong improvement in three key areas: attendance, grades and conduct. Attendance improved in 83 percent of reporting sites, and 80 percent of sites had fewer discipline referrals. For those students characterized as “at-risk,” 89 percent showed improved attendance, while 89 percent showed fewer discipline referrals. (Florida Learn and Serve K-12 Report-Executive Summary)

How do teachers learn to incorporate service-learning into the curriculum?

Several organizations provide training to teachers who are interested in finding out how to incorporate service-learning into their classes or schools. In addition, curriculum examples and other tips for faculty are available. For more information on such resources, contact the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse at 1-800-808-SERVE or www.servicelearning.org

What resources do teachers need?

The most important resource for service-learning is imagination. Teachers must carefully revise their curriculum so that learning is experiential, and students must help determine community needs. Actual costs of developing a service-learning program can be relatively small, especially if service activity takes place within the school. Generally, expenses include teacher training, supplemental curriculum materials, transportation to service sites, substitute teacher pay (if necessary) and recognition items for students (e.g., T-shirts, badges).

How does the community (organizations and individuals) get involved with and benefit from service-learning?

Community partnerships are a critical element in successful service-learning activities. Community-based organizations can lend expertise in a specific issue area. They can also provide sites for students to engage in service activities; e.g. hospitals, daycare centers, nursing homes, parks and recreation facilities. Adult volunteers can drive students to service sites. Businesses can provide financial and in-kind support to programs. Service-learning helps to break down the separation between schools and communities, and youth and communities.

What percentage of school-age students engage in service-learning?

Today, schools in all 50 states have service-learning programs. A 1999 survey released by the National Center for Education Statistics found the 32% of all public schools organize service-learning as part of their curriculum, including nearly half of all high schools.

A recent report from the University of Minnesota examined the progress of service-learning from 1984-1997. The report documents the dramatic increase in the number of students involved in service programs – 900,000 in 1984 to 12,605,740 in 1997. The percentage of all high school students involved in service-learning activities rose from a mere two percent in 1984 to nearly 25 percent in 1997.

What evidence is available demonstrating the value of service-learning in improving academics?

Learning In Deed has completed a summary of research on the impacts of service-learning on

• youth personal and social development
• civic responsibility
• academic learning
• career exploration and aspirations
• schools
• communities

Is service-learning supported on federal and local levels?

Service-learning is supported on the federal level. The first federal legislation, passed in 1990, created a federal commission to award grants to service-learning programs that promoted the concept on a broad level. The National Community Service Trust Act of 1993 expanded the federal role in service-learning and provided funds for every state to incorporate service-learning into schools.

Even with the federal funding, service-learning is primarily a locally-driven activity, with most decision making and control at the local level. Community leaders, students, parents, school district superintendents and teachers in cities and towns across the country are outspoken advocates for service-learning.

What is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Service-Learning Initiative?

Learning In Deed: Making a Difference Through Service-Learning is a four-year, $13 million national initiative to broaden the use of service experiences linked to daily classroom instruction – known as service-learning – in school districts across America. The purpose of the Initiative is to improve communities and teach youth the value of civic participation. Working with teachers, administrators, community members, parents, students, policymakers and national leaders, the Kellogg Foundation aims to make service-learning a common teaching practice across America.

What is the goal of Learning In Deed?

The primary goal of the Initiative is to afford all youth in grades K-12 an opportunity to participate in a meaningful service experience linked to classroom instruction.

How is the Initiative unique?

The Initiative was designed to meet needs identified by service-learning practitioners as necessary for the expansion of quality service-learning, yet unmet by other private or public funders. These needs center around four areas: policy, practice, research and leadership.

Learning In Deed will work initially with five states – California, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and South Carolina – to improve policies that promote service-learning, while supporting effective practice as well. The five states will serve as models for other states that can learn from their progress.

Learning In Deed will convene a research network to inform the work of the Initiative. A national network of service-learning and education organizations will share information and build a broader constituency for service-learning, thereby enhancing leadership. A national commission will help shape policy and inform practice.

What partnering/collaboration, if any, will take place?

To ensure Learning In Deed’s long-term success, teachers, administrators, community members, parents, policymakers and students will be involved in its implementation. Learning In Deed also will seek additional corporate and foundation partners for this effort.