Why should I incorporate service learning into my classroom curriculum?
Service learning brings learning of course material to life. In this way, both you and your students are genuinely engaged in current societal issues, oftentimes, within the communities where students live. By increasing students’ connection with and making a positive difference within their communities, students can apply classroom knowledge to lived experiences. The type of civic engagement that is fostered through active community involvement broadens students’ exposure to diversity at all levels. Additionally, the community benefits from meaningful human resources, creating potential for further partnerships between communities and schools. Students are equipped to address the question, what does school have to do with the “real” world?
Research supports service learning
According to the 2007 study, Social Justice Through Service Learning: Community Colleges as Ground Zero ² , the author claims that service learning in the community college setting promotes social justice. Community colleges educate students from both oppressed and marginalized groups, yet there is almost no literature on community colleges and issues of social justice. In this study, community college students’ post-course civic engagement surveys are analyzed to investigate the effect of service learning experiences on the emergence of any of three types of citizenship: personally responsible citizenship, participatory citizenship, or justice-oriented citizenship. Findings were mixed for personally responsible citizenship, but there were significant data supporting the development of participatory citizenship and justice-oriented citizenship in students who had taken between two and five previous courses that included service learning. These encouraging findings support the idea that service learning plays a role in helping community college students transform inequitable structures in their communities.
What seems to make Service Learning unique is the combination of learning outcomes including the development of critical thinking skills, a “real-world” connection to course material and, a deeper sense of social justice. That is quite a payoff for the initial investment.