Service learning
Resources
- Service learning - In a nutshell - 5 minute overview
- Service learning examples and opportunities
Overview
- Introduction
- Service learning and the Teaching and Learning framework
- Indicators of service learning
- How the Learning and Teaching Unit can collaborate with Schools to support service learning
- Examples of service learning at UniSA
- Further examples of service learning
- Resources and references
- Further assistance
Introduction
Service learning is a form of experiential learning, which is a core concept adopted by UniSA in order to increase student engagement. Internationally, service learning is growing in importance as a teaching and learning strategy that integrates application of discipline knowledge in actual community settings.
A credit-bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflects on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of the course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.
(Bringle and Hatcher, 1996 Service Learning at USP, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia) (opens in new window).
This is a good working definition which identifies the mutuality between student learning and actual community needs inherent in service learning. The focus on community partnerships between the university and organisations enables an interdisciplinary approach to be brought to service learning projects that address community needs.
Service learning and the teaching and learning framework
Service learning is a particular application of practice based learning, and valuable for fostering those aspects of the Graduate Qualities that are more about personal attributes and value positions than simply work-related capabilities. In service learning, students use their developing professional knowledge in practical settings that are directed to the support of other people, whether as individuals or in groups. Service learning has a ‘public good’ dimension. It recognises the orientation to citizenship in the Graduate Qualities and reflects an understanding that the benefits of an individual’s education in civilised societies are not simply those of self-interest, but admit an element of mutuality; a recognition that the societal support of higher education for some carries an expectation that the community as a whole will benefit. Service learning thus contributes to the equity mission of the University by acknowledging student work undertaken in relation to the support of others and embeds this orientation to the broader community in teaching approaches.
The University supports a range of programs that allow students to get recognition for undertaking practical experience in situations that allow them to apply their growing professional understanding for the benefit of others.
Service learning:
- Involves learning in the community
- Combines service and learning in intentional ways, not in an ad hoc way
- Relates to discipline knowledge
- Always involves an aspect of reflective learning
- Means building and maintaining community partnerships
- Requires a relationship based on mutuality - the student and the community both benefit
- Is not about “volunteering” for the sake of volunteering, there needs to be a learning component
- Is not about internships or work placements.
Indicators of service learning
- students are involved in learning activities with a 'public good' dimension that may contribute to the equity mission of the University.
- students identify learning objectives for their service experience in advance
- students are provided with structured time to reflect about their service experience by thinking, discussing and/or writing - service learning should have personal reflection
- students gain credit for their learning outcomes within their service learning experience rather than being rewarded for the number of service hours alone
- students develop personal attributes rather than skills and knowledge alone (such as empathy, personal values, beliefs, awareness, self-esteem, self-confidence, social-responsibility, sense of caring for others)
- there is a reciprocal relationship in which the service reinforces and strengthens the learning, and the learning reinforces and strengthens the service
- students are involved in a structured activity that goes beyond simple volunteering
- service learning is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum
Policy: Implementing service learning
The new Teaching and Learning framework has been designed to drive a transformation in approaches to teaching and learning across UniSA. The framework continues the centrality of Graduate Qualities, but seeks to improve the quality and quantity of student engagement through three components of experiential learning
- practice-based learning;
- the teaching-research nexus; and
- service-learning.
The intention is to make what students do, rather than what staff do, the central focus of UniSA’s approach to teaching and learning. The approach is based on research that indicates that students who are undertaking active learning tasks perform better, enjoy their studies more and rate their overall satisfaction more highly.
Our aim is that within two years, approximately one third of all learning
experiences in all programs will be related to any combination of the three
elements of experiential learning. Different programs may have different mixes
of the three elements.
- Transforming Teaching and Learning, 3 Aug 2007
How the Learning and Teaching Unit can collaborate with Schools to support Service learning
- provide clear guidelines and principles with which to incorporate equitable service learning opportunities into programs
- identify key people and service learning courses currently being offered at UniSA
- assist in the development of online resources for staff for the practical implementation of service learning
- assist in the development of appropriate learning support for students conducting service learning
- assist in the emotional support of students undertaking service learning
- present current national and international examples of service learning in higher education
- assist with designing evaluation and development approaches for service learning
Examples of Service learning at UniSA
- Community Service Learning Project (one of three like courses, offered in 2008)
- Participatory Community Practice (one of four like courses)
- Peer Tutoring : provides tutors / mentors with an opportunity to participate in the University Orientation Program. This is a community service learning strategy that helps to raise the aspirations of secondary students in the northern suburbs of Adelaide.
Further examples of Service learning
- Inspire Peer Mentoring Program at Flinders University provides disadvantaged high school students in the Southern suburbs of Adelaide with Flinders University students who, with training particularly in indigenous perspectives, conduct year-long mentoring relationships. Only Education students receive academic credit for participating.
- Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania. The role of this unit within the university is to build community partnerships around an important issue, which enables interdisciplinary service learning arrangements across disciplines and programs. One such issue for the university was urban poverty, and The Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) was established by the CCP as a vehicle for interdisciplinary service learning.
Resources and references
The Teaching and Learning Framework sets the stage for service learning at UniSA.
Practical resources
- Center for Community Partnerships , University of Pennsylvania
- Service Learning, The Centre for Academic Development, The University of Auckland
- National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) operates America's premier website supporting the service-learning efforts of schools, higher education institutions, communities, and tribal nations.
- The Big Dummy's Guide to Service-Learning, Florida International University.
- Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance Inc. (AUCEA) web site is a useful resource and can be helpful for understanding how linkages between universities and the community can work.
Articles
- Laurie N. DiPadova-Stocks, “Two Major Concerns About Service-Learning: What if We Don't Do It? And What if We Do?” Academy of Management Learning & Education, Volume 4, Number 3 September 2005.
- Andrew H. Van de Ven, Engaged Scholarship: Creating Knowledge for Science and Practice, Oxford University Press, Forthcoming, 2007.
Further assistance
Further assistance with Service learning is available from your
- Head of School,
- Divisional Dean: Teaching and Learning
- Academic development staff at Learning and Teaching Unit
- Career Services