Service-learning

Incorporating service into the curriculum is a teaching and learning strategy that is gaining wide acceptance in undergraduate programs in the USA. This strategy known as service-learning is seen as contributing to the development of the student "as a whole person".

Jacoby (1996) defines service-learning as:

a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of service-learning (p. 5).

The concepts of reflection and reciprocity distinguish service-learning from internships and work-experience. Service-learning goes beyond linking classroom content with real-life experience. It is designed to develop students' intrinsic values such as a sense of community responsibility and social justice as well as exploring personal beliefs. Hence, the service experience is not enough in itself for learning and development to occur. Reflection is the important link between service and learning and must be structured into the course as individual or group, written or oral, and formal or informal. Service-learning is also more than just volunteerism. The service in service-learning is collaborative rather than authoritative with students working with others rather than for others (Jacoby, 1996).

The reflective and reciprocal nature of service-learning is explained by comments made by former US President, Bill Clinton. Clinton said that "community service enriches education" because students "not only take the lessons they learn in class out into the community, but bring the lessons they learn in the community back into the classroom" (cited in Markus, Howard & King, 1993, p. 417).

• Jacoby, B. (1996). Service-learning in today's higher education. In Jacoby & Associates, Service-learning in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Markus, G. B., Howard, J. P. F. & King, D. C. (1993). Integrating community service and classroom instruction enhances learning: Results from an experiment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15 (4), 410-419.