The broad enthusiasm for service-learning on U.S. campuses and in education abroad is an extremely welcome development. However, the status of service-learning is problematic institutionally and academically. It is frequently not located in mainstream academic departments or is seen as an incidental activity nor does it, for the most part, achieve…

At its essence, service-learning is a pedagogical practice that links meaningful community service with course objectives. Service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in organized service activities that meet identified community needs and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain…

Three areas of emphasis distinguish service learning/experiential education from cooperative education: (1) the focus of the social and developmental agenda; (2) attention to those on the margins of society; and (3) a different approach to the mutual benefits reaped by participants. (SK)

Describes how the theory and practice of situated learning provide a model for examining the learning claims of service learning and for research into its effectiveness. While service learning emphasizes the nature of service and students' engagement with communities outside school, situated learning focuses on the nature of the learning in…

When effectively structured and related to discipline-based knowledge, public and community service-based learning is the means for linking the development of social responsibility with the improvement of undergraduate education. (SK)

Discusses the trend toward more civic education as exemplified by the increasing number of college courses which combine academic study and community activism. Considers roots of the movement, education versus community needs, political aspects, race and class issues, and tenure concerns of faculty. Notes lasting impact of such programs as the…

To educate young people to be productive citizens and to ensure that the democratic objective of equality is realized, service learning must adopt an alternative paradigm that promotes the ideals and values of participatory democracy. Three problematic assumptions of service learning are that (1) good citizenship requires students to "give" back…

As a pedagogy for citizenship, academic service learning offers students the opportunity to experience and reflect on how citizens organize to bring their communities and their country closer to democracy. The three-course Democracy Project at Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania) illustrates how this approach can be developed within a college…

Discusses findings of a study of service-learning programs in middle schools in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri, particularly noting reasons the programs could be improved to show a greater impact on students. Considers the effects of such programs on students' academic achievement and social development. (JPB)

The learning goals that inform service learning as a whole can contribute to the computers and writing field significantly. This paper demonstrates how two lines of inquiry can be furthered, community-based writing and computers and writing, through new data and critical reflection on learning goals and communication tools. The paper presents a…

Argues that the current U.S. educational system helps perpetuate some social problems; at the heart of this situation are beliefs held about the role of higher education in the larger society. Proposes that service learning as a powerful tool for colleges, both to address social problems and to strengthen experiential learning, which is central to…

Service-learning is used least often in the fields at the core of the liberal arts and sciences, in part because of the perceived incompatibility between the purposes of a liberal education and the dynamics of service-learning. When we understand better the purposes and values of liberal learning, we will find service-learning a useful pedagogy…

Argues that higher education's traditional "closed" communities contrast sharply with democratic progressive ones that are more inclusive, empowering, and diverse. Drawing on feminism and postmodernism, demonstrates why service-learning is well suited to connect relational, experiential, and constructive epistemologies with democratic progressive…

Service learning in higher education can be a powerful method of citizen education, by building students' concrete civic skills in the areas of intellectual understanding, communication and problem solving, and civic attitudes of judgment and imagination. A basic condition is that broad definitions of service and citizenship be assumed, and used…

Describes the objectives and design of the service learning program at Chatham College (Pennsylvania). Discusses the characteristics of service learning found to be effective: student preparation for service projects; participation; and reflection on the experience, begun by writing a student journal and continued in classroom discussion and…