Background: Global learning outcomes (GLOs) are increasingly emphasized within higher education because of the advantages they provide in navigating globalized contexts. The process of global learning may be understood through Mezirow's theory of transformational learning, in which presentation of dissonant information results in more open,…

Scholars widely agree that community-engaged learning can significantly improve the learning experience for students while simultaneously having a positive impact on the community. This paper explores student perceptions in online pre-professional undergraduate courses in the legal studies and human resources management fields in which…

Interdisciplinary service learning opportunities are recognized as valuable educational tools for health care students. The Farm Worker Family Health Program, based on a community academic partnership model, enables health care students to treat migrant workers in rural Georgia during the annual farmworker migration. The present article describes…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the current state of student volunteering in English universities, and show how it contributes to some of the core activities of higher education, including teaching and learning, employability, and public engagement. The paper goes on to describe challenges currently faced by student volunteering,…

Volunteering in English higher education has come under political scrutiny recently, with strong cross-party support for schemes to promote undergraduate volunteering in particular. Recent targeted initiatives and proposals have sought to strengthen both the role of volunteering in higher education and synergies between higher education and…

This essay places service-learning within the liberal arts tradition of empowering others to help themselves. Such a contextualization departs from visions of the student as consumer or customer and education as a means to gain economic advantage in a competitive market. Attention then turns to how even well-intentioned service-learning projects…

In 1997 the Education Commission of the States (ECS) created the Compact for Learning and Citizenship (CLC), an organization of state and district superintendents working to improve student learning through civic involvement and the use of volunteers. This issue paper provides an overview of service-learning, discussing impact, alignment with…

Student volunteerism can include direct service, research and community education, and advocacy service. Alert observation and informed questioning are at the heart of learning from nonclassroom experience. (Author/MLF)

Investigated the process by which student service learning was integrated into the academic curricula of 14 diverse colleges and universities in North Carolina. Interviews with key informants at each campus and analysis of pertinent documents indicated that the process of implementation involved three stages: sponsorship, brokering, and…

This issue paper examines the pros and cons of required community service, discusses policy rationales and options, defines the difference between community service and service-learning, and presents a snapshot of various practices in place nationally. It is designed to enable education policy makers to make more informed decisions about which of…

This compilation includes practical and transferable principles that can be used by service-learning practitioners. The 39 case studies and personal essays in the compilation are organized around critical issues in strengthening long-term institutional and community support for K-12 service-learning programs. Each article describes how the issue…

Service learning, an instructional strategy for educators, has the potential to challenge students in diverse ways. It offers students experiential learning opportunities that are personally engaging, are educationally rigorous, require the direct application of knowledge and critical thinking skills, and transform both the community and the…

Describes the author's psychology class, in which she required students to do service work with a resident in a nursing home. Reports that students met for a minimum of eight hours with the resident and wrote both a history of the person and a reflection on the project. States that half of the students decided to continue volunteering after the…

Service learning is a teaching tool in which students apply classroom skills to solve real problems in their communities. Community service becomes service learning when it is connected to classroom learning and contains opportunities for students to reflect upon their experiences. In addition to enhancing learning through experience, service…

Describes service-learning program with opportunities for students to make a difference. Notes four core areas of the service-learning model: (1) preparation, including identifying, choosing and planning activities; (2) action; (3) reflection, both individual and group; and (4) recognition, both individual and group. (LBT)