What is Academic Service - Learning?

Service Learning is a concept which unites hands-on service experiences with education. ServiceLearning programs enrich students’ lives by making relevant connections between what they learn inclass and what they experience in the real world. Service Learning can occur through serviceprograms that are integrated into the students’ academic curriculum by providing a structured timefor students to reflect or write about what the students experienced during the actual service activity.

Service Learning is, therefore, an effort to promote the fact that much learning takes place whenwe can connect classroom instruction to real-life situations. Furthermore, emphasis is placed onlinking what students are doing at their individual sites with broader community issues andinvolvement.

Unlike traditional volunteering which stresses service goals (ethic of service, moral development,value and belief definition), service learning encourages the blending of both service and learninggoals. Service Learning provides the following opportunities for students:

• fosters the academic, social, and personal development of students
• enhances what is taught in schools by extending student learning beyond the classroom and into the community
• utilizes newly acquired skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own community

Service Learning is a form of experimental learning where students apply

• knowledge,
• skills,
• critical thinking, and
• wise judgment

to address genuine community needs.