Service Learning is defined as a type of teaching and learning strategy that combines community service with reflection and instruction to help enhance the learning experience and as well as strengthen communities. Some examples of service learning are; working with political organizations, neighborhood associations and a tutor elementary or secondary students are a variety of subjects. Service Learning can be implemented into many majors, such as psychology majors, nursing majors, and health and food science majors -- just to name a few.
The benefits of service learning can be utilized throughout your lifetime time; some benefits include 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, decision making, as well as leadership skills. Not only will you gain these helpful benefits, but also some real life experience in any internship or community service practices. An added benefit to your social being is also having a greater sense in learning. It can help improve one’s academic outcome. You will gain a better attention to learning and how service learning also helps the community and the students you interact with. Just like the intern, the students will also gain some helpful benefits as well as life experiences. Most importantly, service learning also helps students gain knowledgeable practices in real world scenarios. Service learning is important and beneficial for students because it provides them with opportunities to develop civic
In the assigned article entitled “Why Service Learning” by Bruce W. Speck, it provides great insight as to why we need to engage in service learning. This article focused on the questions that were like the reasoning behind service learning and how does it benefit the student. One definition in the article that stood out to me was service learning being defined as a pedagogy that fosters the development of skills and knowledge needed for participation in public life. This was prevalent because it allows the student to network with others outside of the community while giving back. Service learning was created to get away from the traditional way of learning while implementing a new learning system.
Service Learning is an educational strategy set in place to enlighten students with instruction and experience, in addition to improve learning , teach responsibility, and support the community. Service learning is vital to the development of the student, given that it intertwines academic and personal development together. It is aimed to enhance a student’s learning in all aspects of life.
The service day on April 5th, really gave me a precious opportunity to have access to the life and health of immigrant persons from South America and their priorities in life as well as their consideration about health. This is my first time to help so many immigrant persons from South America check their blood pressure, height and body weight, and give them information about how to have access to free clinical and blood pressure control as well as weight management. I really thank Professor Raja, because it was she who gave us this precious experience to do service for and know this special population in USA.
The benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,
I signed up to volunteer at a local nursing home. Because my father works there, I have been there many times before. However, volunteering there was very new to me.
Service learning is important because it teaches people the value of volunteering, while helping the community grow as one. It makes young kids idol adults how are not narcissistic but rather modest. In the article, “Teaching and Learning Operant Principles in Animal Shelters: Perspectives from Faculty, Students, and Shelter Staff”, students were able to relate their wisdom on service learning by volunteering in the animal shelter. The more the students volunteered, the more knowledge they were able to present about psychological terms. This means that if students are able to relate their education to the real world, their success in school would drastically increase. Volunteering benefits the society by shaping people to be more confident
The biggest impact is with the students’ civic engagement. However, outcomes of service- learning do not end there. Outcomes of service-learning range from academic to moral to life skills and all outcomes that fall within (Eyler & Giles, 1999).
Working to improve the lives of others is often noted as one of the most remarkable ways to improve one’s own life. It is important to understand that service learning is a not a new method of education, although it has grown and developed quite a bit over the years. The benefits of service learning are countless. It is an undeniably constructive effort for people of all ages to participate in. Exposing these types of activities on youth is particularly helpful to those individuals in myriad ways. Discovering the ability to improve something else while also benefitting yourself and untold amounts of other people can change a person’s entire perspective on life. Implementing this type of learning into more schools would allow these types of
I personally believe that service learning is a great thing for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that service learning can give you great exposure to having face to face interaction which I think millennials try to avoid. Another reason that service learning is a great thing is that it can teach some people about how to be more compassionate as well as helping students understand their civic responsibilities as young adults. As stated by Flecky & Gitlow (2011), “a unique aspect of service-learning is that it incorporates structured opportunities for students, faculty and community partners to reflect on their interactions and activities in light of both educational and community objectives.” (p. 1-2). My interpretation of this quote is that the authors view service learning in a positive light. My understanding is that the authors believe by students reflecting on their interactions with the community, it can help further their
It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).
One concern of universities that are considering adding service learning is that not enough students will be interested in participating. There are several ways to get students interested in service learning. One way to get their attention is to give students who participate extra benefits. Some examples of extra benefits would be extra credit in their courses or even offering free credit hours. Another thing that would appeal to students is that the class would meet less often because one on the classes meeting times would be their service learning project. Another benefit of service learning is
Doing service is a wonderful way to get involved with the community, there are always people and businesses looking for help. Alvernia University makes sure they always makes sure they help out the community. When I had to do service for Psychology, I was not too excited about it but after doing my first service I felt different. For my service, a group of students and I went to the Millmont Elementary school for our
The term ‘‘service-learning’’ means a method (A) under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that (i) is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; (ii) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and (iii) helps foster civic responsibility; and (B) that (i) is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the
Service Learning is learning through experience to gain sociological observation, concepts, and theories so I decide to do my service learning hours in one of the two high schools that is part of the Oceanside Unified School District. The name of the school is called El Camino High School. El Camino High School is a high school that is located at 400 Rancho Del Oro Drive in Oceanside, California. It has over 3,000 students currently attending. The school’s mascot is the “Wildcat” and their colors are gold and red. El Camino High School is a public school that is part of a system of free public education that is maintained at a public expense for the education of students who are part of that community or district. El Camino High School is a place is a public school where students are coming out of middle school and are
Service learning is a lot more than helping someone for the sake of it, it is a process of involving yourself in community service activities engaging and learning while combined with facilitated means by being able to apply the experience to academic and personal development. A good service-learning partnership is mutually beneficial, with both the learning goals of the course and the needs of the community partner being met.