Service Learning Reflection

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).

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 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,

Reflection 1 Learning about family policy while doing service learning can provide those participating in service learning with demographics and background information on families and communities. The importance of those doing the service learning and the community collaborating is to get an idea of what is going on in their community that results in using the services provided by family policies. Learning about family policies can help me to understand what services can be provided to families. It can also help me understand what requirements are needed to qualify for certain services. It can be beneficial doing service learning because it can provide me with the opportunity to gain real world understanding and connections.

Assistant Professor of Education, Dan Butin, asserts in his essay " Service- Learning is Dangerous" that service-learning is dangerous because it forces the focus of education outside of the classroom and challenges pre-existing notions of what higher education entails and how it is structured. He suggests that it should be more than just a course, but should be the course itself. He also contends that service-learning is able to provoke the student to question who they are and what they believe. It is able to combine conventional education with life experience for a more rounded approach to educating.

I did not know what service-learning was until I read the articles assigned for class. The articles along with going to the Harpers Ferry Job Corps orientation really showed me what it was all about. The reading and the class presentation have challenged my first thoughts by giving me a better understanding of what service learning is. Service-learning goes a couple of miles further than community service. Service-learning allows students to help the community, as well as learn about something. For example, my Education class is going to be tutoring students at Job Corps. Our class is providing the Harpers Ferry community a free service of tutoring to those who need it while hopefully my peers and I will gain a solid understanding of what it would be like to teach one-on-one. Service-learning has three main components: community service, instruction, and reflection. Those components work well together and make service-learning seem like the perfect answer to helping education grow into a more progressive way. However, students need to have a high responsibility, they have to take the initiative, as well as make choices. If students do not do that, the success of service-learning will be lacking.

“Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse). This assignment gave students the opportunity to go outside of their comfort zone, which is typically the classroom and see what the “real world” is like. As Gandhi would say “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Gandhi). I believe that this project really allowed us to appreciate what we have because many people are not as fortunate. During this service learning project I had certain expectations going into the project, but in the end, my results were not exactly as I expected.

It is important to help give back to the community you’re able to learn through a different experience that helps enhance your knowledge. Service learning allows students to make a connection from the course and apply it in the classroom making their experience more engaging. I think is important to take what you learn in class and apply it. I am looking forward to starting placement to help enhance my learning and improve my skills. This type of experience gives you a whole different meaning when you can apply what you learn in a real life setting.

I believe the general purpose of service learning is to give back, to provide to others while being the change you want to see in others. It is also a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience. Sometimes service learning isn’t always about doing things you like or that interests you but it’s about giving back to the community in a meaningful way. Those who participate in service learning are definitely over achievers because service learning has to come from the heart.

Service learning helps me prepare for college with developing the traits of social involvement with others, organization, a consistently good behavior, and global awareness. These themes are commonly shown throughout 6 different articles involving service learning.

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 third reason articulated by Kendall was that while the principle of service learning may be sound, the actual service experience itself does not ensure that either significant learning or effective service will occur. Further, Kendall stated that a number of educators, community leaders, and students who truly believed in the potential of service learning continued to support service through the 1980’s during a period of general decline. This small group of faculty pioneers started to experiment with varied service-learning initiatives. Their efforts served to encourage a surge of interest in service learning by institutions of higher education, students, communities and even the federal government that would occur in the 1990’s and 2000’s.

Service-learning has a massive potential as a teaching and learning strategy in college and universities. It gives students a wide range of experience, which often benefit others and the community, while also advancing the goals of curriculum-based learning. Service-learning is often mistaken with volunteering and communication services. Both activities are a form of service within a company and they are not necessary to have a connection with educational purposes, which is the main objective of all service learning projects. Volunteering is a form of working towards helping a specific social or educational duty in the community with no financial gain. Hence, it is similar to community service, because both terms and both groups take the time,

The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will

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