What is Service-Learning?

Although I try to avoid serving up a "definition," there are several characteristics which make service-learning a unique way to learn, serve, and teach. The thing to remember here is that service-learning is not a new program, merely a perspective shift, a new way to utilize the resources already available to us. Service-learning holds up a mirror for us to see ourselves, a magnifying glass for us to examine our society, and binoculars for us to see what lies ahead.

Characteristics of Service-Learning
It integrates curricular goals with community needs.
It is based on a reciprocal relationship in which the service reinforces and strengthens the learning, and the learning reinforces and strengthens the service.It is integrated into the students' academic curriculum and provides structured time for a student to think, talk, or write about what the student did and saw during the service activity. It provides students with opportunities to use newly acquired skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities. It enhances what is taught in school by extending student learning beyond the classroom and into the community and helps to foster the development of a sense of caring for others. Service-learning, however, is not giving credit for service; it is giving credit for learning.

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