Service Learning
What is Service Learning?
Service Learning is experiential learning that connects the classroom to the community and back to the classroom with the goal of enacting meaningful and helpful contributions to the local, regional, national, and/or global community.
Service Learning engages teachers and students with their community in a structured way that allows for learning objectives to be met but students, and needs to be addressed by the community. Learning is, above all, situated firmly and intentionally inside the academic curriculum.
Why Service Learning?
The benefits of Service Learning include:
IMPROVED PERSONAL OUTCOMES
ENHANCED CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
IMPROVED SOCIAL SKILLS
POSITIVE FEELINGS TOWARD SCHOOL
IMPROVED LEARNING OUTCOMES
ENHANCED LEARNING AND PERSONAL OUTCOMES FOR DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS
CAREER (Pathways) DEVELOPMENT
Academic Engagement
86% of students ask more critical questions and reflect on and understand issues and concepts
79% of students display a greater enthusiasm for learning
87% of students are more capable of effectively voicing their own opinions
Active Citizenship
86% of students are more likely to stand up for others who are treated unfairly because of their gender, race, religion, ability, or sexual orientation
89% of students feel a greater connection to their local community
87% of students demonstrate more responsibility toward local and global issues in their everyday life choices
Workplace Readiness
90% of students demonstrate increased leadership among their peers
87% of students are more able to work effectively and respectfully in diverse teams
71% of students are more likely to plan for their future career or higher education
**Statistics found at https://www.we.org/en-CA/our-work/we-schools/we-service-learning/
Planning for Service Learning
There is a common frameworks when planning for and engaging in Service Learning: the Kaye model (right). This one follows a very similar model to others: investigation of an issue students are interested in; creating an actionable plan to address that issues; carrying out the plan; and a showcase to demonstrate student learning.
Reflection is an important component of service learning. Although it is pictured as a separate stage, in reality it should be happening throughout the service learning experience.
Development and Peace has a number of awareness campaigns that help students understand a number of issues and suggest what a Catholic response might look like in the planning phase. They are summarized and linked in the google sheet embedded below.
