Getting the Most Out of Service Learning: Maximizing Student, University and Community Impact

Abstract

Service learning has become a very popular pedagogical approach for enhancing student learning at institutions of higher education across the United Statesby involving students in community service as a part of their educational experience. However, despite the vast number of service-learning efforts at universities across the nation, there is often little attention to the intended and actual results of the service learning. A growing body of literature calls for more attention to the impacts of service-learning efforts. Some service-learning experiences may actually reinforce negative or counterproductive attitudes among students. Many efforts fall short of maximizing the potential social change impact of the service and learning activity. We review and compare some of the various ways that service learning impacts has been discussed and measured in the literature. We propose that intentionally aiming for impact at three levels—on students, on the academic institution, and on the community—may be the key to making the most of any service-learning project. We further describe and draw lessons from a pilot project that build toward greater service-learning impact at our school of social work.

Keywords:

• Service learning
• experiential learning
• social justice
• university–community partnerships

We gratefully acknowledge the research support of April Hirsh and Jung-Eun Kim. We are indebted to our community partners for their collaboration. The service-learning project described here was supported by a community outreach grant from the Case Western Reserve University Center for Community Partnerships.

Notes

¹The connection to the mayor was actually initiated by a doctoral student Diwakar Vadapalli, who was an instructor for the macro practice skills course and, inspired by the push for a deeper relationship with the community, suggested to the faculty that the mayor be invited to speak at the school.