Does Service-Learning Really Work? YES – If It’s High Quality.

Posted by on September 09, 2013

Does Service-Learning Really Work? YES – If It’s High Quality.

As students and teachers across the country start a new school year, two articles have been making their way around the service-learning field: “Community Service Requirements Reduce Volunteering Later, Report Finds”

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=435000017

(a study of the results of Maryland’s statewide service-learning graduation requirement) and “The Problem With Service-Learning” (a Huffington Post blog by a high school principal).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-elijah-hawkes/the-problem-with-service-_b_3768522.html

These articles raise an important discussion. While volunteering and community service are both needed and valuable in many ways, they are different from service-learning. If the primary goal is to teach and learn through service in order to increase student academic achievement, volunteer hour requirements or community service projects alone likely won’t achieve those results. However, high-quality service-learning programs that are intentionally connected to the curriculum and that actively engage students in applying their learning to meet a meaningful community need do indeed work.