Questions? (212) 986-0989
Recognizing the many needs of communities, nations, and the world, wishing to respond to these needs, and wanting to provide the most stimulating and valuable education to their students, educators around the world are discovering the richness of service-learning. They are applying the pedagogy of service-learning in a wide variety of situations and through various models. In developing service-learning, they are not following the lead of any one nation or system. Instead, they are creating their own versions, compatible with their national systems of education, the prevailing educational philosophies, the mission, curricula, and structures of their own institution, and identifying the needs that they may most effectively assist in addressing.
Institutions of higher education initiating and developing service-learning include old and prestigious universities and colleges, as well as young and less-established ones. They may be public or private, open-enrollment or highly selective. Their curricula may focus on the liberal arts or on career-related training. They may specialize in a particular field or offer a comprehensive program of studies.
The most common setting for service-learning is the local community near the campus, so that the studies occur on campus and the service is performed nearby. But many programs also exist that take students into a new setting, sometimes to another country. International service-learning can be especially rich, as it exposes students to many conditions, ideas, assumptions, and people that are substantially different from those with which they are familiar.
Service-learning may be designed to link one course or subject to service or it may join several disciplines. It may be offered to a group of students or for an individual through independent study. The students may serve together in a single agency or village, or they may be individually placed in a variety of service positions.
The pattern may be that of study followed by a period of service, and concluding with reflection and examination, or the service and study may be intertwined throughout the period of service-learning.
Increasing numbers of universities and colleges throughout the world are requiring that students have a service-learning experience to receive a degree. But the more common pattern is to offer service-learning in a variety of departments and courses of study so that students may themselves elect service-learning. In most institutions offering service-learning, there are opportunities throughout the degree program to participate; in others it is year-specific, such as for first- or final-year students.
