| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Similarly, the balance of impact between student and agency is circumspect. It may be this reason that recently, some colleges and universities have been discovering civic engagement, engaged scholarship, or community-based learning and teaching as the appropriate mode of response and inquiry. What is service-learning and is it, in fact, accomplishing its aim?
There have been many attempts to define service-learning, and although variation exists, the Corporation for National and Community Service has cogently defined service-learning as a method
- 1. under which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and that are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community;
- 2. that is integrated into the students’ academic curriculum or provides structured time for the student to think, talk, or write about what the student did and saw during the actual service activity;
- 3. that provides students with opportunities to use newly acquired skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities; and
- 4. that 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. (National and Community Service Act of 1990, as cited in Waterman, 1997)
Eyler, Giles, and Gray (1999) reported on the ideal, stating the following: