Service-learning is an approach to teaching and learning that links academic coursework with service experiences in the community!

 

Jan Riggsbee, Director of Duke's Program in Education, explains the benefits of service-learning:

 

 

In 1999, the Dean's Advisory Committee for Service-Learning adopted the following definition of service-learning at Duke:

Service-learning links classroom learning with service to communities. Service opportunities are developed through collaboration among faculty, students, and individuals and organizations in the community. Service placements are designed to meet two criteria: to enhance the educational goals of a course and to serve the public good by providing a needed service to individuals, organizations, schools, or other entities in the community. Students involved in service-learning make a commitment to engage in a service project or to complete a specified number of hours of service work. Through structured activities of reflection and analysis, they are asked to integrate their service experience with the other materials of the course.

 

Service-learning goes beyond extracurricular community service because it involves participants in reading, reflection, and analysis. Credit is awarded not for service alone, but for academic work integrating the service experience. At its best, service-learning enhances and deepens students' understanding of an academic discipline or subject, while providing them with experience that develops leadership and life skills and engages them in critical reflection about individual, institutional, and social ethics.

Duke service-learning courses involve structured service experiences that occur outside of class time but are integrated with the academic objectives of the course, for example:

• In Spanish 106A, Spanish for the Health Professions, Duke students improve their health-specific language skills while working with local organizations to enhance the provision of medical information to the Latino population.
• Students in Education courses have explored topics such as literacy, learning theories, and educational policy while tutoring or mentoring local schoolchildren.
• In Environmental Science and Policy 171, Food & Energy, Duke students work with on-campus clients to do research and evaluation projects aimed at decreasing Duke’s carbon footprint through changes in dining practice.

 

Faculty members who teach service-learning courses develop partnerships with community agencies and arrange specific service opportunities that will both enhance the educational goals of the course and serve the public good by providing a needed service in the community. They also structure the course syllabi and assignments to facilitate critical reflection on the service experience.

 

Students taking SL courses commit to completing a certain number of hours of service work outside of class, and to reflecting on this work through class discussions and assignments. Students often develop leadership and life skills through their service, while deepening their understanding of the subjects covered in class.

 

Community partners receive assistance from students and often enjoy the intellectual stimulation of collaborating with Duke faculty members and students to support the academic goals of the course.

 

Service-learning is a powerful pedagogy that can provide an important intellectual and civic home to faculty and students interested in larger social issues.