What is service learning?

Service learning is a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflects on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content,  a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility." (Bringle and Hatcher, 1995)

In the Glossary of the HEQC's Criteria for Institutional Audits (CHE June 2004: 26) "service learning" is defined as "applied learning which is directed at specific community needs and is integrated into an academic programme and curriculum. It could be credit-bearing and assessed, and may or may not take place in a work environment."

Service learning is not intended to replace other forms of learning and teaching. Rather, the approach is a complementary one and is intended to augment the range of strategies available to achieve excellence in teaching and learning.

Why service learning?

In the current national and international environment, where globalisation, democratisation, marketing, transformation and sustainability have become buzz words, tertiary institutions are called to promote active citizenship, to be relevant and responsive, civically engaged and committed to social change.  

National policy has identified service as central to its educational goals like in the "Transformation of HE 1997" which emphasizes; access, the development needs of society, a critical civil society and appropriate teaching and research. The HEQC  requires  community service in institutional audits while SAQA includes in its policy, critical cross-field outcomes (team work, problem solving, citizenship, learning and research skills).

For Wits this translates into the institution realizing it's social responsibility where academic citizenship contributes to public good. Teaching, learning and research practice needs to become integrated and developed to ensure student success and adaptability. Education for changing society is a research priority. In effect this helps to determine the effectiveness and survival of higher education.

Wits is one of seven South African universities that have participated in a Community Higher Education Services Partnership (CHESP) , funded by the Joint Education Trust (JET). The pilot partnership enabled service learning to be mainstreamed into tertiary education and is now being monitored and evaluated for the purpose of higher education policy development.

Jo Lazarus of the JET argues that "The engagement of academic staff in community service and their reflection on this engagement, inevitably leads to new and innovative ways of thinking about teaching and research in their discipline." The goal of developing new knowledge is fostered through increased disciplinary interaction between faculty members to enable them "to integrate research, teaching and service in new cutting-edge combinations".

Service learning encourages the use of new teaching methodologies. It promotes interdisciplinarity while providing opportunities for the university to establish a positive presence in the community as a catalyst for further development. In opening new partnerships and promoting new research interests, practical content is introduced to the course.

• the development of academic skills in a community-based context (such as acquiring and applying research skills to community issues, integrating theory and practice in development, and developing a more realistic understanding and insight into the limitations of the academic discipline);
• gaining task-related skills (such as communication skills, the ability to work in a team, understanding how things work in practice);
• developing new values and attitudes (such as empathy, tolerance, patience; a sense of social consciousness; greater insight into socio-economic conditions; and a sense of civic participation and responsibility); and emerging from the university acquainted with the world of work and equipped to begin applying their knowledge immediately.
• giving students the opportunity to put back what the community has given them eg. through skills sharing;
• opening students to the context in which they live and work;
• giving students and their work greater exposure in the wider world.

What are the benefits to the community?

Service organisations potentially benefit from academic input and student assistance and from engaging with the community. Their functions can become more responsive and integral to the needs of the population they service.

Communities can help to shape the services in their midst and can contribute to ensuring their appropriateness. Community members potentially gain from comprehensively researched and integrated service provision. In addition, communities benefit from the expanded delivery of services and partnership projects through which infrastructure and capital improvements are realised.

A key challenge in designing the approach to service learning programmes is to ensure that initiatives operate on a partnership basis through which all participants are able to derive benefit.  Past experience in South Africa and elsewhere has shown that service learning is likely to be most beneficial to all participants when  its implementation is guided by five key principles:

This provides opportunities for all parties (academic staff, the  students, community representatives and service organisations) to articulate their needs and for these to form part of the programme objectives and design. The emphasis falls on mutual benefit and joint decision-making. This has two aims: to reduce academic insularity, and to develop community ownership and independence through the reduction of dependency and a culture of entitlement.

Collaboration should be built on new patterns of information gathering and information sharing, communication and reflection that allow all parties to participate in learning. (Lazarus, 2000)

Responding to issues in modern society requires research, curriculum reform and processes of enquiry that can assist communities in addressing issues in the environment, health care, educational reform, effective business, industry, government organisation, the new technologies, the social concerns of the elderly, children-at-risk, families and the pressures of urban life. (Reardon and Lohr, 1997). Responsiveness will be tempered, however, by the extent to which communities are actively and positively engaged with identified needs and the concept of accountability is a cornerstone of service learning projects

This is a crucial element of the service learning process and needs to be integrated in service programmes as far as possible  -  even where these may be short-term and unrelated to the curriculum. Without structured reflection there is the danger that students will undertake service activities out of narrow self-interest and that their understanding of the wider social context will remain constrained. Such as outcome is likely to undermine the goal of developing civic awareness and social responsibility through service learning programmes.

This provides an opportunity for all parties to assess the impact of service learning. Criteria and measures for evaluating  learning and the production of new knowledge can be jointly constructed. The assessment of student learning should include the ability to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge as well as the application of knowledge to problem-solving.