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So What's the Point?
Does Service Learning Really Make A Difference?
Service learning programs are popping up all over these days. From small rural schools, to large urban schools, educators are discovering the power of service to bring many benefits to students. Service learning programs:
- Connect students to their community, by allowing them to become actively involved and to help solve real problems (Crytzer, 1993)
- Give students a genuine awareness of diversity and help to eliminate barriers that may exist between people of different ages, gender, economic status, and racial or ethnic background (Allen, Fox, Griffin, & Sipe, 1994)
- Enable students to learn skills within a relevant context and make learning interesting, meaningful, and "student-owned" (Nelson & McFadden, 1995; Miller, Shambaugh, Robinson, & Wimberly, 1995)
- Help students to see that they are members of the community with a stake in what happens (Thompson, 1995)
- Increase self-esteem and self-confidence (Woehrle, 1993; Allen, et al., 1994; Ediger, 1993; Eisler, Budin, & Mei, 1994)
- Cause students to become more motivated about learning and to increase the complexity of their learning (Miller, et al., 1995)
- Impart or reinforce values such as justice, compassion, or citizenship (Woehrle, 1993; Silcox, 1993)
- Nurture students' nonacademic strengths (Woehrle, 1993)
- Build community support for education (Adams, 1993; Ediger, 1993)
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