My Take on “Service Learning”

We have been talking about service learning for a few weeks now, trying to get the “buy-in” of members in the committee. One interesting view by some teachers on service learning is in terms of a special program added to the school’s curriculum – something outside of the normal teaching found in our daily classroom lessons. Service learning, according to Wikipedia, is simply a method of teaching! While I presently also hold this same view of service learning, I hope to eventually sustain service learning as a teaching method integrated into the curriculum rather than an add-on program!

I came onto service learning when my colleagues and I first spoke about exploring to develop a more meaningful student-initiated community service program, instead of the community involvement program (CIP) which has been happening in our school for several years. The purpose of applying this teaching method is to raise the level of pupil involvement and to achieve positive C2015 pupil outcomes as a result.

Service learning is defined as “a method of teaching/learning that challenges pupils to identify research, propose, and implement solutions to real needs in their school or community.” Service learning differs from CIP in that it includes a component of planning by pupils and closely connected to the C2015 pupil outcomes (Confident Person, Self-directed Learner, Concerned Citizen, Active Contributor) – elements not apparent in CIP.

As I am rather new to service learning, I have adapted my approach to service learning based on the KIDS (Kids Involved Doing Service) Consortium model, which stresses on three components, namely outcome integrity, apprentice citizenship and pupil ownership.

I see the presence of all three components leads to the desired C2015 pupil outcomes. 

The “pupil as planner” component is particularly critical to the concept of pupil involvement and ownership. Ideally within the learning experiences, pupils are very much involved in decision making. However, I have found that giving our pupils the “ownership” is not a simple proposition. Such idea carries with it all sorts of anxiety and fear – from pupils I have spoken with and especially from teachers! What appears on the surface to be fairly natural occurrence is actually not so in our school. It requires a tremendous amount of trust from teachers and a tremendous amount of responsibility from pupils. But I see this service learning as a good starting point to get a stronger commitment from pupils especially when they have a say in what they are doing during planning – which was really giving them choices. By providing the pupils with choices, they can then take personal responsibility. Teachers on the other hand should search for ways to involve their pupils. All of this brings us to the question of trust. It is very uncomfortable for teachers to relinquish all control. Hence, one suggestion as a start to service learning is for teachers to give pupils some control with scaffolding by the teachers as additional support. As the pupils develop and improve in their abilities and knowledge in service learning, the support can be gradually removed. By then, our service learning can then truly be very much pupil-centered and I believe that our pupils will succeed beyond teacher’s expectation. The value of providing opportunity for pupil involvement and ownership lies in enabling our pupils to be not “just visitors” rather than contributing members of the school!