Community service education paedagogies, sometimes known as “service learning,” integrate learning objectives with community service to benefit students’ development and society.
In most cases, a community service education component is a course or set of courses’ capstone projects that aim to serve double duty as a learning tool and an instrument for social change. Faculty and community partners, such as NGOs and government agencies, work together to create this project.
For the project, students are required to integrate course material into community service projects. Community partners can solve substantial needs, and students can get experience learning in real-world situations and hone their abilities in community service education.
Some colleges see service learning as “one of the most significant teaching methodologies gaining momentum.” When executed properly,
community service education can benefit students, faculty, communities and educational institutions.
Methods for Adding Community Service to an Already-Offered Education
There are different ways to incorporate community service education into an existing course, depending on the learning objectives, the class size, the students’ academic preparedness and the type of community partnership or project. Here are a few broad points to keep in mind before you start:
One-Time Group Service Projects
Having the whole class involved in a one-time service project can accomplish certain course objectives. Faculty may establish service project arrangements before the semester and include them in the syllabus. Due to the shared nature of the service experience, this approach facilitates communication between faculty and students. One-time projects offer learning outcomes different from continuous service activities.
An Option Within the Course
How many faculty members start community service education efforts? This is a pilot project. With this approach, students can get involved in community-based projects. The community-based component takes the place of some of the typical curriculum. For example, students may substitute a standard research paper or group project with an experienced research paper or personal diary that chronicles learning from the service experience.
Action Research Projects
This type of class involves students conducting community research. The agency uses the findings to meet community needs. Action research and participatory action research require a substantial amount of time to create relationships of trust in the community and find similar research goals; however, community research projects may assist the continuing research of faculty. Extending this type of research beyond the limitations of a semester may be ideal for everybody involved.
Disciplinary Capstone Projects
Community service education is an effective approach to building upon students’ cumulative knowledge in a particular field and showing the integration of that knowledge with real-world situations. Students in the upper class can identify ways in which they might use their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the community. Other community-based courses within the department may prepare the student for this more intensive community-based class.
Concluding Remarks
Community service education projects with one or more partners may span various courses in the same semester or numerous courses over a year or longer. These projects must be comprehensive enough to satisfy the learning objectives of numerous courses over time. Because of this, they may have a substantial cumulative influence on student learning and community development.
