strategy is gaining momentum in universities
across South Africa because of its documented
University of Pretoria
Academic
Service-Learning
2007
Compiled by CJ Gerda Bender
Department of Curriculum studies,
Faculty of Education
gerda.bender@up.ac.za
2 between curriculum content and service,
1 3
4 5 6 responsibility;
7 8 9 reflecting upon experiences related to the
1. Introduction
Service learning is one way that a university may
meet its obligations to prepare future citizens. It is
also regarded as an effective strategy for
enhancing student learning, improving the quality
of the student experience, and increasing higher
education institutions’ visibility and responsiveness
to the neighbourhoods and communities in which
they are situated. Service-Learning as a teaching
Goals of the SL component are clearly
articulated in terms of the broader module
benefits for students, universities and
communities. More specifically, service-learning
promotes the development of cognitive complexity,
citizenship skills, social responsibility and active
learning, while also responding to the pressing
needs and burning issues of the broader society.
2. What is Academic Service-Learning?
(ASL)
ASL is a module-based, credit-bearing
experiential educational approach involving
learning activities in which students —
• participate in contextualised, well-
structured and organised service
activities aimed at addressing identified
service needs in a community, and
• through structured reflection, students
examine and analyse their service
experiences critically in order to gain a
deeper understanding of the linkage
as well as achieve personal growth and a
sense of social responsibility.
As a philosophy of education, ASL reflects the
beliefs
that education must be linked to social
the most effective learning takes place when it
is active and experiential; and
peoples’ understanding of any concept
depends entirely on their mental construction
of that concept - that is, on their experience of
concept and then deriving it for themselves.
3. Criteria for Academic Service-Learning
Integrated Learning
The SL component of the module is
directly linked to the learning outcomes of
the module; each informs and transforms
the other. They are integrated into the
curriculum so that service goals and
learning outcomes blend together and
enrich each other.
outcomes.
Quality Service
The service component responds to the
needs of the community as defined by the
community.
Goals are developed in the context of
community needs, but with a focus on the
assets / capacities of all partners
(students, community partners, service
providers (agencies /organizations),
academic staff members, etc.).
Students are prepared for entrance into
the community through an introduction to
the agency /organisation issue and
appropriate training.
Collaboration
Partners in the process develop a shared
vision and joint strategies.
Partners learn from and teach each other
on an on-going basis.
Civic Responsibility
Students develop an ethic of care and a
sense of efficacy.
Life skills learned outside the classroom
are integrated back into classroom
learning.
Students are challenged to pay deliberate
attention to cultural differences and
commonalties; issues of power, privilege,
prejudice and/or oppression are
considered.
Reflection
Formal and informal reflection is
conducted before, during and after the
service.
Social, psychological, political and ethical
considerations are made while reflecting
on the service experience.
Evaluation and Assessment
All partners are involved in evaluating the
process.
Evaluation seeks to measure the progress
towards and outcomes of both the learning
and service outcomes of the module.
 4. How to integrat e Academic Service-
Learning in a module of a programme
1. Development and Design
2.
4. Evaluation
Implementation
3. Reflection and
Assessment
Figure1: An Integrated Curriculum model
Phase 1: Development and design
1. Develop or redesign module syllabus
2. Design a collaborative partnership
with community and service agencies
3. Explore an appropriate SL approach
4. Formulate learning outcomes
Phase 2: Implementation
1. Revise or adapt the module
2. Incorporate meaningful, collaboratively
designed service activities
3. Plan logistics, budget, and create useful forms
and documents
4. Consider the possible risks and liability issues
immanent in the module
5. Plan and organise student orientation and
training
6. Maintain sustainable community and service
agency partnerships
Phase 3: Reflection and Assessment
1. Engage students in structured reflection
2. Conduct formative and summative assessment
of student learning
Phase 4: Evaluation
1. Demonstrate and celebrate the completion of
the module
2. Evaluate and review for improvement
5. Student Outcomes actualised
Understanding and applying knowledge
Deeper understanding of the subject (module)
matter and complexity of social issues; application
of subject matter and experience through reflection
is associated with more learning; students report
being more motivated to work harder.
Perspective transformation
Reframing of an understanding of social issues
and social changes– new worldview, shift to more
systematic way of looking at problems (from
charity to justice).
Personal and interpersonal development
Tolerance, appreciation of other cultures, self-
knowledge, spiritual growth, personal efficacy,
leadership skills, communication skills, feeling of
connection to the community (campus and local),
and valuing a career helping others.
Connections with faculty
Connections with faculty made through service-
learning which aid in student satisfaction (30%
more of service- learning students report a close
personal relationship with a faculty member).
Enhanced critical thinking
Increased ability to identify social issues and
openness to new ideas.
Citizenship
All of the above lend themselves to increased
sense of citizenship, specifically with regard to the
attainment of values, knowledge, skills, efficacy,
and commitment to citizenship.
6. Different forms of Community Engaged
Teaching and Learning
It is acknowledged that there are many different
types or forms of community engaged teaching
and learning opportunities, some of which are
integrated with modules and offer
students credit e.g community-based education;
community –based projects; internships, clinical
practicals, community outreach, community
service. Academic policies at UP suggest that
academic credit are given based on student
learning. In this regard, service to the community,
albeit an important experience, does not qualify for
earning academic units unless the activity is
connected to an organised curriculum with clear
learning outcomes for students.
Technically, students in service-learning activities
do not receive credit for tutoring; rather, they
receive units based on what they have learned
from their experience. However, there are many
modules/ courses currently being offered in which
students receive credit for service activities that
contain no formalised module structure or
curriculum. In some cases, these modules
/courses are called service-learning when in
fact they are actually credit-bearing community
service activities and not service-learning.
At a minimum, all service-learning modules must
meet the following broad criteria:
a) the module has a formal, academic
curriculum that is rooted in the discipline in
which the module is being offered;
b) the module contains a set of organised
community-based learning activities through
which students directly serve a constituency as a
means to address an identified community need;
and
c) the module provides structured opportunities
for students to connect their service activities
to the module curriculum (structured reflection).
7. What isn’t service-learning?
A module that has students meet each week to
reflect on what happened at the service site, for
example, is not service-learning because the
module does not meet the first criterion;
“reflecting on what happened at the service
site”, albeit important, does not comprise
academic curriculum. This is a credit-bearing
community service experience.
A module in which students go into the community
to observe or conduct research, for example,
would not be service-learning, since observing and
conducting research do not constitute providing a
direct service that addresses a community
need. This is a field studies module.
A module that has students go into the community
to do projects, but the projects are never
discussed during the module, would also not be
service-learning since these courses do not meet
the last criterion. This is a project-based learning
module.
What is an ASL Module?
In ASL modules, all three minimum requirements
of service-learning are met. These modules are
usually ongoing, departmental modules that have
a relationship to students’ degree programme. ASL
modules tend to have a strong, academic content
that could, without the service component, stand
on its own as an individual, academic module. In
ASL modules, the academic content drives the
types of community service activities in which
students are engaged. These modules are
typically offered only after receiving approval by
the department’s academic programme review
committee. The academic staffs of ASL hold
faculty appointments.
8. Characteristics of effective Academic
Service-Learning modules
What constitutes good practice in ASL?
Do students have opportunities to do
important work and take important
responsibilities in service-learning (community
service placements?
Are there close community connections
between academic subject matter (module)
and what students are doing in the
community?
Is reflection about the service integrated into
classes through frequent opportunities for
discussion and written analysis and action
planning?
Do students work with people from diverse
backgrounds and cultures?
Are community projects developed in
partnership with the community?
9. Programme characteristics with an ASL
module that make a difference: Research
findings
Placement Quality: provides a context in which
students can exercise initiative, take responsibility,
and work as peers with practitioners, lecturers, and
community members. Placement quality affects
personal and interpersonal development.
Application: refers to the degree to which
students can link what they are doing in the lecture
hall to what they are experiencing in the
community (and vice versa). Application predicts
academic learning outcomes. [Application was
associated with every one of the learning
outcomes — strongest predictor of learning
outcomes, problem solving and critical thinking,
and perspective transformation, ie., predicted
outcomes such as student reports that they had
learned more and were more intellectually
stimulated by their service-learning classes than
by other classes, deeper understanding of subject
matter, understanding the complexity of issues,
and knowing about the work of specific agencies.]
Reflection: the link between learning and service;
ability to step back and be thoughtful, analytical
about what one is doing. Reflection predicts
academic outcomes. The amount and quality of
reflection (writing or discussion) was a modest but
significant predictor of almost all of the outcomes
examined. Reflection was the vehicle for
integrating the personal and the intellectual.
Diversity: measured by asking students if they
had an opportunity to work with people from
diverse ethnic backgrounds during their service-
learning. Diversity predicts both tolerance and a
significant predictor of most of the outcomes
measured in the categories of problem solving and
critical thinking.
Community voice: measured by asking students
if the work they did met needs identified by
members of the community. Community voice
predicts personal development such as tolerance,
cultural appreciation, reward in service, valuing a
career of service, and realizing that community
partners “are like me.”
Closeness to lecturers: results suggested that
within service- learning, good placement quality as
well as placements that were made by the lecturer,
application of service to the academic subject
matter, and both written and oral reflection were
significant predictors of closeness to academic
staff.
Resources
Books on Service-Learning in the Academic
Information Service (Library) University of
Pretoria
http://www.up.ac.za/academic/education/curst
ud/sl/aisbooks.htm
Service-Learning in the Curriculum: A
Resource for Higher Education Institutions
June 2006
http://www.che.ac.za/publications/index.php?p
ubl_cat=allA
Good Practice Guide and Self-evaluation
Instruments for Managing the Quality of
Service-Learning June 2006
http://www.che.ac.za/publications/index.php?p
ubl_cat=all
Training course via CE at UP: Curricular
Community Engagement and Service-
Learning:
http://scarlacc.up.ac.za/CEatUP/Public/htms/a
boutus.htm
UP Policy on Community Engagement:
http://www.up.ac.za/intranet/registrar/UP_CE_
POLICY_Rt22_07.doc
Academic Service-learning:
http://www.up.ac.za/academic/education/curst
ud/sl/slhome.htm
Compiled by
C J Gerda Bender
Tel & fax: (012) 420 3331
E-mail: gerda.bender@up.ac.za