The integration of service-learning into teacher education implies work in two areas: (1) using service-learning as a pedagogical technique in the postsecondary setting, and (2) teaching licensure-seeking students how to integrate service-learning into their own repertoire of teaching techniques.

(1) Service-learning activity in a postsecondary setting usually falls into two categories:

Category A: Teaching/tutoring/sharing knowledge from the class

Example: Graduate students from Clemson University learning about service-learning, teach K-12 teachers how to develop and implement a service-learning project with children.¹

Category B: Using information from the class to do something with/for a community organization

Example: Students in EDUC 295 tutor students at Roseland University Prep.

(2) Having the skills and experience to integrate service-learning themselves may be more valuable than participating in service-learning. Mary J. Syfax Noble, the elementary school administrator in the Minneapolis Public Schools explains:

[Service-learning] assists schools in making important connections to the broader community...is a critical part of the entire school-reform picture...because service-learning does not compete with the standard curriculum. It supports and deepens the curriculum for all students...An important first step is to make sure service-learning is tied into the school’s mission or vision.²

Susan Campbell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literacy in Elementary and Early Education.

¹Program Models: Seattle University, Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-learning in Teacher Education

²A K-12 Administrator's Perspective

All resources available in the CCE Resource Library.