Document Type

Report

Publication Date

1994

Abstract

Some educators contend that students who engage in activities related to school subjects learn more efficiently and more effectively, and remember what they have learned much longer than students who do not. Service-Learning (S-L) can provide a central focus around which educational change can occur. Moreover, S-L enhances the ideas promoted by various circles of school reform. Theodore Sizer's nine principles and David Berliner's management of teaching are a few of the philosophies that provide the sound theoretic foundation for instituting S-L programs. Kate McPherson(1989) suggests S-L facilitates school reform while providing an expanded pedagogy to meet the learning styles and needs of all students, making learning relevant and exciting and necessitating critical thinking about what has been learned. Several examples of "serving with meaning" demonstrate the power of S-L as a classroom strategy. S-L becomes part of the educational process in elementary school programs when it is integrated into curriculum areas. This integration comes readily since S-L is often a natural extension of the content and skills already being developed in the classroom and does not distract but rather enhances existing curriculum.

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