Combining Service and Learning in Higher Education

📖 The Scoop

The Policy Debate In the past decade, colleges and universities have made greater efforts to involve students in community service, particularly service-learning, a special form of community service designed to promote student learning and development. Proponents of service-learning believe that it stimulates academic performance, increases students' understanding of the responsibilities of living in a democratic society, and encourages students to become involved in the social problems facing their communities. Hundreds of college and university presidents, most of the major higher education associations, and a number of highly influential scholars actively support the development of service-learning programs on college campuses. At the same time, service-learning has its critics, particularly among faculty, many of whom are skeptical of its benefits. Critics contend that service waters down the curriculum, further weakening the quality of higher education, and that the time students spend volunteering in community agencies as part of a course might be better spent in the library or laboratory.

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