Does Service Learning Really Help?

Writing in today's Chronicle of Higher Education, Stan Katz blogs about the issues surrounding service learning.  Are students really doing the "learning" part of the experience, or is it just more like plain old community service? He makes some good points, especially that the service-learning experience shouild be closely managed by the institution (so as to not unduly burden the organization where students are doing the service) and should be tightly connected to the students' curriculum. He writes, "I suppose there may be a context in which a committed instructor could turn 'painting park benches' into a teachable moment, but I have long thought that the community-service component of service learning ought to be tightly integrated into the subject-matter content of the service learning course."

I'm a big fan of service learning and have used it extensively in my classes in years past.  Now might be a good time for all other faculty members to seriously consider incorporating service-learning experiences into their classes, and take the points in Katz's article as tips.

Oh -- and don't forget that CTL is sponsoring two Webinars about service-learning presented by Minnesota Campus Compact.  Get more information here and here.