Service Learning Opportunities
- Service learning is "a method under which students learn and develop through active participation in … thoughtfully organized service experience that meet actual community needs, that are integrated into the students' curriculum or provide structured time or reflection and that enhance what is taught in school by extending student learning beyond the classroom and into the community." (Corporation for National Service, 1990)
- Service-learning has been defined as "both a program type and a philosophy of education. As a program type, service-learning includes a myriad ways that students can perform meaningful service to their communities and to society while engaging in some form of reflection or study that is related to the service. As a philosophy of education, service-learning reflects the belief that education must be linked to the social responsibility and that the most effective learning is active and connected to experience in some way." (The Research Agenda for Combining Service and Learning in the 1990s)
- Service-learning is "any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is leaning throughout the experience." (National Society for Experiential Education, 1994)
Service learning opportunities not only prepare students to address issues of social equity, environmental protection, and economic development in the future, but also engage them in a real-world setting in which they observe and work to address some mix of these issues.
A program to support service learning at UF already exists within the Center for Leadership and Service, which helps introduce students to the value of community service and service learning opportunities, provides information to students on existing opportunities, and supports faculty in developing new service learning courses by connecting them to community contacts and current faculty teaching such courses. OCS maintains a database of current service learning courses and syllabi, consults on logistical, risk management, and troubleshooting issues as needed, and provides classroom presentations and sessions on reflective learning as requested. A complete list is not yet available of all service learning courses on campus due to resource constraints.
