Service learning is a bit of education jargon worth knowing.

Most of what happens in school is supposed to focused squarely on learning. The work that students do in class is for their own benefit. Service learning is an education practice that that aims to connect learning experiences with additional purposes that benefit others.

Service learning often involves taking students outside the school, but whereas field trips are usually about seeing or experiencing something for the student’s benefit, service learning is usually designed to engage the student in an activity that both involves academic learning and benefits someone other than the student.

Here's a common example: many kindergarten classes make a trip to a nearby assisted-living home to sing songs and share smiles. To convert this kind of service experience into a service learning opportunity, a teacher may choose songs that relate to what the children are learning, or ask students to collect data for a survey project.

One prominent service organization, FFA, suggests that there are three types of service learning.

1. Direct service: Students interact face-to-face with the recipients of the service, for example, by volunteering at a food pantry.
2. Indirect service: Students create resources for the recipients of service but don’t interact with them, for example, by leading a canned food drive for a food pantry in their neighborhood.
3. Advocacy: Students bring awareness to an issue (perhaps even at a policy level), for example, by launching a campaign to get a new food pantry built in their neighborhood by raising awareness of hunger.

Some important service learning happens outside of schools. For example, scouting programs often include a public service component, and the badges that students earn in these programs usually include specific learning goals. Service learning can also create leadership opportunities.

How does service learning relate to civic learning?

Service learning is an aspect of civic learning. In 2006, and again in 2011, a national non-partisan expert panel developed recommendations for a report titled Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools. The report suggests some guidelines for high-impact service learning:

Meaningful reflection should be the final stage of service learning, so that students consider what they learned and how they have changed. If you are trying to design a service learning program for your school or district, the National Youth Leadership Council has compiled a wealth of resources worth inspecting.

How does California celebrate student service?

In the Ed100 blog:
Student Leadership and Civic Engagement

In 2020, California created the State Seal of Civic Engagement as a way for school districts to formally recognize civically-engaged students on their high school diploma. As of this writing in late 2022 the program is unfunded and little-known. Why? Well, exploring that question and addressing it could serve as an opportunity for service learning! For a start, you can learn much more about the Seal in our blog.)

Updated July 2017
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