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Cory Powers

What Service Learning Can Do for You

Service learning is a way to learn in which students work with partners in the community to solve real-world problems. It has been shown to help students and communities in many ways. Service learning helps students improve their ability to think critically, get along with others, and lead. It also helps people appreciate the differences between cultures and encourages social responsibility and civic participation.


Service Critical thinking skills are an important part of academic learning, and learning can help students develop them. It can also help them figure out how to solve complicated social problems and work with others. For example, when students volunteer to pick up trash in a park, they learn about ecology and pollution. They can then use what they've learned by taking part in activities led by their teachers that talk about ways to stop littering.


So, service-learning can help students learn how to think critically, which is a skill they can use for the rest of their lives. It can also help students get closer to their community, which makes them more interested in social justice and fairness (Eyler, 2009; Sedlak, 2003).


Service-learning projects often require students to work with people from different backgrounds, which can help them learn how to get along with others. It also teaches them the value of diversity and how to appreciate the fact that people are different. A study from 2016 found that students who volunteered for a service-learning project had higher levels of empathy than those who didn't volunteer.


The study also found that female students got more out of course service-learning projects than male students did. But it's important to note that this study didn't have a pre-test and a post-test before and after the course.


Service learning is a way to learn critical thinking, civic responsibility, and leadership skills by combining classroom learning with work in the community. It encourages students to care about their community and social justice and makes them feel like they belong at their home school and in the community.


It is a high-impact practice that helps students get ready for the job market. 73% of employers said they would like to see higher education put more emphasis on "the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through internships or other hands-on experiences" (AACU survey).


Service learning is a good way to teach because it helps students use what they've learned in the classroom in the real world. Students can learn communication skills that aren't always emphasized in school. For example, they could read out loud to older people in a local nursing home or help clean up the ocean as a volunteer.


They could also work with a group on a class project to improve their ability to talk to other people. Research has shown that student-created service-learning projects can go above and beyond the traditional course research project to improve students' oral communication self-efficacy and interpersonal communication skills.


Whether it's picking up trash in a park or helping a charity for kids, service learning gives students organizational skills they wouldn't get in school. Alex Segreti and her sister Carly agree with this. Both of them take part in many of their school's service learning opportunities.


Students may learn more about themselves in a diverse world as they learn more about global issues and cultural differences through service learning. This could make them more empathetic and help them get along better with other people at work.


Intercultural communication skills are more important than ever in today's world, which is becoming more global and multi-cultural. So, it's important to give our students the tools they need to communicate with people from different cultures and co-cultures.


Giving students chances to use what they learn in class in the real world can help them develop self-control and initiative. It also lets them see how they can make a difference and helps them form their own opinions, values, and goals based on these experiences.


When students are given problems to solve in the community, they may learn more about their own strengths and weaknesses and come to understand the needs of others. They may also have the chance to practice and improve their social skills, leadership skills, communication skills, and organizational skills.

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