The Principles of Service-Learning
Robert Sigmon’s Three Principles
1. Those being served control the service(s) provided;
2. Those being served become better able to serve and be served by their own actions; and
3. Those who serve also are learners and have significant control over what is expected to be
learned.
Wingspread Principles of Good Practice for Combining Service and Learning
An effective and sustained program that combines service and learning:
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Engages people in responsible and challenging actions for the common good.
Provides structured opportunities for people to reflect critically on their service experience.
Articulates clear service and learning goals for everyone involved.
Allows for those with needs to define those needs.
Clarifies the responsibilities of each person and organization involved.
Matches service providers and service needs through a process that recognizes changing
circumstances.
Expects genuine, active, and sustained organizational commitment.
Includes training, supervision, monitoring, support, recognition, and evaluation to meet service
and learning goals.
Insures that the time commitment for service and learning is flexible, appropriate, and in the
best interests of all involved.
Is committed to program participation by and with diverse populations.
Critical Elements of Thoughtful Community Service by Campus Outreach Opportunity League
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Community Voice: Community voice is essential if we are to build bridges, make change, and
solve problems. Any community service organization should make sure that the voice and needs
of the community are included in the development of the community service program.
Orientation and Training: Orientation and training are important first steps for any community
service experience. Information should be provided for student volunteers about the
community, the issue, and the agency or community group.
Meaningful Action: Meaningful action means that the service being done is necessary and
valuable to the community itself. Meaningful action makes people feel like what they did made
a difference in a measurable way and that their time was utilized well. Without this, people will
not want to continue their service no matter how well we do with the other 4 elements.
Reflection: Reflection is a crucial component of the community service learning experience.
Reflection should happen immediately after the experience to discuss it – reactions, stories,
feelings, and facts about the issues which may dispel any stereotypes or an individual’s
alienation from service – and reflection should place the experience into a broader context.
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Evaluation: Evaluation measures the impact of the student’s learning experience and the
effectiveness of the service in the community. Students should evaluate their learning
experience and agencies should evaluate the effectiveness of the student’s service. Evaluation
gives direction for improvement, growth and change.
Principles of Good Practice in Community Service-Learning Pedagogy
Proposed by Jeffrey Howard in Praxis I: A Faculty Casebook on Community Service Learning (1993).
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Academic credit is for learning, not for service.
Do not compromise academic rigor.
Set learning goals for students.
Establish criteria for the selection of community service placements.
Provide educationally-sound mechanisms to harvest the community learning.
Provide supports for students to learn how to harvest the community learning.
Minimize the distinction between the student’s community learning role and the classroom
learning role.
8. Re-think the faculty instructional role.
9. Be prepared for uncertainty and variation in student learning outcomes.
10. Maximize the community responsibility orientation of the course.
Principles of Continuous Improvement
From the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Handbook for Continuous Improvement
(1995).
1. Our “customers” are the reason we exist. We must stay attuned to their needs and strive always
to exceed their expectations.
2. Volunteers, participants and staff are customers too. They must be motivated, trained and
satisfied if they are to serve our customers well.
3. It is not enough to talk about customer satisfaction. We must set measurable goals,
communicate them throughout our organization, regularly and systematically gauge our
progress against these goals, and take action to continuously improve our performance.
4. Anytime we learn we are falling short, we have an opportunity to improve. Anytime we learn we
are meeting or exceeding standards, we have an opportunity to set higher standards.
5. Continuous improvement is the responsibility of everyone in our organization. It starts with a
willingness to learn from people within and outside our organization.
6. Effective communication within our organization is essential to continuous improvement. To
help improve the organization, staff must understand what customers value and how well
customers think the program is doing.
7. Constructive criticism is a positive step toward a solution, not a negative spotlight on a mistake.
We learn from our failures as well as from our successes.
8. Creating energized, empowered teams is the best catalyst for improving an organization.
Motivated teams can produce extraordinary results – results that exceed those achieved by
individuals or less cohesive groups.
WK Kellogg Foundation’s Characteristics of Vibrant Partnerships Between Communities and Institutions
of Higher Education
Engaged higher education institutions and communities:
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See their present and future well-being as inextricably linked.
Collaboratively plan and design mutually beneficial programs and outcomes
Engage in reciprocal learning
Respect the history, culture, knowledge, and wisdom of the other
Create structures that promote open communication and equity with one another
Have high expectations for their performance and involvement with each other
Value and promote diversity
Regularly conduct a joint assessment of their partnership and report results
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health’s Principles of Good Community-Campus Partnerships
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Partners have agreed upon mission, values, goals and measurable outcomes for partnerships.
Relationships characterized by mutual trust, respect, genuineness commitment.
Partnership builds upon identified strengths and assets, addresses areas needing improvement.
Partnership balances power among partners and enables resources to be shared.
Clear, open and accessible communication between partners, on-going priority to listen to each
need, develop a common language, and validate/clarify the meaning of terms.
Roles, norms, and processes are established with input and agreement of all partners.
There is feedback to, among and from all stakeholders in the partnership, with the goals of
continuously improving the partnership and its outcomes.
Partners share the credit for the partnership’s accomplishments.
Partnerships take time to develop and evolve over time.
Campus Compact Indicators of Engagement Project
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Mission and purpose
Administrative and academic leadership
External resource allocation
Disciplines, departments, and interdisciplinary work
Faculty roles and rewards
Internal resource allocation
Community voice
Enabling mechanisms
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Faculty development
Integrated and complementary community service activities
Pedagogy and epistemology
Forums for fostering public dialogue
Student voice
Benchmarks for Campus/Community Partnerships
Stage 1: Designing the Partnership
1. Founded on a shared vision and clearly articulated values.
2. Beneficial to partnering institutions.
Stage 2: Building Collaborative Relationships
3. Composed of interpersonal relationships based on trust and mutual respect.
4. Multi-dimensional: They involve the participation of multiple sectors that act in service of a
complex problem.
5. Clearly organized and led with dynamism.
Stage 3: Sustaining Partnerships Over Time
6. Integrated into the mission and support systems of the partnering institutions.
7. Sustained by a “partnership process” for communication, decision-making, and the initiation of
change.
8. Evaluated regularly with a focus on both methods and outcomes.
Judith Ramaley’s A Matter of Mutual Benefit: University-Campus Partnerships
Engagement must be reciprocal (requiring the creation of a shared agenda) and must be mutually
beneficial to all participants.
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Support community development
Enrich the student experience
Deepen scholarly interest of faculty and students in problems presented by the community
Characteristics of Engagement:
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A common agenda and sharing of responsibility as well as risk and reward
An ability to share power and resources equitably with the community
The creation of a shared learning environment in which knowledge is created from both explicit
and tacit resources of the campus and the community
The inclusion of community concerns as a legitimate set of expectations about what the goals of
and successful outcomes of a community-university partnership or engagement will be
Janet Eyler and Dwight Gile’s Characteristics of Effective Service Learning Projects
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Connection to Academic Learning
Students should be able to directly link what they are learning in the classroom to what they are
experiencing in the community to enhance student understanding of course content. The
service activity should be connected to course objectives and learning outcomes.
Reflection
The quantity and quality of reflection contribute to a deeper understanding and better
application of subject matter, increased knowledge of social agencies, increased complexity of
problem and solution analysis, and greater use of subject matter in analyzing a problem.
Placement Quality
The establishment of quality community partnerships will provide productive learning situations
for students as well as genuinely useful resources to the community.
Community Voice
Community voice is vital to service-learning. Its presence in a project is a predictor of students
gaining cultural appreciation, rewards in the service, a better understanding of the community,
and identification with community partners.