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Service-learning in teacher education, which integrates community service with the curricular experiences of future teachers, has increased markedly over the past decade.A 1998 survey by the National Service-Learning in Teacher Education Partnership reported that nearly one fifth of the teacher education programs in the nation offered service-learning opportunities and many others were interested in developing these programs.

The benefits of combining community service with instruction of future teachers include fostering the knowledge and skills of future teachers, enhancing social and civic responsibility, cultivating critical reflection skills and the ability to synthesize information, early exposure to teaching and learning assessment methods, the development of human service-oriented teachers and greater opportunities for pre-service teachers to use newly acquired skills and knowledge in real life situations. In addition to the myriad of benefits service-learning offers to teacher education students, service-learning provides an opportunity for future teachers to experience the pedagogy of service-learning. This may enable new teachers to use service-learning with their own K-12 students as they embark on their professional careers. Personal experience with service-learning helps future teachers to design experiences for their own students, and to understand the benefits of service-learning as a teaching methodology. These benefits are recognized by federal funding agencies such as the Corporation for National and Community Service. Learn and Serve America, a program in the Corporation for National Service, funded the National Service-Learning in Teacher Education Partnership (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) which is designed to enhance institutional capacity to incorporate service-learning in teacher education programs.

There are many components to using service-learning effectively in teacher education.Ideally, these areas should be considered before starting and while sustaining these programs.Areas to focus on can include faculty and student recognition, forming and sustaining the necessary service-learning infrastructure, networking and training, time, funding, and linking service-learning to state and national teacher education accreditation standards. Service-learning in teacher education has the power to transform education at both the K-12 and post-secondary levels.

Web Resources

• Service-Learning in Teacher Education: A Handbook. Root, Susan. Alma, MI: Alma College, 2000. http://www2.alma.edu/academics/education/service/
  
  This practical guide is intended to empower teacher educators to take the first steps toward integrating high quality service-learning projects into their programs and courses.This handbook is the product of the National Service-Learning in Teacher Education Partnership.
  
  
• The California State University Service-Learning in Teacher Education Programs http://www.calstate.edu/csl/initiatives/servlearn_teacher.shtml

  The California State University produces 60% of California’s teachers and 10% of the nation’s teachers. In order to prepare teachers that are ready to implement and use service-learning as a teaching method, teacher education and service-learning leaders have combined their efforts to support the infusion of service-learning into teacher education programs.

• Campus Compact Discipline Specific Syllabi (Education)
  http://www.compact.org/syllabi/

  This section of the Campus Compact website provides over 200 syllabi that include service-learning as a teaching methodology in a wide variety of disciplines in higher education.Click on education for syllabi specific to teacher education.

• Challenges and Strategies for Success with Service-Learning in Pre-Service Teacher Education. Anderson, Jeffrey, and Terry Pickeral. Washington, DC: Corporation for National and Community Service, 2000.
  http://nationalserviceresources.org/files/legacy/filemanager/
  download/NatlServFellows/andersonandpickeral.pdf (114K pdf)

  A 54-page report in which the authors surveyed 123 teacher educators, education deans, and state department of education service-learning coordinators to gain their perspective regarding the challenges of implementing service-learning in teacher education.This survey was followed by a detailed description of specific strategies to overcome these challenges provided by 42 of these respondents.

• Linking Learning with Life Series: National Dropout Prevention Center/Network http://www.dropoutprevention.org/pubs/show_series.php?seriesID=00002

  Includes several resources which may be ordered on-line (US $6.00 each): Developing Leadership in Faculty and Students: The Power of Service-Learning in Teacher Education; Service-Learning and Teacher Education; Tips for use in Teacher Education.

• Service-Learning and Teacher Education. ERIC Digest. Anderson, Jeffrey. ERIC Digest: http://www.ericdigests.org/1999-1/service.html

  Published extensively in this field, Dr. Anderson provides invaluable insights regarding background, rationales, examples, approaches and challenges to service-learning in teacher education.

• Learning to Serve, Serving to Learn: A View from Higher Education. Teacher Education Consortium in Service-Learning. Salisbury, MD: Salisbury University, 2003.

  This book describes the efforts of education department faculty from three campuses to integrate service-learning into teacher preparation programs over a three year period. Includes four downloadable chapters:

1. An Introduction to Service-Learning
http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/111/TECSL Chap 1.pdf

2. Curriculum Integration
http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/112/TECSL Chap 2 .pdf

3. Teacher Education Service-Learning Assessment
http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/113/TECSL Chap 3.pdf

4. Learning in the Context Of Service: Concluding Thoughts and Resources
http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/114/TECSL Chap 4.pdf

• “The "Voices" of Preservice Teachers on the Meaning and Value of their Service-Learning.” Swick Kevin, and M. Rowls. Education 120, no. 3 (Spring 2000): 461-468.
  http://www.nmu.edu/education/asl/Service%20Learning%20Articles/
  Pre%20Service%20Teachers%20and%20Service%20Learning.htm

Available on-line, this article details the perspectives of preservice teacher education students about their service- learning experiences are examined in the context of Serow's conceptual scheme of competence, participation, relationships, and understanding.

• Erickson, Joseph, Jeffrey Anderson, eds., and Edward Zlotkowski, series ed. Learning with The Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 1997.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/?library_id=2212

  Part of a series of books describing service-learning in higher education disciplines, this book includes chapters such as: “Service-Learning: An Essential Process for Preparing Teachers as Transformational Leaders in the Reform of Public Education”, and “A Recent Teacher Education Graduate's View of Service-Learning.”

• Gomez, B., ed. Integrating Service-Learning into Teacher Education: Why and How? Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers, 1995.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/?library_id=1153

  Includes several chapters devoted to this topic, such as: Linking campus and community: Service leadership in teacher education at Seattle University (Anderson et al); Integrating service-learning into teacher education: A leadership perspective (Parkay); Service-learning in teacher education: A constructivist model (Root et al); The University of Minnesota, education and service-learning (Shumer); and Community service-learning in the University of Iowa’s elementary teacher education program (Wade).

• Hiott, Beverly, W. Jackson Lyday, and Larry Winecoff. Service-Learning Handbook for Teacher Educators and Practitioners. Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Education, Office of Community Education, 1998.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=2600

  This handbook provides practical tools for integrating service-learning into teacher education programs.

• Kinsley, C., R. Clark, B. Jones, et al. Report on the Integration Of Community Service-Learning into Teacher Education. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts at Amherst Community Service-Learning Center, School of Education,1993.
  

  This report provides a school-specific experience of including service-learning in the teacher education curriculum at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

• Moon, Arden. “Teaching Excellence: The Role of Service-Learning.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 1 (1994): 115-120.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3126 

  Provides a summary of how service-learning can enhance teaching effectiveness.

• Nitschke-Shaw, Debra. Best Practices: Service-Learning in Teacher Education in New Hampshire. Bedford, NH: Campus Compact for New Hampshire, 1998.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3204

  This publication lists 17 principles that should be included in all service-learning experiences for pre-service teachers.

• Root, Susan. “Service-Learning in Teacher Education: A Third Rationale.” Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning 1 (1994): 94-97.
  http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3477 

  The author discusses the effects of a youth-oriented service-learning project on pre-service teachers’ conceptualizations of the teacher's role as a means of challenging traditional modes of schooling and to serve as a vehicle for education reform.

• Vadeboncoeur, Jennifer A., and Irene Rahm. “Building Democratic Character Through Community Experiences in Teacher Education.”Education and Urban Society 28, no. 2 (1996): 189-207. http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3874

  The authors observed an increased commitment to social justice and a reduction in teacher biases in teacher education students who completed a service-learning experience. No changes were noted in students' degree of social activism.

• Wade, Rahima, and Jeffrey Anderson. “Community Service-Learning: A Strategy for Preparing Human Service Oriented Teachers.” Teacher Education Quarterly 23, no. 4 (1996):59-74. http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3914

  Through reflection and exchange with instructors, future teachers can compare their perspectives with other students and with guest lecturers from the community, thereby gaining information for modifying preconceived ideas about people different from themselves.

• Wade, Rahima, Jeffrey Anderson, D. Yarbrough, et al.“Novice Teachers' Experiences of Community Service-Learning.” Teaching and Teacher Education 15 (1999): 667-684. http://www.servicelearning.org/lib_svcs/lib_cat/index.php?library_id=3916

  The authors revealed that the majority (83 percent) of beginning teachers participating in service-learning during their pre-service preparation intended to use it as a teaching methodology in their classrooms and that 30% actually did.