Urban Service-Learning: An Authentic Teaching Strategy to Deliver a Standards-Driven Curriculum

The purpose of this article is to describe the results of an action-research, service-learning project aimed at increasing and enhancing urban students' knowledge and motivation to learn. The project was an extension of the students' classroom experience through a community-based, service-learning project. The study sought understanding of how service-learning as an instructional method has the potential to increase student learning and motivation through real-life connections to content and experiential learning opportunities. The results of this study support service-learning as a viable instructional strategy to increase student learning and motivation. (author)