Service-Learning in Teacher Education: Does the Model Matter?

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the sense freshmen elementary education majors made of their service-learning experiences in their teacher education courses. Data were gathered from six majors over two semesters, three who engaged in a regular model of service-learning and three in a cascading model. Findings indicated that the service-learning experiences reinforced the majors’ learning of course content and suggest that the type of service-learning model has an impact on the quality and depth of sense making and understanding of education on the part of future teachers.