Service-Learning Australia

If parents express doubts about service-learning as rigorous pedagogy, discuss the "learning challenge".  In traditional courses, academic credit and grades are given for academic achievement reached by the student.  In service-learning, academic credit and grades are given for academic and civic learning achieved by the student.  As J. Howard states in his Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning Pedagogy, “The perceived ‘soft’ service component actually raises the learning challenge in a course. Service-learning students must not only master academic material as in traditional courses, but also learn how to learn from unstructured and ill-structured community experiences and merge that learning with the learning from other course resources. Furthermore, while in traditional courses students must satisfy only academic learning objectives, in service-learning, students must satisfy both academic and civic learning objectives. All of this makes for challenging intellectual work, commensurate with rigorous academic standards.”

If parents are involved with their students in service-learning, they will understand and be more enthusiastic about this pedagogy.  Have students conduct presentations about service-learning for parents.  This gives the students the opportunity to improve communication skills, inform parents, and directly request support for their service projects.

Let parents know the philosophy and goals of service-learning.  Send them a letter describing the plans developed by the class and suggesting ways they can help (students might develop the letter).  Get students to put updates of the program in the school newsletter or on the school web site and send home samples of students' work, such as something from a reflection activity (creative writing or art) to illustrate how students feel about serving.

Following a discussion on what they care about in their community, have students ask a parent or family member, "What do you care about in our community?  How have members of our family served others?   What have they learned from that?"  Students report on what they discover and discuss in class.