Service Learning: Students Learn by Teaching Others
Learn how to engage entrepreneurship students in service learning to enrich their classroom learning while making a difference in the lives of others. Your students will learn while they are “teaching” others, whether it’s
Service Learning: Students Learn by Teaching Others
Learn how to engage entrepreneurship students in service learning to enrich their classroom learning while making a difference in the lives of others. Your students will learn while they are “teaching” others, whether it’s K-12 grades, other college students, or the general community. Learn the difference between service learning and volunteerism.
Service learning is not new but is taking on a new life as a powerful pedagogical tool at the college level. Service learning provides students with opportunities for meaningful service to others to make a difference in their lives. There are varied definitions of service learning with some including general community service or volunteerism, while other definitions are more narrow in scope and only include students “teaching” others. This session will provide the opportunity to learn what service learning is and what it is not. It will encourage sharing of service learning projects and techniques of incorporating service learning not only in business courses, but cross discipline. Successful service learning projects will be shared, such as a basic entrepreneurship class inviting the local business ambassadors(students charged with learning to teach others) from Microsociety magnet elementary school to listen to their elevator speeches and encourage them to ask questions using a speed dating model. The college entrepreneurship students practiced delivering their elevator speeches to 20 fifth to eighth graders and the elementary students experienced 20 different businesses that the college students were developing. Other service learning projects will also be summarized with a “how-to” approach. The challenges and rewards in developing a service learning program will be included as well as ideas on how to obtain administrative support, internal and external funding and community support. Service learning is an important topic for many colleges to explore because it could satisfy a “civic awareness” core curriculum requirement.
Rose Bednarz-Luglio, Professor, Gateway Community College, CT