Schulz Information Center

“Prospective teachers can learn that, although full of challenges, service-learning can be done successfully & that they can make it a part of their approach to teaching. By helping to develop an ethos of service & caring in K-12 students & teachers, preservice teachers simultaneously gain leadership skills, enhance academic & social education of their students, & serve as agents in educational reform.”1
—Joseph A. Erickson ad Jeffrey B. Anderson

SSU faculty member

Service-Learning in Curriculum Studies and Secondary Education

Thank you for your interest in service-learning in Curriculum Studies and Secondary Education. Service-learning, like student teaching placements are experiential, but tend to focus more on reciprocity and civic learning.

The CCE can help you create or deepen your service-learning class. We provide models of other courses, sample syllabi, resources for course construction, reflective analysis tools, and risk management support.

The integration of service-learning into teacher education implies work in two areas: (1) using service-learning as a pedagogical technique in the postsecondary setting, and (2) teaching licensure-seeking students how to integrate service-learning into their own repertoire of teaching techniques.


(1) Service-learning activity in a postsecondary setting usually falls into two categories:

Category A: Teaching/tutoring/sharing knowledge from the class

Example: Graduate students from Clemson University learning about service-learning, teach K-12 teachers how to develop and implement a service-learning project with children.2

Category B: Using information in the class to doing something with/for a community organization

Example: Students in EDUC 295 tutor students at Roseland University Prep.

(2) Having the skills and experience to integrate service-learning themselves may be more valuable than participating in service-learning. Mary J. Syfax Noble, elementary school administrator in the Minneapolis Public Schools explains:

[Service-learning] assists schools in making important connections to the broader community...is a critical part of the entire school-reform picture...because service-learning does not compete with the standard curriculum. It supports and deepens the curriculum for all students...An important first step is to make sure service-learning is tied into the school’s mission or vision.3

Learn more about P-12 service-learning from these resources in the right sidebar.

Please contact us for more information.


1From Introduction to Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Teacher Education.

2Program Models: Seattle University, Learning with the Community: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Teacher Education

3A K-12 Administrator's Perspective

All resources available in the CCE Resource Library.