Publication: Assessing the Impact of Service-Learning on Preservice Teachers in an After-School Program

• Spencer, Brenda

Integrating community service with learning in the public
school curriculum is not a new idea in education. The
concept of service-learning has deep historical roots and
there are numerous examples reported in research of the
implementation of this practice in K-12 classrooms (Burns,
1998; Parsons, 1996; Stanton, Giles, & Cruz, 1999; Wade,
1997). While institutions of higher learning have not been
exempt from the development of service-learning programs ,
it has been only within the last decade that there has been
an increase in the interest of providing service-learning
coursework at this level (Erickson & Anderson 1997; Eyler &
Giles, 1999; Sax & Astin, 1997). As service-learning gained
the attention of teacher educators, teacher education
programs have begun to incorporate service-learning into
their courses in a variety of ways (Donahue, 1999). Because
teacher education programs traditionally include
classroom-based field experiences such as classroom
observations and student teaching, questions arise as to
how service-learning differs from those experiences and
what difference do these difference make. Up to this point
research on the benefits of such programs remain limited in
scope. For example, Conrad and Hedin (1991) noted that
little is known about the academic benefits of university
students' participation in community service and that still
fewer studies have examined the benefits for prospective
teachers. In fact, Gallego (2001) reports that according to
Zeichner, Melnick, and Gomez (1996), the application of such
service-learning activities is mentioned only once in the
entire 900 pages of the Handbook of Research on Teacher
Education. 

The study reported here uses a qualitative design to
investigate the benefits of service-learning through the
eyes of the preservice teachers who participated in it. The
study focuses on how preservice teachers compare and
contrast teaching and learning in the formal classroom
during student teaching and teaching and learning in
service-learning. It is part of a larger investigation
focusing on preservice teacher outcomes related to
service-learning activities.