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Last Reviewed:
March 28, 2024
First Published:
March 30, 2022
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According to Seifer and Connors (2007), “service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (p. 5). Service-learning activities promote learning via active participation in real-life experiences that enhance students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Reflection, a key component of service learning, provides students the continuous opportunity to critically analyze and learn from the experience.
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- Research shows that implementing service learning can enhance nursing students’ knowledge and translation, led to their skills development, and improved their confidence in providing care.
- Zhu, Z., Xing, W., Liang, Y., Liu, H., & Hu, Y. (2022). Nursing students’ experiences with service learning: A qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis. Nurse Education Today, 108.
- When service learning is implemented, faculty observed improvement in students’ “intra/interpersonal skills, academic and professional skills, and civic engagement and social responsibilities, teamwork and collaboration skills, clinical skills, self-confidence and efficacy.” (p. 119)
- Service learning can expose students “to the community setting and allows students to analyze the health problems of the community and to design and implement an intervention to address identified community problems” (p.1646).
- Service Learning is not simply an episodic volunteer program. The service experience should be a meaningful project in which both the students and community benefit. When developing the service project, faculty should work collaboratively with students and the community to identify relevant needs in which to address.
- Reflection is a critical element of service learning. When designing reflection questions consider these three levels:
- The Mirror level focuses on a clear reflection of the self and asks questions such as who am I?, what are my values?, what have I learned about myself through this experience?, how have you challenged yourself, your ideals, your philosophies, your concept of life or the way you live?
- The Microscope level makes the small experiences large and asks questions such as describe your experience, what would you change about this situation if you were in charge?, what have you learned about this agency, these people, or the community?, was there a moment of failure, success, indecision, doubt, humor, frustration, happiness, or sadness?
- The Binoculars level makes what appears distant, appear closer and asks questions such as are you able to identify any underlying or overarching issues which influence the problem?, what could be done to change the situation?, how will this alter your future behaviors, attitudes, or career?
McCarthy, T. (2013). Levels of reflection: The mirror, the microscope, and the binoculars. International Journal of Self-Directed Learning, 10(1), 1-22.
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