What is S-L?

S-L stems from experiential education and is a learning and teaching approach whereby youths are developed through their experience of serving their community.

As the youths are involved in meeting real community needs, experiential learning facilitation methods are used to draw out the learning points for them.

What distinguishes S-L is the emphasis to ensure equal focus on both the service being provided and the learning that is occurring (Furco, 1996).

Volunteerism In volunteerism, service outcomes are primary while learning goals are secondary.

Experiential Learning In experiential learning the opposite is true, learning goals are primary while service outcomes are secondary.

Service (meeting real community needs) + Learning (self-development of youths) S-L places equal emphasis on service outcomes and learning goals. Learning enhances the service and in turn the service enhances learning. The hyphen in Service-Learning is important as it represents the connection between serving and learning. In the S-L approach, all parties involved are seen as learners and teachers, as well as servers and served. The challenge is to respect the local service situation for what it can teach and to encourage youths to be their best, to listen, to explore, to learn, to share about their learning and gain increased capacity for self-directed learning.