A two-dimensional classification framework for service-learning

Abstract

This paper presents a framework to relate and quantify two aspects of service-learning projects that are often in tension with each other. When students are brought to work in the community as part of an intentional learning experience, there is often a trade-off between the amounts of useful, impactful service that they can provide, versus the social learning that they can attain through executing these projects. Furco (1996) proposed a continuum that relates community service, service learning, field education and internships, but it is often not easy to decide where one begins and the other ends. This framework is therefore an attempt to more clearly delineate the different modes of engaged learning.