Is Service-Learning Worth it?

Service-learning is an education system where students are meant to put together the knowledge they learned in class and the passion for helping others/doing practical work. In this article, I will be discussing whether this service-learning that’s supposed to seek self-reflection of the students is really turning out to be.

Examples of Service-Learning

I would like to start by explaining why I started taking interest in service-learning, and in a broader frame, helping others. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our school wasn't able to initiate our overseas service project, to go to Loola and build a Safe Water Garden (SWG). This is a waste sanitation system, where the objective is to cut down the spending on groceries by gardening bananas and other plants with the sanitized water. So instead, we had to explore the theory and the sustainability of SWG. As we learned more about it, I had many questions raised about it. Below are a few examples:

1. Is this project really sustainable when the amount of the profit made/goal achieved and the carbon emission and other money put into bringing people and material to Loola are compared?

2. If one Safe Water Garden and the septic tank costs roughly S$600 and the money going into making the material and transporting people are also added, is it really worth it to build it for bananas that could possibly provide the family with a week worth of snack and vegetables that could provide the family with a week worth of vegetables?

3. Isn’t there plenty of other ways we can use the money that goes into the Safe Water Garden more efficiently?

4. Is SWG cost-efficient considering the resources and manpower put into building it and what about carbon emission?

5. … etc.

SWG and other projects (regardless of whether it is government-led, led by a NGO, or is led by oneself) such as tutoring other students and adults, conducting art lessons, giving presentations on certain social issues, or volunteering somewhere can potentially be examples of service-learning.

What are the benefits of Service-Learning?

1. Gain knowledge from a wide variety of agency personnel, community leaders, instructors, and other people in society.

• As people conduct a service-learning project, they will meet different varieties of people and they will contribute to the gaining of knowledge and people will learn to appreciate many different cultural/religious/personal points of view.

• For example, I had a chance to interview instructors and other villagers from Loola, Bintan and it gave me a better understanding of their lifestyle.

2. Explore majors and job possibilities while gaining marketable job skills and hands-on job experience

• Experiences with service-learning can help people to grasp practical skills such as interviewing, presenting, teaching, and further contribute to helping them develop their cooperation skills.

3. Extend critical thinking skills

• Service-learning can help you develop your inquiry skills so that you learn to ask questions which are considered “outside the box”

4. Enhance ethical development and understanding of different cultural values

• Service-learning can develop your appreciation and respect towards different cultures and their values.

5. Understand the real-world application of in-class knowledge and skills

• Service-learning gives you a clear understanding of how the world works as you get to meet many new people and thus learn the changes throughout.

What are the disadvantages/cons of Service-Learning?

1. Due to the strong emphasis on learning/inquiring within service-learning, service can be tweaked and become a “means to an end” rather than an end in itself. At its best, service should be accounted for by people who experienced the service instead of the people who conduct the service-learning.

• Service-learning is often told by the people who are in charge of it, not the people who are served, which can sometimes be efficient but it does not give a clear view as to how effective and significant it has been.

2. Programs should be managed by local people and agencies controlled by them. Often service-learning is organized to respond to the needs of an academic institution that sponsors it, the needs of students, the needs of an instructor, or the needs of a course.

• The needs of the agency and the community often come last.

Conclusion

In summation, the above are the positives and the negatives of service-learning. Based on the above information provided, think through as to whether service-learning is actually worth it.

Sources

To find out more, you can visit these following websites:

• https://ung.edu/service-learning/about-service-learning/benefits-of-service-learning.php

• https://www.edutopia.org/blog/what-heck-service-learning-heather-wolpert-gawron

• https://safewatergardens.org/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CSafe%20Water%20Gardens%E2%80%9D%20is%20a,to%20their%20region%20and%20needs