Discussions

Name and Title: Mr Keith Wilson

School, Library, or Organization Name: Learn and Serve Australia

Country of Presentation: Australia

Language: English

Target Audience: Teachers, Administrators, Students

Short Session Description:

Service-Learning is best illustrated by showcasing Best Practice.

Full Session Description:

Service-learning is an instructional approach that engages students while increasing academic achievement by providing rigour and relevance in the curriculum. It promotes cognitive, social-emotional, and experiential engagement in meaningful learning. Because young people are given an opportunity to make a difference through the knowledge and skills they are learning in school, service-learning gives them more motivation to learn, understanding of how to put their learning to good use, develops an ethic of efficacy, and gives them a sense of democracy in action. In quality service-learning experiences, teachers guide students through a learning process that facilitates high academic performance and empowers them to enact genuine social change in their communities. Service-learning can transform our schools through systemic change by delivering a 21st century education resulting in a narrowing of the achievement gap and increased student engagement.

Research continues to prove the efficacy of service-learning as does the growing worldwide implementation of service-learning programs into mainstream curricular. The most effective way to convince those who are yet to embrace service-learning is by showcasing best practice. This session will rely as much on the active sharing of service-learning best practice as the involvement of participants new to the phenomena. Discussions will focus on ways to attract more educators, keeping in mind their existing workloads.

Comprehensive information on service-learning covering definitions, free resources, links to other sites and classroom planning documents can be found at the Learn and Serve Australia website.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: http://lasa.org.au