The University of Texas at Arlington

Service Learning Benefits

Why Use Service Learning?

“The benefits of service learning are readily apparent. Students become aware of their own values and appreciate the importance and necessity of civic participation. They learn more about themselves and about their own strengths and limitations. Their experiences challenge simplistic notions, and they become aware of the complexity of contemporary moral problems. It becomes impossible to persist in stereotypical thinking about people.

There also are real benefits to the college or university. The school assumes an active role of social responsibility and is perceived as a partner with community agencies and institutions . . . As service learning becomes a component of academic programs, students will use it as a tool to help them reevaluate their lives, work for social change, and examine their values. Students involved in service learning can bring lasting benefits to the community while enhancing their own education.”

Excerpts from The Mutual Gifts of Service Learning
President Alice B. Hayes, University of San Diego
Copyright © 1997 Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Benefits of Service Learning

“For students to learn effectively, they first need to be engaged. Service-learning helps promote both intellectual and civic engagement by linking the work students do in the classroom to real-world problems and real-world needs. Without compromising academic rigor or discipline-specific objectives, service-learning gives students concrete reasons for doing their personal best.”

American Alliance for Higher Education

Resources for Service Learning in the Center for Community Service Learning

1. Placement assistance
2. Service Learning Resource Center with books, articles, syllabi, assessment tools, risk management information, and related forms
3. Curricular Development workshops for faculty

Faculty may use the resources of the Center for Community Service Learning to implement service learning, a teaching methodology that deliberately links meaningful service with course curriculum. Available on loan are books, videos and articles on implementing service learning in a variety of disciplines. The Center is located in Suite B13 in Davis Hall.

This site has an extensive annotated bibliography, useful service learning links, a helpful FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and a list of resources housed in the Service Learning Resource Center.

For further information, contact Shirley Theriot, Director of the Center for Community Service Learning at 817-272-2124 or theriot@uta.edu.