A Service Learning Project Reflection

It is interesting to see that in NIE, trainee teachers are expected to do Service-Learning as a module (or should I say, system requirement for teacher qualification) when Service-Learning is such a specialised and highly reputable skill. I feel that is doing injustice and disservice to SL.

A quick glance at the kind of projects we teachers carry out reveals this: A lot of emphasis is being placed on the ‘doing’ and ‘serving’ rather than the ‘learning’ of the trainee teachers. When you help out with community service work or run a camp, you are simply offering a service. Where, then, is the 'Learning' which is supposed to come hand-in-hand with our service? By doing a reflection report after you've done everything? How does that help you to learn???

I cannot believe the module I was assigned to do is so contrary to what I know about service learning. It is definitely injustice to SL. On a personal level, I feel that trainee teachers are not adequately trained in service learning to carry out the project meaningfully. It seems that everybody is coming together simply to complete a requirement for graduation rather than to seek learning and personal development. And if the teachers, who are to later take on the role of facilitators, do not acquire the necessary skills in service learning, then it will naturally be reflected in the way they run the event and engage the students and fellow teachers. I believe this is not the desired outcome of the whole experience.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED
Firstly NIE cannot assume that a group-engineered experience will lead to individual learning. Second, it must change the mindset that people are capable of acquiring very high level skills in an unreasonably short period of time. If you want something short term and can produce results, forget about service learning. Unprocessed experience is wasted experience. This explains why people can be experienced and yet don't seem to have gained much from their experience. SL is powerful and even helpful for educators when they know how to maximize on it. One awesome thing about SL is that it can use the simplest lesson to teach a difficult concept. The whole point about doing reflection is so that you can keep improving and changing because you're constantly looking at yourself and making changes to keep yourself growing. SL is progressive, not a hit-and-run. SL builds depth into character, and character is not formed in an instant. SL requires multi perspectives, so that new possibilities are unveiled before the eyes.

In our mad-rushness for instant results, we have allowed this undesirable mad-rushing mentality to infiltrate every part of our culture and lifestyle. That is what we are today. And if we don't start growing deep, someday we're just going to collapse cuz our roots are so shallow.