Service learning in teacher education programmes: A literature review on the rationale, benefits, and challenges

TL;DR: Service-learning in teacher education programmes is a teaching approach that provides opportunities for pre-service teachers to engage in authentic learning experiences and gain personal and professional growth through leadership roles, exposure to real-life challenges, and engagement in service-learning activities.

Abstract: Service-learning is a teaching approach that gives students opportunities to participate in a service that meets community needs as well as being relevant to the curriculum content and to reflect on the service-learning activity/activities and experience. While the discipline specific content is determined by the National Approved Curriculum for the respective Degree, Diploma or Certificate programme, activities which contribute towards concretising concepts and thus, marry theory with real-life challenges are jointly designed and agreed upon by the subject lecturer and the specific community partner. As pre-service teachers engage in service-learning activities, they experience personal and professional growth through: (i) taking leadership roles in service-learning activities; (ii) exposure to- and awareness of the real-life environment in which the 21st Century teaching profession has to operate; (iii) engaging in and participating in authentic real-life centred teaching practices; (iv) acquisition of new dispositions necessary for a 21st Century teacher; and (v) exposure to- and the relevance of service-learning as a teaching/learning pedagogy. Therefore, this study is a literature review of a range of some of the existing work on service-learning and it collates and brings together key components of service-learning, its benefits, and challenges. The implications of service-learning in Teacher education programmes are that curriculum content should be questioned regarding its relevance in modern day society, how well it prepares pre-service teachers for teaching skills and needs of a rapidly changing economy and society, and that education should take place in an authentic learning environment where community service activities are integrated with the academic curriculum.