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Service-learning in teacher education includes two different but equally important components. Service-learning is a teaching pedagogy that professors may use to teach any course in the teacher education curriculum. By modeling how service-learning can contribute to learning goals, professors build appreciation for its importance as a teaching strategy. If teacher education institutions are serious about training future teachers to use service-learning in the classroom, however, they must teach the pedagogy and require their students to practice using it in their student teaching experiences. Research confirms that knowledge about service-learning without practical experience does not lead to classroom implementation.
Service-learning in teacher education will be a featured segment in the 2009 Youth Service Leadership Institute, The Changing Face of California: Youth Service Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond, that will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Anaheim, February 9-11. Professors, administrators, and P-12 teachers interested in strengthening the role of service-learning in teacher education are invited to contact Don Hill to help plan this Institute segment and help create a California Support Committee.
Service-learning in teacher education is gaining momentum as an international movement. The International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education has announced the Second International Conference for Service-Learning in Teacher Education to be held 25-27 June 2009 in Galway, Ireland.
The International Center on Service-Learning in Teacher Education will bring together teacher educators from around the world to revisit outcomes from the 2007 Conference in Brussels, to clarify service-learning language, share professional work, and explore possibilities for future collaboration on issues of research, policy, and practice. The conference will also focus on research, citizenship education, student and faculty exchange, and technological connections through ongoing special interest groups.
The Center encourages teacher educators, educational leaders, K-12 teachers (kindergarten through second level of secondary schooling) and student teachers/interns experienced in service-learning to participate. |
