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Transforming
Learning Through Community Service
CSU Monterey Bay’s Service Learning Prism
Multiple Sources of Knowledge
Traditional courses emphasize the academic discipline as the
primary source of knowledge. In service learning there are
three sources of knowledge:
- Discipline-based
knowledge
- The student’s own knowledge and
experience
- The community’s knowledge and experience.
Students are introduced to discipline-based knowledge through
texts and lectures. They also utilize their own previous life
experience and current involvement in the community as a valuable
source of knowledge. In addition, the community contact provides
students with a third perspective and knowledge-base. Service
learning courses provide learning experiences that enable students
to integrate these three sources of knowledge.
Engaging with the Facets of Service
By engaging in a community service activity, the concept of
service itself becomes a central focus of the learning process.
At CSUMB, we emphasize the following four facets of the concept
of service:
- Diversity: issues related to service in a multicultural
society
- Compassion: understanding the world from another person’s
perspective
- Justice: how power, privilege and oppression affect the
service setting
- Social Responsibility: an individual’s commitment to and
engagement with civic society
Identifying Distinctive Service Learning Objectives
By explicitly making these issues part of the curriculum,
students actively clarify their own conception of service
as they participate in the community. Service learning enables
moral and civic learning to become a component of the curriculum.
Learning becomes a tool for both individual and social betterment.
Through service learning, CSUMB students acquire the knowledge,
skills and awareness to become more culturally aware, self-reflective
and responsive community participants.
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