Redefining a Secondary Education Program Through the Use of Service-Learning Field Experiences

Abstract

To expand the field component of our secondary education program, we added service-learning field experiences to three courses. This qualitative study ( n = 99) was designed to determine what our students learned from participating in these experiences and to examine whether the experiences supported our programmatic goals. The findings demonstrate that students developed an increased awareness of diversity in the local schools and community, they acquired knowledge of strategies for engaging and communicating with parents, they developed a more nuanced understanding of learners, and they improved their foundation of effective pedagogy for English language learners.