Community Service Learning in Planning Education

Abstract

This article explains the importance of including service learning opportunities in the planning curriculum. Based on an interdisciplinary literature, the authors develop a four-part framework for service learning: an emphasis on the different ways of understanding; the value of human experience as a source of learning; the requirement for reflective thinking to transform experience into learning; and an ethical foundation that stresses citizenship to community, profession, and a larger public interest. This framework is then applied through a studio course that is taught annually in the Graduate Program in City and Regional Planning at the University of Memphis.