“How do we institutionalize a culture of service so that it transcends calls to service, generations, countries, cultures and time?  I often thought that if we could make service a true rite of passage in a person’s life – starting early in school, providing opportunities and inducements along the way, and igniting a passion to something beyond the pursuit of material goods, it would be a good start.” —John Bridgeland, President and CEO of Civic Enterprises, IBM Service Jam.

The difference between teaching service in schools and service learning is that service learning is integrated into the curriculum.

Every service learning opportunity should be tailored to meet specific academic goals.

The National Youth Leadership Council suggests that successful engagements will incorporate the following eight elements:

1. Meaningful Service

Service learning actively engages participants in meaningful and personally relevant service activities.

2. Link to Curriculum

Service learning is intentionally used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards.

3. Reflection

Service learning incorporates multiple challenging reflection activities that are ongoing and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s relationship to society.

4. Diversity

Service learning promotes under­standing of diversity and mutual respect among all partici­pants.

5. Youth Voice

Service learning provides youth with a strong voice in planning, implementing, and evaluating service learning experiences with guidance from adults.

6. Partnerships

Service learning partnerships are collaborative, mutually beneficial, and address community needs.

7. Progress Monitoring

Service learning engages participants in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals, and uses results for improvement and sustainability.

8. Duration and Intensity

Service learning has sufficient duration and intensity to address community needs and meet specified outcomes.

“Service-learning is not an add-on to the classroom lesson, it is the classroom lesson.” -IBM Service Jam

Learn more about Service Learning at the upcoming NYLC Conference to be held in Atlanta, April 6-9, 2011.

You can also find great service learning curriculum and ideas at generationOn.

These standard practices originally appeared as a sidebar in IBM’s Service Jam White Paper. We thought it was great and wanted to share it.  You can download the full Service Jam white paper here.