Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
Fall 1995, pp. 112-122
A Service-Learning Curriculum for Faculty
Robert G. Bringle and Julie A. Hatcher
Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
The development of service-learning courses is contingent upon faculty. Institutions of higher
education which are interested in service-learning can engage in faculty development activities in
order to (a) develop a common understanding on campus concerning the nature ofservice- learning,
(b) establish and maintain the academic integrity ofservice-learning, (c) increase the confidence
offaculty as they implement a new pedagogy, and (d) increase the likelihood that service-learning
is institutionalized in higher education. This article describes a curriculum for a series offaculty
workshops: Introduction to Service-Learning, Reflection, Building Community Partnerships,
Student Supervision andAssessment, and Course Assessment andResearch. Each module provides
a synopsis of topics and suggested readings for participants.
Institutions of higher education are exploring
ways of incorporating service to extend their
mission, enhance student achievement and persistence, and engage students in their communities as part of their academic curriculum (e.g.,
Boyer, 1994; Ehrlich, 1995). As institutions
search for ways in which to do this, they often
recognize service- learning as an important strategy. We consider service-learning to be a coursebased, credit-bearing educational experience in
which students (a) participate in an organized
service activity that meets identified community
needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in
such a way as to gain further understanding of
course content, a broader appreciation of the
discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. This is in contrast to co- curricular
and extracurricular service, from which learning
may occur, but for which there is no formal
evaluation and documentation of academic learning.
Implementing service-learning in the academic
curriculum ofcolleges and universities is strengthened by strategically planned change. Bringle
and Hatcher (in press) have described a Comprehensive Action Plan for Service Learning
(CAPSL) that identifies four important constituencies that need to be considered for effective
implementation of service-learning programs:
institution, faculty, students, and community.
For each of these constituencies, CAPSL identifies the following sequence of activities to guide
the implementation of service-learning: plan112
ning, increasing awareness, developing a prototype service-learning course, acquiring resources,
programmatic expansion, recognition, monitoring, evaluation, research, and institutionalization.
The resulting 40-cell matrix1 provides a means to
develop a strategic plan to implement servicelearning and to assess progress towards its institutionalization.
Because the implementation of service-learning represents a revision of courses in the curriculum or an addition to the curriculum, it falls under
the purview of faculty. Thus, as important as each
of the four constituencies is, the development of
service-learning within higher education is primarily the work of faculty. Thus, this article will
focus on the expansion of service-learning through
faculty development activities directed at curriculum revision.
There are many ways in which the implementation of service-learning can occur. Faculty can
discover service-learning through their involvement in the community, personal advocacy for an
issue, political engagement and activism, or experience in related pedagogies. We speculate that
this would be more likely to occur in disciplines
for which there is a predisposition toward an ethic
and practice of service (e.g., social work) than in
other disciplines (e.g., engineering). Faculty may
also discover service-learning through a colleague,
a professional journal, a student, or community
agency personnel. In addition to being a slow and
capricious process, such accidental discovery
would likely yield uneven results across the
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