ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on service-learning in the classroom, specifically its value to enhance student understanding of historical issues and processes. It addresses some of the pragmatic considerations involved for historians considering using service-learning in their own classrooms. Effective service-learning necessitates employing service exercises appropriate to a course’s goals, assessment procedures, and the types of students being taught——freshman or upper-division, traditional or nontraditional. The rise of public history and museum studies has accelerated the prevalence of internships in a wide variety of venues. Service site selection also had to take into account the time constraints of student schedules, together with the needs of community partners. The rationale for indicating a service-learning component is that students who are either unable or strongly opposed to service-based work have the option of taking another section. Most faculty members employing service-learning use a combination of class discussion and written reflection.
