Blog 6 Service learning programme

Last week, I took part in the workshop of Service Learning Programme which taught us how to transform the ideas into action in serving and learning in communities. Today, I would like to share with you the useful knowledge I have learned in this course.

Generally speaking, Service-learning involves direct and indirect action. Direct service means we directly respond to a community need, for example, some of us have taken part in the Give programme in which we interact with the students who are in need of our help. However, indirect service allows students to build infrastructure or capacity to respond to the community need, in other words, we impact the service recipients in an indirect way.

There are five stages of service learning. The first stage is investigation, which requires us to probe into the need of the community and to have a clear idea about our abilities. The most impressive part for me was to match our capability as much as possible to the community need, which suddenly reminded me that we could make a big difference to the society based on what we had learned. The second stage is preparation and planning. In this section, we chose the project which could transform our knowledge into practice to a great extent. In our group, we decided to help the autistic children. By drawing a table on a big poster, we also managed to work out the schedule for our programme. The third stage, which is the most important part, is action. Although we have not reached this part yet, we are working hard to figure out the most effective way to carry it out, for it is not easy to communicate with children with autism. Furthermore, we are willing to learn more about this special group of people throughout the whole process. After finishing the action part, here comes the fourth section, called reflection. Obviously, it is of vital importance for us to reflect on the service-learning journey, since it can evaluate how the experience, knowledge, and skills we are acquiring relate to our own lives as well as the community. Ultimately, we need to step in the last stage to demonstrate our achievements and in the meantime, celebrate for the sake of our successful work. On account of this, we also need to submit a report at the end of our service-learning programme, to show our influence and accomplishments.

In conclusion, I am really excited to have the opportunity to join in the service-learning programme, for not only can I contribute to the society by direct service, but also have the chance to be involved in the process of designing the whole project. From my perspective, only by engaging in the activity we are willing to do sincerely, can we make a big difference. I am looking forward to participating in the programme in the following weeks and I hope I can serve and learn as much as possible in this programme.