BOOKS aside and pencils down, it's time to look at ways to connect the classroom with the community. Social psychologist Dr Chiam Heng Keng reasons that by connecting the two, the school creates a chance for students to learn responsibility, acquire new skills and experience the satisfaction that comes from helping others. Dr Chiam, who was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Families held in Kuala Lumpur recently, urged teachers and principals to capitalise on the concept of extending learning beyond the classroom as a way of making learning more meaningful to students who have no academic inclination, or who get bored easily with verbal learning. Introducing community based service-learning into the academic curriculum can do this. "Schools can work with the community to provide real-life experiences that enable students to see the relevance of their learning and their contributions towards making a difference," she said. Service learning is a teaching and learning process that involves young people in service to their communities in conjunction with a structured learning process or curriculum. In a school-based setting, service learning is a method of teaching that integrates volunteer service into instruction as a means of teaching regular academic curriculum. For instance, said Dr Chiam, working for an afternoon in an orphanage or shelter for abandoned and abused children can be a part of moral education. Discussing how these children feel, why they are neglected, abandoned or abused by their parents, and how their situations can be resolved would then be carried out as a follow-up to the services rendered to the orphanage or shelter. Another way to bring experiences into the classroom is by encouraging students to volunteer their services. This work should then be graded as assignments. "The hours spent volunteering at an orphanage or shelter will relieve boredom, make moral issues real and relevant and facilitate their understanding," said Dr Chiam. "In addition, the experience will contribute to their emotional and social development. This includes developing empathy and care and reducing self-centeredness." She added that visiting a police lockup or interviewing drug addicts could be part of a moral and health lesson. For those in home economics, service learning can include helping in the kitchen of a restaurant or serving in a hotel or food outlet. Another interesting approach for taking the classroom into the community is discussed by Ruth Kauffmann in her article Teaching for Tolerance: Community-Based Learning for the Spanish Classroom. In her Spanish classes at William Jewell College, she allots five per cent of her students' grade to volunteering in various programmes for the Hispanic community in the Kansas City Metro area. The students were given the option of volunteering for 15 hours in different agencies that she had already contacted, or they could take a final exam. She says that "taking the learning process outside of the classroom provides yet another opportunity to remove boundaries and barriers between social and racial groups." Student response was extremely positive. Dr Chiam stressed that teachers have to plan so that the service learning does not confine itself merely to practical experience, but also includes time for discussion of their experiences, problems encountered and solutions. "I believe that any school or agency that requires a service-learning component must develop a validated way to measure the actual learning that occurs," Dr Chiam said. "Teachers and principals have to change drastically their concept of education, de-compartmentalise learning into discrete subjects and source for creative methods of teaching." She said that although it requires the teachers and principals to work hard, the benefits would far outweigh the initial workload. According to a recent study by Florida Learn and Serve, students who were actively involved in service-learning projects showed improved attendance, fewer referrals for discipline problems and improved grades. Dr Chiam noted that community service activities could be some of the most valuable activities students participate in. "Learning by doing is always a quality method for improving student understanding," she said. [source: New Straits Times]