The 10 principles below are derived from a host of sources, most notably the models depicted in this book, my 16 years of involvement with curriculum-based service-learning, and the candid responses of 10 University of Michigan academic leaders as part of the evaluation of our Kellogg Foundation grant.

     None of these 10 principles below are antithetical to, or inconsistent with, previously disseminated principles of good practice, and none of these will compromise the service that students provide in the community. On the contrary, these principles not only complement previously generated lists, but a number of them enhance the student's capacity to be of service in the community.

PRINCIPLE 1: Academic Credit is for learning, not for service.
Credit in academic courses is assigned to students for the demonstration of academic learning. It should be no different in community service-learning courses. Academic credit is for academic learning, and community service is not academic in nature. Therefore, the credit must not be for the performance of service. However, when community service is integrated into an academic course, the course credit is assigned for both the customary academic learning as well as for the utiliztion of the community learning in the service of the course learning. Similarly, the student's grade is for the quality of learning and not for the quality (or quantity) of service.

PRINCIPLE 2: Do not compromise academic rigor
Academic standards in a course are based on the challenge that readings, presentations, and assignments present to students. These standards ought to be sustained when adding a community service-learning component. Though experience-based learning is freqently perceived to be less rigorous than academic learning, expecially in scholarly circles, we advise against compromising the level of instructor expectation for student learning. The additional workload imposed by a community service assignment may be compensated by an additional credit, but not by lowering academic learning expectations. Adding a service component, in fact, may enhance the rigor of a course because, in addition to having to master the academic material, students must also learn how to learn from community experience and merge that learning with academic learning, and these are challenging intellectual activities that are commensurate with rigorous academic standards. Learning is not a predictable linear process. It may begin at any point in the cycle. Students may have to apply their limited knowledge in a service situation before consciously setting out to gain or comprehend a body of facts related to that situation. The discomfort experienced from the lack of knowledge may encourage futher accumulation of facts or the development or changing of a personal theory for future application. To assure that this kind of learning takes place however, skilled guidance in reflection on the experience must occur. This facilitation of reflection is the critical responsibility of the service-learning teacher.

     Based on the belief that learning is the constant restructuring of experience, service-learning exemplifies the continuity that exists between experience and knowledge. By providing students the opportunity to have a concrete experience and then assisting them in the intellectual processing of this experience, service-learning not only takes advantage of the natural learning cycle, but also alows students to provide a meaningful contribution to the community. This twofold emphasis on both learning and civic responsibility is the overall objective of the strategy, and our success in meeting this objective leads to the fulfillment of the general mission of higher education.

PRINCIPLE 3: Set learning goals for students
Establish learning goals for students to which all courses ought to be accountable. Not only should it be no different with community service-learning courses, but in fact it is especially necessary and advantageous to do so with these kinds of courses. With the addition of the community as a learning context, there occurs a multiplication of learning paradigms (e.g., inductive learning, synthesis of theory and practice) and learning topics (e.g., the community, the population). To sort out those of greatest priority in the service of the course goals, as well as to best take advantage of the rich bounty of learning opportunity offered by the community, require deliberate planning of the course learning goals.

PRINCIPLE 4: Establish criteria for the selection of community service placements
To optimally utilize community service on the behalf of course learning requires more than merely directing students to find a service placement. Faculty who are deliberate about establishing criteria for selecting community service placements will find that the learning that students extract from their respective service experiences will be of better use on behalf of course learning than if placement criteria are not established.

We offer three criteria as essential in all community service-learning courses. First, the range of service placements ought to be circumscribed by the content of the course; homeless shelters and soup kitchens are leaarning approprite placements for a course on homesessness, but placements in schools are not. Second, the duration of the service must be sufficient to enable the fulfillment of learning goals; a one time two-hour shift at a hospital will do little for the learning in a course on elementary school education.

We also offer three guidelines regarding the setting of placement criteria. First, responsibility for insuring that placement criteria are established that will enable the best student learning rests with the faculty. Second, the learning goals established for the course will be helpful in informing the placement criteria. And third, faculty who utilize the volunteer services office on campus or in the community to assist with identifying criteria-satisfying community agencies will reduce their start-up labor costs.

PRINCIPLE 5: Provide educationally-sound mechanisms to harvest the community learning.
Learning in any course is realized by the proper mix and level of learning formats and assignments. To maximize students' service experiences on behalf of course learning and a community service-learning course requires more than sound service placements. Course assignments and learning formats must be carefully developed to both facilitate the students' learning from their community service experiences as well as to enable its use on behalf of course learning. Assigning students to serve at a community agency, even a faculty approved one, without any mechanisms in place to harvest the learning, is insufficient to contribute to course learning. Experience, as a learning format, in and of itself, does not consummate learning, nor does mere written description of one's service activities.

Learning interventions that instigate critical reflection on and analysis of service experiences are necessary to enable community learning to be harvested and to serve as an academic learning enhancer. Therefore, discussions, presentations, and journal and paper assignments that provoke analysis of service experiences in the context of the course learning and that encourage the blending of the experiential and academic learnings are necessary to help insure that the service does not underachieve in its role as an instrument of learning. Here, too, the learning goals set for course will be helpful in informing the course learning formats and assignments.

PRINCIPLE 6: Provide supports for students to learn how to harvest the community learning.
Harvesting the learning from the community and utilizing it on behalf of course learning are learning paradigms for which most students are under-prepared. Faculty can help students realize the potential of community learning by either assisting students with the acquisition of skills necessary for gleaning the learning from the community , and/or by providing examples of how to successfully do so. An example of the former would be to provide instruction on participant-observation skills; an example of the latter would be to make accessible a file containing past outstanding student papers and journals to current students in the course.

PRINCIPLE 7: Minimize the distinction between the students community learning role and the classroom learning role.
Classrooms and communities are very differnt learning contexts, each requiring students to assume a different learner role. Generally, classrooms provide a high level of learning direction, with students expected to assume a largely learning-leader role. Though there is compatibility between the level of learning direction and the expected student role within each of these learning contexts, there is incompatibility across them.

For students to have to alternate between the learner-follower role in the classroom and the learning-leader role in the community not only places yet another learning challenge on students but it is inconsistent with good pedagogical principles. Just as we do not mix required lectures (high learning-follower role) with a student-determined reading list (high learning-leader role) in a traditional course, so, too, we must not impose conflicting learner role expectations on students in community service-learning courses.

Therefore, if students are expected to assume a learner-follower role in the classroom, then a mechanism is needed that will provide learning direction of the students in the community (e.g., community agency staff serving in an adjunct instructor role); otherwise, students will enter the community wearing the inappropriate learner-follower hat. Correspondingly, if the students are expected to assume a learner-leader role, then room must be made in the classroom for students to assume a learning-leader role; otherwise, students will enter the classroom wearing the inappropriate learning-leader hat. The more we can make consistent the student's learning role in the classroom with her/his learning role in the community, the better the chances that the learning potential within each context will be realized.

PRINCIPLE 9: Be prepared for uncertainty and variation in student learning outcomes
In college courses, the learning stimuli and class assignments largely determine student outcomes. This is true in community service-learning courses too. However, in traditional courses, the learning stimuli (i.e., lectures and readings) are constant for all enrolled students; this leads to predictability and homogeneity in student learning outcomes. In community service-learning courses, the variability in community service placements necessarily leads to less certainty and homogeneity in student learning outcomes. Even when community service-learning students are exposed to the same presentations and same readings, instructors can expect that the content of class discussions will be less predictable and the content of student papers will be less homogeneous than in courses without a community assignment.

PRINCIPLE 10: Maximize the community responsibility orientation of the course.
If one of the objectives of a community service-learning course is to cultivate students' sense of community and social responsibility, then designing course learning formats and assignments that encourage a communal rather than an individual learning orientation will contribute to this objective. If learning in a course is privatized and tacitly understood as for the advancement of the individual, then we are implicitly encouraging a private responsibility mindset; an example would be to assign papers that students write individually and that are read only by the instructor. On the other hand, if the learning is shared amongst the learners for the benefit of corporate learning, then we are implicitly encouraging a group responsibility mentality; an example would be to share those same student papers with the other students in the class. This conveys to the students that they are resources for one another, and this message contributes to the building of commitment to community and civic duty.

By subscribing to this set of 10 pedagogical principles, faculty will find that students' learning, developing a commitment to civic responsibility, and providing learning-infomed service in the community.