Why is structured reflection critical to effective service-learning?
The previous section introduced reflection as a process, one that is structured by faculty with the intention of assisting students in making connections between course content and the service experience. Reflection is a critical component of all experience-based pedagogies. However, a well-designed reflection process is particularly important in service-learning for the following reasons: • Textbooks and lectures use techniques such as highlighting key points, examples, clarifying common misconceptions, and summaries to facilitate student learning. In contrast, experience provides few explicit guides to learning. Students need to be challenged, encouraged and supported in reflecting on service projects and in connecting these experiences to coursework. • Experience is unstructured and messy. Real-world projects are not simple applications of concepts and rules learned in the classroom. The tasks of collecting information, framing the problem, identifying alternatives and recommending
