The Institute for Learning and Teaching

Certificate in Service Learning

Service-Learning, one of the most significant pedagogical innovations in higher education in the last several decades, employs strategies for experiential learning to help students learn course content. As the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse explains, "Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities."  The Certificate in Service-Learning program requires a commitment of approximately 40 hours and is designed to help you:

• Understand the theoretical underpinnings for service-learning, such as the importance of experiential learning, the role of reciprocity and sustainability in service-learning partnerships, and the value of engaged teaching and scholarship.
• Create and implement service-learning curricula in your area of disciplinary expertise.
• Develop sustainable and reciprocal relationships with community partners.
• Understand and work effectively with diverse student and community populations.
• Learn to create reflection activities that are vital in service-learning pedagogies
• Develop strategies for responding to and evaluating service-learning assignments.
• Join a national community of service-learning scholars and practitioners.

General Requirements

• Participate in a semester-long course on Service Learning or enroll in the Service-Learning Scholars Program (contingent on approval from the Service Learning Program Director).
• Attend at least six service-learning-related workshops or seminars and write Workshop Responses (download the workshop review form) for each. All service-learning related activities are listed on the TILT Web site at http://tilt.colostate.edu/sl.
• Participate in at least 20 hours of service-learning related teaching or tutoring activities. You might choose to enroll in a teaching internship with a faculty member involved in service learning activity, or you might intern in the SLCE office or one of its affiliated organizations to gain hands-on experience with service-learning pedagogies. Download the Experiential Learning Form.
• Complete Teaching ePortfolio requirements, tailoring your portfolio to illustrate your expertise in service-learning theory and pedagogy.

More Information

• Creating a Teaching ePortfolio. The primary record of your work on the Certificate in Service Learning will be presented in a Teaching ePortfolio, which will be published on the TILT Web site. Each portfolio will consist of several documents, detailed on the ePortfolio page. Learn More ...
• Applying for the Certificate. To complete work on your Certificate in College Teaching, you must submit your application packet. Your packet and ePortfolio will be reviewed by a member of the Graduate Teaching Certificates Review Board. When your application is approved, your name and a link to your ePortfolio will be listed on the TILT Web site. Learn More ...