A Critical Reflection of Service Learning: A Higher Education Perspective

Abstract

This article draws on the reflections of the pedagogical practice of service learning in higher education. Mahlomaholo (2010) described crisply the “context of educational dysfunctionality suffusing the country”. The question often pondered about is: what skill and knowledge can be infused to make teaching at higher education institutions, to reflect the realities of society. Using critical reflection we asked: “[i]s your teaching worthy?”). The business management methods module allows for the pedagogical practice of service learning to be incorporated into the assessment. By adopting a constructivist approach to teaching business management method content means that the business management instructor is building on students’ previous knowledge and allows the students to draw from their own experiences, thereby providing a scaffold for the students to develop an increased understanding of the business management pedagogical issues being discussed. As a business management method instructor choosing a pedagogical approach, that can address categories of significant learning, is an important step in developing learning that is durable. There are many views about how constructivist approaches to learning can or should, be aligned to constructivist approaches to teaching. The two pedagogical practices that can be effectively incorporated in business management education are: cooperative learning and service-learning. This paper uses auto ethnography to focus on the instructor’s subjective experience of using service learning as a pedagogical approach.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1331