Student Teachers Focus on Service-Learning with New Grant

Students preparing to be teachers at Duke and six other universities will receive training on how to incorporate service-learning in K-12 classrooms through a new project funded by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service.

Duke University's International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education (ICSLTE), housed in the Program in Education, was recently awarded a three-year, $1.6 million Learn and Serve Higher Education grant to partner with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to train 1,750 future teachers across the country to use service-learning projects. The goal of the project is to help increase academic engagement, reduce the achievement gap and address dropout prevention among 7,000 K-12 students.

"We applied for the grant with the hopes that we could elevate the practice of service-learning within teacher education," says Kathy Sikes, ICSLTE executive administrative director. "This is a good opportunity for teacher candidates to get out in the community in a variety of ways -- not just to observe or practice teaching, but to connect academic content to civic engagement and make it relevant and motivating for kids."

ICSLTE will serve as a national hub for evidence-based practices in service-learning in teacher education, working with other grantee institutions to develop and distribute diverse pedagogical models of service-learning for teacher education programs, and working with NCATE to link service-learning practices in teacher education to nationally recognized program accreditation.

The program will also serve as a technical resource for the other grantee institutions via an online learning community providing training, referral services and knowledge sharing.

"We are thrilled about the opportunity to partner with NCATE, the International Center for Service Learning in Teacher Education, and institutes of higher education across the U.S. to collaboratively investigate and disseminate innovative models for infusing service-learning as a pedagogy for classroom practice," says Jan Riggsbee, director of the Program in Education who will serve as project co-investigator with David Malone, director of Duke's Service-Learning Program.