Moreover, students are encouraged to question their preconceived notions at the end of the service element. Thus, a resolute reflection is paramount to students’ ability to acquire new, comprehensive knowledge of the respective context and anticipate future developments, on which they can thoughtfully act (Dewey, 1916). Reflection may start at the beginning of the course by reflecting on the initial individual expectations, progress to highlight how perceptions change, or at the very end it can be used as an evaluation of both the course and the participants. It may also serve as an opportunity to document personal growth and critically assess the experience.

Please find concrete examples of individual/group reflection tasks designed for different stages of your S-L course at our Methods & Tools box.

When planning a S-L course, you will have to address pedagogical concerns on micro, meso and macro levels. Starting from the latter, we refer to the general structure and organization of the Higher Education Institution and the educational system. The meso level refers to the context of the studies offered, such as the size of the programme and which modules are mandatory and elective. Lastly, the micro level refers to the organization of the course, the academic preparation and performance as well as the expectations and motivations of the students (Haas & Hadjar, 2019).

Additionally, S-L lecturers are typically in charge of communicating with the community partner as well as dealing with demands, deriving from a comprehensive management and organization of this practice-oriented format.

Below, you can find questions usually asked when planning a S-L course. Please drag and drop them to their respective areas depending on whether they refer to the "Management & Organization" aspect or the "Pedagogical Aspects". 

Over the past few decades, Service-Learning has evolved, and new forms have emerged in response to the world's constant change, such as e-Service-Learning. In this chapter, we elaborate on such types and present our framework at the University of Tübingen.

Interdisciplinary Glocal Service-Learning deals with global issues on a local level (Braßler, 2018), i.e., the learning element strongly emphasizes the interconnectedness between the local and global scale, while the service element is typically pursued locally. The participants jointly work towards local contributions to solve global challenges on a micro-level– ideally in an interdisciplinary fashion (Braßler, 2018).

International Service-Learning encompasses not only S-L but also international education courses at home in order to enrich students’ intercultural knowledge, and a study abroad phase, during which the service will typically be conducted (Bringle & Hatcher, 2011). Applied in practice, students attend international education courses, they learn more about the receiving community/country, before or parallel to the learning element. They will then start with the latter, before being sent to the receiving community abroad in an organized fashion. Finally, they will return and – at the latest – reflect on their experiences. In the past, international Service-Learning has often been criticized as the process of sending privileged middle-class students from countries of the Global North to receiving communities in Sub-Sahara Africa or Middle and South America for short-term activities. Despite including international education classes, without an iterative and critical reflection of the personal role, the activities’ impacts on the local community and a permission to feel uneasy about oneself, the service abroad element is at risk of perpetuating notions, such as pursuing charity work (e.g., Bringle & Hatcher, 2011; O'Sullivan et al., 2019; Oberhauser & Daniels, 2017). Therefore, alongside a thoroughly critical reflection of the personal role within the project and the activities' sustainability for the receiving community, intercultural and post-colonial perspectives as well as sufficient opportunities for students to reflect on this previously acquired knowledge must be carefully considered during the planning phase. As part of the CIVIS project funded by the EU and the DAAD, our Service- Learning tradition gained an international dimension with the inclusion of international actors on all levels, promotion of intercultural work by addressing global topics, raising global awareness and promoting active citizenship and integration of minorities in the community. Civic engagement and its variety are embarked as means to achieve the goals of internationalization.