Chapter 7: The Impact of Servicelearning on Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy in Teaching Stem Content to Diverse Learners

Through active involvement in service-learning, teacher candidates are immersed in community-based settings where they have the opportunity to meet and interact with children, families, and community members in real-world contexts. A requirement of service-learning is that the communitybased experiences must relate directly to the subject matter of the course in which the teacher candidates are enrolled, such that teacher candidates learn the course content as they engage in service-learning experiences. Additionally, service-learning depends upon the commitment of both the university and community and/or school partner. As a collaborative process, service-learning within teacher preparation coursework has potential to provide teacher candidates with opportunities to develop academic, civic, professional knowledge or dispositions for teaching as well as to promote mutual respect and provide benefits for everyone involved (Jacoby, 2003).