Training Service-Learning Teachers, Virtually

When people think of service-learning, people generally visualise a bunch of university students carrying out a service project for some underprivileged community, such as children, elderly, ethnic minority, people in poverty, …  There is nothing wrong with that image.  However, many people take the teachers for granted.  Where do service-learning teachers come from? Professors don’t automatically know how to teach service-learning. Service-Learning is not a distinct academic discipline, not even a part of any established academic discipline.  There are few training courses over the world, and none in Hong Kong as far as we can tell.  So we have to train them ourselves.  

We have been running a teacher training course on service-learning for several years now.  Last year we took 20 teachers from Hong Kong, Philippines and Vietnam to Cambodia, to train them in the field, observing students and their teachers working with collaborating NGOs to serve in the villages.  This year, because of the virus, we cannot travel, we cannot even meet in person.  So we meet online.  This year, we have another 20 teachers from PolyU, our community college, University of Hong Kong, Open University of Hong Kong, and Baptist University.  

We cannot take them to the field, so we bring the field to them.  We brought in teachers, NGO partners, and students.  We show videos of students in service, physical as well as online.  We covered all aspects of service-learning.  The balance between service and learning.  The academic learning objectives.  Critical success factors. How to deal with the demanding workload.  How to find suitable partners.  How to turn a pedagogy (such as digital story telling) into real projects.  How to build long term, sustainable relationships.  How to guide the students to do reflections properly.  How to find the funding for projects. How to educate the campus abut service-learning. …

Despite all the well known difficulties involved in online, interactive learning, most of the teachers persevere through the 7 hours a day, 2 day long course.  They ask questions, answer questions, share their projects, brainstorm ideas.  They are attentive, appreciative, helpful, and courteous.  A great bunch.  The 2 day course is intensive and draining.  But it is also rewarding.  It is energising seeing a bunch of passionate teachers working together.  We feel we are taking another step to bring service-learning forward.