Academic service learning enhancing creative arts education

Service learning has been used for many years to enhance and strengthen teacher education courses, preparing student teachers with real life learning experiences as they work with community groups in mutually beneficial projects. This paper outlines an innovative and challenging academic service learning project which involved undergraduate students who were planning to enrol in a post-graduate teacher education degree course when they had completed their initial degree. The students had no teacher training but were keen to be involved in a school situation. They were placed in a primary school to work on a variety of creative arts-based projects with a range of teachers and classes. Academic Service learning in this context was used to help student teachers learn more about teaching strategies, behaviour management and subject content within the creative arts and to give them the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of working in a primary school. The students were asked to reflect on the benefits of the program, both to themselves and to the school. All were enthusiastic and positive in their responses to the project, and outcomes included an increase in the university students' self-confidence, skills, knowledge, communication and behaviour management strategies.