Service Learning: Transforming Students, Communities and Universities

Service Learning uses community service as the vehicle for the achievement of specific academic goals and objectives. This paper is the first in a series of papers, dedicated to research and practice of servi ce learning in institutions of higher learning in Malaysia. In this paper, I introduce the concept of Service Learning by looking back at thirty years of research and practice of SL to revisit some of its basic principles. Taking into consideration, the early developments of SL in Malaysia, this paper concludes with views on why tertiary institutions in Malaysia would greatly benefit by incorporating SL into their courses.