The impact of the type of projects on preservice teachers' conceptualization of service learning

This paper discusses the effects of the type of project undertaken for a community practice course on preservice teachers' conceptualization of service learning. The goal of the projects is to enable participants to engage with service practice in a reflective manner. Through the examination of the reflective logs kept by students using Butin's framework and by comparing the themes that emerged, it was found that differences in the experiences of students, which reflected the project content and the characteristics of the children being served, created different learning outcomes for each group of students.

► The experiences resulting from differences in the type of project created different outcomes.
► Working individually with children who are at risk created more complex understandings.
► Project goals have a potential to limit student thinking about community needs and social problems.
► Newcomer volunteers need to understand the interest of people in need in the first place.
► The discrepancy in students' ideas about the origin of the problems needs to be critically examined.