A Study Of Service Learning In American Higher Educational Institutions

During the past one and a half centuries since the mid-nineteenth century, human society gradually developed from an agricultural society to an industrial society, the world situation has undergone major changes. As today's capitalist superpower, earth-shaking changes have taken place in the United States during these years. From a historical point of view, from the Industrial Revolution, Westward Movement to the nineteenth century when the United States became the capitalist powers, from the initiator of the Cold War after World War II to the present the world's superpower, the demand for elites and comprehensive high-quality talent of the United States has become even more intense. From the perspective of changes in social thought, no matter it is the pragmatism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, or the elitism and the communitarianism since the fifties or sixties of the twentieth century, they all constitute clear requirements of the basic entities of American society- How do citizens become good citizens. From the view of historical and social thought, the two put forward a very practical issue of higher education which exists more than a century in the United States: In today's society, what kind of person should higher education develop and how to train them. However, if we want to solve this problem, it is necessary to analyze and interpret the change and development of U.S. higher education which exists more than a century. In this way, no matter it is based on the needs of society or the development and progress of higher education, we need to have a carrier which can show a full display of more than a century' development and change of the U.S. society, and also effectively connect with U.S. higher education, and this carrier is discussed in this dissertation to the core content - service-learning in U.S. universities and colleges.After a long period of evolution, service-learning in U.S. Universities and colleges now has a more complete operation and indemnification mechanism; it gradually developed into an important form of education in the United States. Why we need service learning; how to implement service-learning, especially how to deal with the relationship between service and learning; how about service-learning's effect, what are the problems during its development are questions this article attempts to answer, and it is also the origin of identifying the research topics.In this paper, "the relationship between the service and learning" was discussed in the core context, focusing on the following points: Firstly, the implementation of service-learning in U.S. Universities and colleges were influenced by history and social thought; Secondly, philanthropy, civic engagement and communitarianism model are the basic theoretical models of service-learning in U.S. Universities and colleges; Thirdly, the key to development service-learning in U.S. Universities and colleges is handling the relationship between service and learning during the implementation and security aspects, that is to ensure "equal emphasis on service and learning"; Fourthly, the experience of feasibility of the development of service learning in U.S. Universities and colleges can provide reference to the activities of social practice in China.In addition to introduction and conclusion, this paper can be divided into seven sections. Chapter one, clearly established the content and type of service-learning in U.S. Universities and colleges; Chapter two, to give a systematic introduction to the historical development process of service-learning in U.S. universities and colleges; Chapter three, to clarify the theoretical basis and ideological orientation of service-learning; Chapter four is mainly discusses the implementation ways, principles and procedures of service-learning in U.S. universities and colleges. Chapter five, to research the organization and indemnification of service-learning in U.S. universities and colleges; Chapter six summarizes the characteristics and effect of service-learning in universities and colleges; Chapter seven summarizes the inspiration of service-learning in U.S. colleges and universities to China.