Learning Theoretical Concepts through Community Problem Solving: Service-Learning in Flight Safety Courses

Critics of higher education often criticize the chasm separating esoteric academic theory from the pragmatic knowledge required of students after graduation. Service-learning is presented as a catalyst for intrinsically motivating students to master course concepts. In service-learning, students collaborate with each other and with external stakeholders to fuse classroom theory with practical application in order to address real-world problems. Typological and historical overviews of service-learning are provided with special emphasis on how the systemic incorporation of service-learning throughout a degree program may increase student persistence by harmonizing academic processes with generational values. The use of service-learning in flight safety courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has not only improved safety at the campus and in the surrounding aviation community, it has enhanced the learning of technical concepts in students while greatly improving their soft s k i . When Mark Twain sardonically boasted that he never let his schooling interfere with his education, one can be rather certain that he was not referring to the need for servicelearning in higher education curricula, but rather lamenting how formal education often falls woefully short of imparting practical knowledge to its learners. Twain's prescient musing highlights the often cited distinction between the act of teaching and the process of learning. Professors often pride themselves in their lecturing skills, but must stop to consider the disturbing truth that only active learning can truly tap the full potential of the education process. The correlation between teaching and learning is particularly relevant for university administrators who recognize that classroom learning processes have a direct impact on student persistence. It is rather self-evident to state that students who enjoy education will have a tendency to remain in school and will result in the pursuit of excellence after graduation. Pundits are quick to criticize such assertions as promoting edutainment instead of meaningful instruction. Educational psychologists counter by proclaiming, "Making learning fun is serious business." How can enjoyable learning be induced without sacrificing the necessary rigors of a curriculum and without sliding to the lower hierarchies of cognition in Bloom's Taxonomy? Over the past few decades a highly enjoyable yet challenging learning catalyst has been implemented at many universities that attempts to fuse academic theory with the pragmatic appeal of real-life applications. By utilizing the theory exposed in a university course to address c o k i t y problems, students simultaneously serve society while using active learning to master academic concepts. Since institutions of higher learning serve as centralized repositories of human capital for society, it stands to reason that local communities should benefit directly by each university's presence amongst them. Service-learning attempts to link academic processes with societal needs in a symbiotic arrangement that polishes the reputation of the host institution, benefits the members of society by providing liee intellectual capital, and provides learning dividends for students tasked with addressing the community problems. Although service-learning has penetrated into the mainstream of liberal arts curricula with great success, it has not seen widespread acceptance within the technical disciplines of the academy. Many educators in the hard sciences erroneous perceive that service-learning falls outside the functionality of their learning processes and thus miss a stellar opportunity to simultaneously improve the technical and soft skills oftheir students. One such field that has notoriously escaped the attention of service-learning is aeronautical science. Over the past few years, service-