Service learning contextualizes student learning and provides an environment in which students can acquire organizational, team, problem-solving, and other skills and attitudes necessary for future work and learning. Although service learning has been classified as a form of work-based learning, students participating in service learning receive no financial reward. Like school-to-work efforts, service learning connects students to their communities through work force participation, promotes a learning approach through which students apply academic and vocational skills and knowledge to real life/work situations, and is based on the belief that students learn best when actively engaged in the learning process. Besides expanding students' knowledge and skills for employment, service learning also offers personal benefits for students, including increased self-confidence, competence, and empathy for others. When integrated with community development, service learning has the potential of awakening student interest in community issues. It offers teachers an opportunity to implement educational reform strategies emphasizing student-centered contextual learning, and it affords teachers a way to teach values, morals, and ethics. Service learning is not just for elementary and secondary students; for example, the University of Louisville is piloting a service learning program for professional development of preservice teachers. (Contains 14 references) (MN)