SERVICE LEARNING EXPERIENCE AIDS CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH LEV VYGOTSKY'S SOCIO CULTURAL THEORY

Aim of education is to create citizens who are humane, concerned and caring about people at local and global level.  Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that differs from community service where the provider of the service (community center) and the recipient of the service (pre service teacher) both benefit from the service learning experience.  Service learning experience results in academic gains and connections of the course to real life situations. It also results in personal gains and improvement of life skills which help to create civic minded and socially responsible citizen with an intention to indulge in lifelong engagement.  The study also has tried to integrate Lev Vygotsky theory of socio cultural theory. The integration of service learning with critical thinking is presented through the two dimension of Lev Vyotsky’s theory of zone of proximal development and more knowledgeable other. The present study aims to understand the relationship between critical thinking and service learning among pre service teachers. The sample for the study consisted of 1054 pre service teachers of aided and unaided institutes of Mumbai. The findings of the study revealed that there existed no relationship between critical thinking and service learning among pre service teachers.