Sociology Commons^™

Community Service Learning Increases Communication Skills Across The Business Curriculum, Mary L. Tucker, Anne M. Mccarthy, John A. Hoxmeier, Margarita M. Lenk

Higher Education

Community service learning offers a unique and rewarding way for business students to reinforce communication capabilities while developing lifelong career and social skills. This article defines community service learning, discusses its importance to business as well as higher education, and describes three community service learning projects. Students in these projects taught elementary students, designed a computer system for a community nonprofit, and developed accounting systems for university divisions. In doing so, they enhanced their understanding of classroom theories and communication skills through service-learning.

In The Service Of Citizenship: A Study Of Student Involvement In Community Service, Robert A. Rhoads

Higher Education

I learn more through my volunteer work than I ever do in any of my classes at school. Talking to people from diverse backgrounds provides so much insight that people just can't imagine. I study all these different theories in political science and sociology, but until you get a chance to see how the social world influences people's everyday lives, it just doesn't have that much meaning.

I have been involved in volunteer work ever since I was in high school, and I'll probably continue to do stuff like Habitat [for Humanity] until I'm old and gray. I get a …

Weaving Service-Learning Into The Fabric Of Your College, Nan Ottenritter, C. David Lisman

Higher Education

Institutionalizing service-learning can be a rich and complex process. The following ideas about sustainability are offered as points to keep in mind as we go about getting service-learning programs more solidly grounded within our institutions. We've organized our ideas into the following categories: institutional mission, faculty outcomes, student outcomes, community impact, coordination of services, and advancement of the field. Most topics are accompanied by a checklist and "thought prompts." The checklist provides a guide for improving service-learning programs from the perspective of many different constituencies across an institution. The thought prompts are key words that frequently surface in discussions about …

Cross-Cultural Field Placements: Student Teachers Learning From Schools And Communities, Laura L. Stachowski, James M. Mahan

Higher Education

The student teaching experience is typically characterized by a collaboration of school and university-cooperating teacher and university supervisor- to prepare novice educators for the instructional, managerial, and disciplinary demands of classroom teaching. Less often are individuals and groups outside of the immediate school environment perceived as active and important contributors to learning outcomes and professional development for student teachers. However, an increasing number of teacher educators are addressing the role of the community in providing student teachers with information and insights that will enhance the classroom experience in vital ways.

A Pedagogy For Citizenship: Service Learning And Democratic Education, Meta Mendel-Reyes

Higher Education

Maria clutches the papers tightly. After over two hours of waiting through reports, announcements, awards, and other agenda items that seemed much less urgent than hers, the chance to speak has nearly arrived. She looks at the determined face of the African American woman seated beside her, one of several residents living across the street from a trash incinerator that has brought pollution, disease, noise, and rats to their quiet neighborhood. At last, they would have the opportunity to tell their story to elected officials who could do something about it. Maria glances down at the statistics that took her …

Awarding Credit For Service: A Study Conducted For The Corporation For National Service, Robert D. Shumer

Higher Education

The expansion of service-learning and service programs throughout the educational system in the United States continues at a strong rate. Bolstered by the national initiatives sponsored by the Corporation for National Service (CNS) and by state movements such as the mandated graduation requirement for service in Maryland, many people are interested in where and in how this reform movement is being implemented. Specifically, they are interested in understanding what counts for service, how service is monitored, and how service counts or is credited in school districts. A central issue focuses on the criteria school systems and school personnel use to …

Student Participation And Instructor Gender In The Mixed Age College Classroom, Jay R. Howard, Amanda L. Henney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study seeks to fill that void in the literature and contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the impact of student age, student gender, instructor gender, and course level on student participation.

A Proposal For The Development Of Fort Hays State University Service Learning Program, Dan Kahl

Higher Education

"Service Learning" is quickly becoming a style of education that is recognized for its' effectiveness and practical benefits. Linking class curriculum with hands-on applications is often referred to as "experiential education". Service Learning is a form of experiential education identified by an equal emphasis on academic learning and service to others. The combination of focusing on meeting community needs, identifying learning objectives, and intentionally reflecting on what is being learned makes service learning different from plain volunteerism or community service.

Academic Effects Of Service-Learning, Elizabeth B. Gardner, Corinne M. Baron

Higher Education

Service-learning is growing in popularity. Ziolkowski (1996) pointed out that if service-learning is to become a lasting component in American education, it must have a clear link to "the academy" (in addition to the development of moral and civic values and the benefit to the community). We therefore examined students' perception of their learning of specific aspects of course content. We measured perceived learning in two sections of Cognitive Psychology in which half of the students did service-learning. We asked each student to rate his or her knowledge of Attention, Memory, Language, Cognitive Development, Metacognition, Individual Differences in cognitive processes, …

Service Learning As A Strategy To Prepare Teacher Candidates For Contemporary Diverse Classrooms, Deborah Hamm, David Dowell, Jean Houck

Higher Education

The article describes a service-learning program jointly developed, implemented, and evaluated by a large university and a culturally and linguistically diverse urban school district. Each semester, over 200 undergraduate students preparing to be teachers learn first-hand about contemporary classrooms by assisting at-risk students. Program evaluation found changes in the undergraduates' attitudes about the importance of social and individual difference on children's learning.

Service-Learning Projects In Composition And Beyond, Thomas Deans, Zan Meyer-Goncalves

Higher Education

All college teachers want their courses to be relevant and provocative, and to encourage students to be more active learners of the discipline, participants in the academy, and citizens in the wider community. As teachers of composition, we first experimented with combining community service with classroom teaching because it promised to advance teaching aims we value, especially making connections between academic courses and community needs, and between cognitive thinking and ethical social action. And we continue with service-learning projects because our experience and students' responses suggest a significant degree of success in meeting those goals. But we are certainly not …

Community Service-Learning In Teacher Education: A Report On Innovative Programs In New England, Beth Wohlleb, Robert Maloy

Higher Education

As the strengths of community service-learning are becoming more recognized by educators at all levels, many institutions of higher education are incorporating CSL as a dynamic pedagogy into their teacher education programs. Many schools or departments of education encourage or require certification candidates to perform CSL as part of their teacher training as ways to learn about the teaching profession through the practice of teaching and reflection. Fewer schools integrate service-learning into their teacher education program in another way: by teaching preservice teachers how to use service-learning as a pedagogy with children in their own future classrooms. This second group …

Higher Education And Civic Responsibility, Alexander W. Astin

Higher Education

It goes without saying that higher education plays a major part in shaping civic life in modern American society. Our colleges and universities not only educate each new generation of leaders in government, business, science, law, medicine, the clergy, and other advanced professions, but are also responsible for setting the standards and training the personnel who will educate the entire citizenry at the precollegiate level. Higher education institutions can also exert important societal influences through the scientific, technological, and cultural knowledge produced by their faculties. (Reprinted with permission by the author.)

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty; (2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

Leadership For Diversity: Effectively Managing For A Transformation, Adrian K. Haugabrook

Trotter Review

Diversity has become a contentious theme woven throughout many different aspects of higher education. Multiculturalism, ethnic studies, women's studies, curriculum reform, strategies for increasing access and opportunity to the under-represented and under-served and improving campus climate have all been vehicles to promote and further diversity initiatives. Diversity stands to challenge much of what has been the traditional views of higher education. The efforts to promote multiculturalism and diversity have caused the academy and the enterprise of higher learning to introspectively examine and reexamine its values, beliefs and relationships to a much larger society. American higher education now sees itself in …

Enhancing Multicultural Education Through Higher Education Initiatives, Porter L. Troutman Jr.

Trotter Review

This paper describes a comprehensive initiative intended to increase multicultural education and the amount of ethnic diversity among college of education faculty and undergraduate teacher education students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The paper details six components of the on-going initiative: 1) staff development: to enhance the sensitivity of college of education faculty regarding cultural issues, 2) a minority mentoring program: to provide a stronger support system for under-represented populations enrolled in the teacher education program, 3) the multicultural education project (MCE): a collaborative effort with the public school district in multicultural education, 4) the College of …

[Review Of] William G. Bowen And Derek Bok. The Shape Of The River: Long-Term Consequences Of Considering Race In College And University Admissions, Robert L. Perry

Ethnic Studies Review

The metaphor conveyed in the title, The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, captures the undercurrents, uncharted obstructions, and twists and turns as they unfold through the experiences and research of two captains who have navigated the mysteries of their journey through Affirmative Action in higher education.

The Institution As A Citizen: How Colleges And Universities Enhance Their Civic Roles, Nancy L. Thomas

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfill this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreach, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing …