Sociology Commons^™

Strategic Directions For Service-Learning Research: A Presidential Perspective, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Service-learning can be viewed as a form of pedagogy designed to enhance learning and promote civic responsibility as well as one of a set of strategies to link the capacity of a college or university to the needs of society. A commitment to service-learning can become the avenue for a larger transformational change agenda by providing a focus and a reason to consider significant changes in campus priorities, faculty roles and rewards, resource utilization and university-community relationships. The case is made for the role of the scholar/practitioner president and the importance of a legitimate scholarly base to effect institutional change, …

Change As A Scholarly Act: Higher Education Research Transfer To Practice, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Achieving transformational change is a scholarly challenge best dealt with by practicing public scholarship, which is modeled by the leader and encouraged in other members of the campus community. Like all good scholarly work, good decision making by campus leadership begins with a base of scholarly knowledge generated and validated by higher education researchers.

The Service Sojourn: Conceptualizing The College Student Volunteer Experience, Brian C. Schmidt

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Despite the increasing popularity of volunteerism in student activities and service-learning courses on college campuses, little is known about the experience of volunteers. This study examines the experience of 16 students from the University of Utah who t participated in community service. The qualitative investigation is based on 54 interviews regarding student descriptions of their experience. What common events occurred? How did they make sense of their experience? What, really, did they learn? Ethnographic interviews and a "naturalistic" approach were used to identify patterns and analyze the data. Grounded in reoccurring themes such as leaving familiar surroundings. the shock of …

Service-Learning: Comparison Of Hospitality Programs In Two- And Four-Year Institutions, Verna M. Ward

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Partnerships between community and academic institutions are the cornerstones of academic service-learning. While the term "academic service-learning" emerged in the 90's, civic or citizenship education has been part of academic curriculums for centuries. Hospitality management programs at two-(n=63) and four-year (n=79) institutions were surveyed for this study using a 21 question faxed survey and two-year (52%) and four-year (48%) institutions responded. Results indicated that academic service-learning was not as prevalent in hospitality management programs of four-year institutions as anticipated, while two-year (67%) institutions had higher participation.

Overall results showed that hospitality program directors did not identify what influences inclusion/exclusion. The …

Doing Good While Doing Well: Service Learning Internships, Louise Rehling

Higher Education

Internships for students in business and professional communication have rightly been seen as a transitional form of coursework: a guided move away from academia and into the workplace. The assumption accompanying this vision has been that, since most business and professional communication students will graduate to work in industry, the best placements for them are, therefore, necessarily in industry as well. Certainly industry-sponsored internships are valuable as career preparation.

Embracing Civic Responsibility, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

In the past year, there have been several calls for colleges and universities to take up their responsibilities as members of society in order to model the civic virtues and to become instruments of a working democracy. It is becoming clear that a genuine democracy is also a learning society and that good citizenship requires the capacity to form a learning community with others.

Highlights From Service-Learning In California's Teacher Education Programs: A White Paper, Andrew Furco, Mary Sue Ammon

Service Learning, General

The purpose of this white paper is to provide a set of recommendations for advancing service-learning in California's Teacher Education programs. The recommendations are based on the findings from a three-year study conducted by UC Berkeley's Service-Learning Research & Development Center (SLRDC). This paper reports on the viability of various approaches for advancing K-12 service-learning in teacher education, identifies institutional barriers that hinder the advancement of service-learning in teacher education, and describes successful approaches that institutions have used to advance service-learning in teacher education. The recommendations provided in this paper are intended to inform the California Department of Education and …

A New Model Of Connected Learning, Justine K. Brown

Service Learning, General

Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor always dreamed of building a new type of high school. Throughout his many years in public education as a teacher and administrator, Washor felt that high schools were failing to meet the true needs of students, their families and the community as a whole. Littky imagined building a school that approached learning in a new way, making it a true hands-on experience and involving more than just students and teachers in the process.

Ruptura: Acknowledging The Lost Subjects Of The Service Learning Story, Tracy Hamler Carrick, Margaret Himley, Tobi Jacobi

Higher Education

As members of the Service Learning collective in the Writing Program at Syracuse University, we have been actively designing and teaching a sequence of undergraduate writing courses that integrate community service in various ways -by asking students to write about the nonprofit agencies where they participate, to write for those sites by producing brochures and websites, and to write with people as tutors in adult literacy programs or in local urban high schools. ¹

Creating Sustainable Service Learning Programs: Lessons Learned From The Horizons Project, 1997-2000, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

In 1997, the American Association of Community Colleges began a three-year grant project to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in community colleges nationwide. Fourteen colleges—selected in a national competition for grants ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 per year— worked together in AACC’s project, Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, to overcome challenges and learn valuable lessons in developing and sustaining academically based service learning programs.

Evaluating Experiential Teaching Methods In A Policy Practice Course: The Case For Service Learning To Increase Political Participation, Cynthia J. Rocha

Higher Education

This study compares the effects of experiential learning on policy-related values, competency, and activity levels of two groups of recent MSW graduates from one university. The study group received experiential service learning in the MSW program, primarily in an advanced policy course, while the comparison group did not. The author explains experiential teaching and service learning methods, as well the activities included in the policy course. Results indicate that both groups placed a high value on political skills. However, the experiential group was significantly more likely to perceive themselves as competent policy practitioners and to perform policy-related activities after graduation.

Assessing The Effects Of Service-Learning On Student Writing, Adrian J. Wurr

Higher Education

This paper proposes methods to study the impact of service-learning on the writing performance cf native and non-native English speaking students in first-year college composition. Linguistic and rhetorical features commonly identified as affecting judgments of writing quality will be compared to holistic essay and portfolio ratings to describe the impact of different teaching and learning contexts on writing performance. The implications of the study will be of particular interest to L1 and L2 university composition instructors interested in learning more about service-learning and writing assessment.

Crafting Multicultural Science Education With Preservice Teachers Through Service-Learning, Angela Calabrese Barton

Higher Education

Many science educators, in the US and elsewhere, support the idea that all students should have fair and equal opportunities to become scientifically literate through authentic, real problem-based science education. However, this challenge requires teachers to find ways to help all students feel comfortable with, and connected to, science. Despite the general consensus around the ideal of science for all, science teacher education programmes have had little or no impact on pre-service teachers’ philosophies of teaching and learning, especially as it relates to serving under-served populations in science. In this paper, I explore community service-learning as one way of addressing …

The Voices Of Preservice Teachers On The Meaning And Value Of Their Service-Learning, Kevin J. Swick, Michael Rowls

Higher Education

The perspectives of preservice teacher education students about their service- learning experiences are examined in the context of Serow's conceptual scheme of competence, participation, relationships, and understanding. 240 undergraduates in education and 59 professional program interns participated in the study. Their responses to a service learning survey suggest that service learning positively influences them in relation to personal, professional, academic, and career functioning. The student "voice" on service- learning provides many insights on ways to strengthen S-L in teacher education.

Issues Involved In Faculty Implementation Of Community Service-Learning In Teacher Education, Rahima C. Wade, Eric Vanden Berk, Stephanie K. Siddens

Higher Education

This study examined how teacher education faculty from 21 institutions attempted to implement the curricular innovation of community service-learning. Faculty's biggest successes were implementation of program/course changes, increased collaborations on campus or in the community, and perceived positive impact on pre-service teachers. Barriers to implementation included time, resistance, or inertia on the part of colleagues, limited finances, and other reform efforts and commitments that demanded immediate attention. The study highlights several key factors that contributed to faculty success: faculty ownership and involvement in decision making, site-specific professional development opportunities, resources to support faculty 's efforts, and written plans for implementation.

Leadership Reconsidered: Engaging Higher Education In Social Change, Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin

Higher Education

This book was prepared over a period of two years. Most of us have worked together previously as members of an advisory committee for “College Age Youth,” a W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiative to develop leadership abilities in college undergraduates at 31 institutions. That program demonstrated that colleges and universities can provide highly effective environments for the development of future leaders (Zimmerman-Oster & Burkhardt, 1999).

How Service Works. Summary Of The W. K. Kellogg Foundation's "Service Works": A Retrospective Evaluation Of Higher Education Service Programs, Cynthis Koch, Mark Lelle, Robert Long, Michael Van Buren

Higher Education

Service learning is an undergraduate education strategy found across four program areas funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF). This cross-foundation, retrospective evaluation examines 35 projects of $100,000 or more funded between 1985-95. Study information was based on qualitative data and approaches, with the majority of project activities and results self-reported by grantees. Written surveys and review of annual progress reports submitted by grantees were augmented by follow-up telephone inquiries and e-mails. Four international projects are included in the evaluations. Most projects used approaches involving classroom learning, community service, and reflection on service within the context of coursework. The …

How Service Learning Affects Students, Alexander W. Astin, Lori J. Vogelgesang, Elaine K. Ikeda, Jennifer A. Yee

Higher Education

The two major goals of this study were: 1) to explore the comparative effects of service learning and community service on the cognitive and affective development of college undergraduates and 2) to enhance our understanding of how learning is enhanced by service. These questions were explored by means of a quantitative longitudinal study of a national sample of students at diverse colleges and universities and a qualitative study of students and faculty who participated in service learning at a subset of these institutions.

Counting Quality, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fifth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Report On The Agriculture & Nature Based Tourism Study Tour : United States Of America, United Kingdom & Germany, 28th August 99 To 17th September 99, Theo Nabben, Adriana Svenson

Research Reports

The focus of the study tour to United States, United Kingdom and Germany was agricultural and nature based. Six recurring themes were identified on tour as keys to a vibrant economy in the south west of Western Australia. This report is divided into each of these themes and provides an insight into lessons learnt while overseas, and how these might be adapted to Australia. The themes identified were:

• Agri-tourism,
• Marketing
• Restructuring rural Communities - Building on natural resource management
• Land use planning
• Developing improved linkages with higher education
• Leadership