Service Learning Commons^™

The Changing Role Of Higher Education: Learning To Deal With Wicked Problems, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

The role of higher education is changing in today’s world because the world itself is changing, and complex problems confront us daily. This essay will explore the role of an emerging group of individuals who can serve as a bridge between the academic community and the world at large. These administrators, faculty members, staff, students, and community members can help create new opportunities for different disciplines to work together and for all parts of a campus community and members of the broader society to form new working relationships to address the complex problems of today’s world. What role will these …

Reading The Community: Helping Students Learn The Process, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Colleges and universities in the 21st century will thrive through extensive collaborations with other higher education institutions and with communities with which they have special affinities. These relationships will create an educational environment that promotes deeper learning and student success, while generating knowledge that can be put to good use in improving the sustainability of local and global communities, and the diversity and strength of the economy. This paper will explore ways to engage students in the life of their communities while they take an active role in addressing challenges that affect local culture, health, economic stability and the environment. …

Seeking More High-Quality Undergraduate Degrees: Conditions For More Effectively Working With Policy Makers, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Our nation’s colleges and universities have always sought to prepare their graduates for life and work in their own era. The pressures we face today, both from outside the academy and within the higher education community, are complex, interlocking, and hard to manage. Some of these challenges require us to rethink what it means to be educated in today’s world and to explore ways to provide a coherent and meaningful educational experience in the face of the turbulence, uncertainty, and fragmentation that characterizes much of higher education today.

How Disruptive Is Information Technology Really?, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

In an administrative career lasting over thirty years, first as a provost and then through three presidencies and a stint at the National Science Foundation, I have watched while changes in technology have reshaped the nature and character of discovery, the gathering and interpretation of increasingly complex observations whose patterns would be completely opaque if we did not have high-speed computing to sort them out, and the integration and use of knowledge in ways that would have been impossible when I went to college in the early 1960s. I went from having to learn the purpose of each of the …

Thriving In The 21st Century By Tackling Wicked Problems, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

More than 20 years ago, I was a member of a leadership roundtable in Portland, Oregon, that was working on achieving the ambitious goal of 100 percent graduation rate from high school. In the course of our deliberations, we finally asked ourselves why young people were dropping out of school. After listening to a number of experts talk about retention, we thought to ask ourselves, “What would the young people themselves say?” To find out, we invited a group of young high school dropouts and high school student leaders to an afternoon conversation. The experts had talked about various strategies …

Creating A Culture Of Assessment: 2012 Annual Member Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact has conducted an annual membership survey since 1987. The purpose of this survey is to help the organization and its member campuses track the extent of civic engagement activity in order to be able to implement ongoing improvements as well as to report outcomes to various constituencies.

This year’s numbers tell a story of continuing growth in support structures for campus engagement, leading to notable levels of engagement with students, faculty, and community partners. Where possible, comparisons with prior years have been provided to highlight areas of growth as well as those where more work is needed.1 Campuses …

Deepening The Roots Of Civic Engagement: 2011 Annual Membership Survey - Executive Summary, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact has supported the efforts of campuses to develop an engaged academy and promote the public purposes of higher education for more than 25 years. As demonstrated by the annual survey of Campus Compact’s nearly 1,200 member colleges and universities, this effort continues to pay off: Each year more students on more campuses are engaging with their communities in ways that create strong partnerships and encourage growth and development. These experiences reinforce academic learning and encourage lifelong civic habits.

Improving Student Learning Outcomes With Service Learning, Mary Prentice, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

Growing numbers of community colleges are incorporating service learning into the curriculum. While research has documented many benefits to those who participate in this experiential pedagogy, a primary goal of service learning is to increase students’ learning of course material.

Educationg Citizens, Building Communities: Annual Membership Survey Results - Executive Summary, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s annual survey of its 1,100+ member colleges and universities gauges a host of measures of campus commitment to and support for service, service-learning, and civic engagement. Results over the past decade reflect a deepening awareness of the importance of such activities in enhancing teaching and learning, building strong community/campus partnerships, and educating the next generation of responsible leaders.

Educating Citizens Building Communities: Annual Membership Survey Results - Executive Summary, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact conducts an annual survey of its member colleges and universities to—among other things—gauge student and faculty involvement in service and service-learning, assess institutional support and culture for service and service-learning, identify the types of courses and programs offered as well as the issues being addressed through service, and identify the nature of campus-community partnerships. This publication provides an executive summary of our major findings in 2009.

Community-Engaged Scholarship In Ffigher Education: An Expanding Experience, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Higher education in this country has always been expected to serve the public good. Sometimes, the emphasis is on preparing educated citizens or practitioners in especially critical fields and how public service can deepen and enrich learning and prepare students to lead purposeful, responsible, and creative lives. Sometimes the focus is upon institutions themselves as major intellectual and cultural resources for a community. In this paper, based on the keynote presentation at the Community Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative's invitational symposium, the author explores four levels of engagement: the individual, the academic community and its concepts of scholarship, the institution …

A Tobacco-Free Service-Learning Pilot Project, Sherry Bassi, Janet Cray, Lois Caldrello

Higher Education

This pilot project was a collaboration between a public university school of nursing in New England and an elementary school in southeastern Connecticut, with 450 student participants. The school was selected because of the presence of poverty, health disparities, and single-parent homes in the population. Eighteen nursing students participated as part of a service-learning project. The nursing students provided tobacco-use education. Fourth and fifth grade students were taught components of the pro-health tobacco education program, the Tar Wars curriculum. Other age-appropriate strategies targeted grades pre-kindergarten through 3. One hundred percent of fourth and fifth grade students achieved the learning objectives; …

Service Statistics 2008: Highlights And Trends From Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

The following pages summarize the findings of Campus Compact’s survey of member colleges and universities. This survey is conducted each year to gauge various measures of campus-community engagement and to assess current trends. Of the 1,190 Campus Compact members in 2008, 627 responded to the survey, a response rate of 53%.

Factors Influencing Faculty Members' Motivation In Integrating Service-Learning Into Their Syllabi, Bonnie Finsley Satterfield

Higher Education

The purpose of this presentation is to share the results of a study which was conducted in 2006-2007 for a dissertation titled "Factors Influencing Faculty Members' Motivation in Integrating Service-Learning into Their Syllabi." Four research questions were addressed in this study: 1.) What are the factors which motivate faculty to integrate service-learning into their courses? 2.) Are student learning outcomes a significant motivator to faculty for including service-learning their courses? 3.) Can prior knowledge and research in service-learning be communicated to the studied faculty in such a way to engage their participation? 4.) What characterizes faculty who have incorporated service-learning …

Community Voices: A California Campus Compact Study On Partnerships (Executive Summary), Marie Sandy

Higher Education

This study grew out of a conversation among service-learning practitioners at a retreat hosted by California Campus Compact. “What do our community partners think about service-learning? We think they are benefiting, but how do we know? Why do they choose to partner with us in the first place?” While reciprocity of benefits for the community has long been an intended hallmark of service-learning practice (e.g., Ferrari & Chapman, 1999; Honnet & Poulsen, 1989, Sigmon, 1979, Waterman, 1997), service-learning practitioners often do not know if, when and how this is achieved.

Community Voices: A California Campus Compact Study On Partnerships (Final Report), Marie Sandy

Higher Education

This study grew out of a conversation among service-learning practitioners at a retreat hosted by California Campus Compact. “What do our community partners think about service-learning? We think they are benefiting, but how do we know? Why do they choose to partner with us in the first place?” While reciprocity of benefits for the community has long been an intended hallmark of service-learning practice (Ferrari & Chapman, 1999; Honnet & Poulsen, 1989; Keith, 1998; Sigmon, 1979, Waterman, 1997), service-learning practitioners often do not know if, when and how this is achieved. To help its member campuses begin to answer these …

Linking Community Service, Learning, And Enviromental Analytical Chemistry, Joesph A. Gardella Jr., Tammy M. Milillo, Gaurav Sinha, Gunwah Oh, David C. Manns, Eleanor Coffey

Higher Education

In 1994, during a tour of the then-new natural sciences building- a $43 million teaching and research complex fully equipped with the latest in technology and instrumentation for chemistry and geology courses-a member of the Buffalo Public Schools Board of Education asked, "How can the community [that paid for it] have access to this teaching and research equipment?" That question triggered the effort reported here - a program to better link teaching and research to community service.

Community Service Learning: Tenth Anniversary Edition, California State University

Higher Education

Beginning in the 1990s, the CSU started to recognize the power of service learning as a vehicle that would meet the state's changing educational needs while also imparting vital civic skills and knowledge. In the past decade, service learning has become a widely accepted and effective way of enhancing the in-class academic experiences of students with the real-world, out-of-class benefits of serving the community.

An American Mosaic: Service Learning Stories, Carol Lester, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

The goals of Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, supported by the Learn and Serve America program of the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered by the American Association of Community Colleges, are to build on established foundations to integrate service learning into the institutional climate of community colleges and to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in colleges nationwide.

Service learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local needs while developing …

2007 Service Statistics: Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s latest annual member survey reveals strong campus commitment to service and civic engagement. Nearly one-third of students on member campuses participated in campus-organized service and service-learning projects during the 2006–2007 academic year, contributing $7 billion in services to their communities. At an average of 5 hours per week, students are increasingly committed to community work.

Developmental Outcomes Of Service Learning Pedagogics, Josh P. Armstrong

Higher Education

This study explored the psychosocial development outcomes of service learning from three distinct models: ongoing continuous service throughout a semester in co-curricular service learning; one time, intensive week-long spring break service learning trips; and ongoing service through a semester of academically-based service learning. A control group of students who had no involvement in service learning was used for comparative purposes. The Student Developmental Task and Lifestyle Assessment (SDTLA; Winston, Miller, & Cooper, 1999b) was administered to college students involved in each of the three types of service learning and the control group. This instrument was administered as a pre-test at …

The Limits Of Service-Learning In Higher Education, Dan W. Butin

Higher Education

The service-learning movement has become a major presence within higher education. More than 950 colleges and universities are Campus Compact members, committed to the civic purposes of higher education. Tens of thousands of faculty engage millions of college students in some form of service-learning practice each and every year. Major federal and private funding sustains and expands an increasingly diverse K -16 service-learning movement.

Learning Sustainable Design Through Service, Karim Al-Khafaji, Margaret Catherine Morse

Higher Education

Environmental sustainability and sustainable development principles arc vital topics that engineering education has largely failed to address. Service-learning, which integrates social service into an academic setting, is an emerging tool that can be leveraged to teach sustainable design to future engineers. We present a model of using service-learning to teach sustainable design based on the experiences of the Stanford chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World. The model involves the identification of projects and partner organizations, a student led, project-based design course, and internships coordinated with partner organizations. The model has been very successful, although limitations and challenges exist. These …

Public Scholarship: Making Sense Of An Emerging Synthesis, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

This concluding chapter, written by a national leader in higher education, reflects on public scholarship from a perspective beyond Penn State and argues that public scholarship promises to strengthen “that special form of public decision making that we call democracy.”

Embedding Engagement Into The University: Lessons Learned From A Case Study Of One Public Research University, Jodi Anderson

Higher Education

In recent years, practitioners, faculty, administrators and students have called for institutions of higher education to undergo change in order to more fully embrace their civic roles. However, little research on this topic has examined how universities might undertake institutional change efforts for these purposes. In particular, scant attention has been given to understanding the rationale for developing university centers for community partnerships and how they might begin to stimulate public research universities to embed engagement into the institution. Therefore, the focus of this paper is the presentation of findings from a case study at one public research university. In …

Higher Education: Civic Mission & Civic Effects, Carnegie Foundation

Higher Education

A Report by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement)

2006 Service Statistics: Highlights And Trends Of Campus Compact’S Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Campus Compact’s 2006 member survey once again reveals a strong commitment to service and civic engagement among college and university presidents, faculty, students, and service staff. Results confirm a long-term trend toward increasing support for higher education’s role in educating citizens and building strong communities.

Learning To Give: Final Evaluation Report Overview & Recommendations (2004-2005), Michigan State University

Higher Education

The Learning to Give project has evolved considerably from its inception nearly a decade ago. From an almost exclusive concern with helping children understand philanthropy and their potential role in it, the project has broadened its focus to include helping children learn how to contribute positively across all aspects of civil society. The earlier years were necessarily focused on creating and testing curricular lessons; more recently the emphasis has fallen on disseminating those tested materials and encouraging their adoption in more schools. In the last two years the project has begun to expand beyond Michigan and currently is establishing itself …

Paying The Bills Is Not Just Theory: Service Learning About A Living Wage, Nina Banks, Geoffrey Schneider, Paul Susman

Higher Education

This article discusses how to combine service learning, and spccifica!Iy a living wage research project, with radical political economy-based undergraduate economics courses to promote critical thinking, civic engagement, and active learning in students. The authors explore how instructors can integrate service learning into the teaching of political economy. In addition, the article describes the authors' experiences with living wage projects that they have implemented. The article makes the argument that the combination of experiential learning and political economics enriches the course experience for students significantly, leaving a much more lasting impression on students than a standard economics class.

Whose World Is This?, Jayne R. Beilke

Higher Education

As. defined by critical theorists, critical multicultural education requires the development of a critical consciousness (conscientization). The elements of critical consciousness include dialogue, problem-posing, and the exploration of generative themes such as race, class, and gender. The formation of a partnership between university students and a community nonprofit, youth-serving agency, can be a powerful catalyst in the development of critical multicultural consciousness.

This article describes an on-going partnership between university secondary education majors in a multicultural education class and the local Boys and Girls Club. It draws upon student reflective journals to illustrate the process of developing critical multicultural consciousness …