Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Workforce 2000: Reshaping For School-Work-Career Transitions, Terry Pickeral, Dawn Wegter, Ellen Winiarczyk, Debbie Driver, Liz Newport, Eve Alitzer, Kellie Bond, Jill Painter-Holmes, Linda Burgess

School K-12

This document discusses: Definitions and Elements; Program Development; Narratives and Articles; Curriculum Resoures; Reflection; and Assessment.

Statistics Related To Youth Service, Points Of Light Foundation

Special Topics, General

Compiled into this resource packet you will find information to guide the reader towards statistical and narrative research published about young people and volunteer service. Some examples of each report's information are listed, along with a description, when possible, of the methodology involved and contact information for the publisher or research group. Studies are listed in chronological order, with the most recent first, and are not grouped by topic since many studies look at multiple issues related to young people.

The Impacts Of Service Learning On Youth, Schools And Communities: Research On K-12 School-Based Service Learning, 1990 To 1999, Shelley H. Billig

Special Topics, General

This is an excellent review of literature on the outcomes of service-learning for all involved by a respected author. Contents: Prevalence of Service Learning I Rationale for Use in K-12 Public Schools I Evidence of Impact /Impact on Personal and Social Development /Impact on Civic Responsibility /Impact on Student Academic Learning /Impact on Career Exploration and Aspirations /Impact on Schools /Impact on Communities. Includes five-page bibliography of all sources cited.

Service Learning Is The Great Connector, Jane Angelis

Service Learning, General

It isn't a coincidence that older people are flocking to learn about computers, the Internet, and E-mail. It's a part of the service-learning movement that has caught America's imagination. Why are older people, technology and service learning such natural partners? Ask a middle-school student who is teaching a computer class to older people. "Some senior citizens are afraid of computers in the beginning," he says, "But we know how to make them more comfortable." That confidence is the hallmark of service-learning programs across the country involving elementary, middle school, high school, and college campuses. William Butler Yeats wrote that ':Education …

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.

The New Majority 2000, Cesar Chavez Foundation

Project Summaries

9th-12th grade students enrolled in a month-long Intersession class organized by members of their faculty and service-learning coaches from the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation. For three hours a day for four weeks, students learned about The New Majority 2000 and planned various community projects that would help address the needs of this new majority. They planned an assembly for the senior students at school where they were informed of important political issues such as the environment, military, the Patriot Act, gay marriage, and education and were given the opportunity to register to vote. The culminating project was a community focused …

Peace Crane Earring Project, Meg Clayton

Project Summaries

This service learning project was conducted with a group of seventeen sixth-graders during the 1998/99 school year. It evolved out of another service learning project, which several of these students had participated in the previous year. As with the best of learning experiences, it ballooned and carried both students and teacher in exciting new directions.

Intergenerational, Community-Based Learning And Science Education, James J. Gallagher, Kathleen Hogan

Intergenerational

In the typical mode of formal schooling, adults and youngsters interact within boundaries of clearly defined roles in which teachers teach and students learn. An alternative format is one in which not only adults teach children, but children teach adults, as multiple generations work together on a topic of common concern to their community. Evidence of the benefits of an intergenerational, community-based approach to science education is emerging in various parts of the world.

Facilitator's Manual: Curriculum To Establish An Intergenerational Oral History Program, Institute For Global Education & Service Learning

Intergenerational

The Institute for Global Education and Service Learning is a non-profit teacher training organization that creates service-learning programs and initiates activity-based education in collaboration with schools and organizations across the country and around the world.

Service-Learning Resource Guide For Faculty, Appalachian State University

Guides

Appalachian and the Community Together (ACT) is ASU's clearinghouse for community service and service-learning opportunities in Watauga County and northwest North Carolina. We offer diverse opportunities for individuals and student groups to get involved in human services and environmental advocacy, as well as assist faculty members with integrating community service projects into their academic courses.

Program Site Visit Monitoring Instrument For Commission Staff, Mississippi Commission For Volunteer Service

Guides

Believing that volunteers are a powerful force for community improvement, whose efforts make the most of limited resources, the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service (MCVS) seeks to involve Mississippians to make a difference in every community in the state. As the state's official organization to promote community service and volunteerism, the MCVS invests in Mississippi communities by building public/private coalitions, linking communities and organizations to local and national resources, coordinating state resources for volunteers, and initiating volunteer programs to address unmet needs.

Student Evaluation Of Academic Course With Service Learning Components, Service Learning Collection

Evaluation/Reflection

This survey includes four parts: Background information; Course Commponents; Project Components; and College/Community Partnerships.

Silicon Valley Partnership For Recruiting And Preparing Quality Teachers For Students In High Needs Schools: "It Takes A Valley", Susan Meyers, Amy Strage, Janet Norris

Curriculum

The old African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" seemed apropos as the team members discussed our shared commitment to recruiting and retaining quality teachers for our children. However, we are not a village, we are the Silicon Valley hence, "It takes a valley" to raise the teachers, specifically prepared for the children in our valley who are struggling in high need schools.

Community Service Learning Packet, Martin Kimeldorf

Curriculum

This learning packet contains a set of exercises designed to stimulate the student's thinking about their community and the value of community service. It begins with a personal definition of the word "community." From this definition, the student then gathers information about the school community. Hopefully, by attending school club meetings students will increase their sense of belonging and learn about options for volunteering at their campus. The notion that young people are selfish and hedonistic is examined in a section about stereotypes and biased news reporting. To break up the "worksheet" sequence two movie assignment guides are provided, where …

Kids Initiative Neighborhood Development Facilitator's Manual: Curriculum To Implement Service-Learning, Institute For Global Education & Service Learning

Curriculum

The Institute for Global Education and Service Learning is a non-profit teacher training organization that creates service-learning programs and initiates activity-based education in collaboration with schools and organizations across the country and around the world.

Linking Learning & Serving: Teaching Core Content Through Service Learning, Kentucky Department Of Education

Curriculum

Experts agree that students learn best when their learning experience is hands-on, immediate, relevant, and what they are learning is directly tied to an experience with another human being. Service-learning is a teaching strategy that connects a service experience in the community to classroom curriculum. This book highlights ways teachers can engage students in service-learning projects that will both satisfy the core content guidelines and make learning more meaningful for students.

Keep in mind that this document only briefly touches on how to utilize service-learning to meet required core content. While the ideas contained in this document just skim the …

Service-Learning As "Citizenship" Education: The Promise And The Puzzles, Bernadette Sun Chi

Curriculum

Since developing "citizenship" is a prevalent goal for many service-learning programs and policies, Bernadette Chi's National Service Fellowship research proposed to examine what and how students learn "citizenship" through service-learning. She explored students' attitudes about service, their understanding of citizenship, and the relationship between the concepts as a way to consider how service-learning contributed to students' conceptions of citizenship. To suggest how and why students' attitudes differed, this report also briefly describes the significant role of teachers in shaping service-learning experiences, and the variety of service-learning practices that contribute to a diversity of outcomes. In coordination with a state-funded study …

Read And Lead: Fostering Literacy Through Cross-Age Tutoring (Facilitator's Manual To Implement A National Literacy Corps), Institute For Global Education And Service Learning

Curriculum

Congratulations on choosing the Read & Lead Facilitator's Guide for your cross-age tutoring program! This guide is designed to help you facilitate a National Literacy Corps in your own school, after school program, organization, or community. The National Literacy Corps began in Philadelphia high schools in 1991. Since that time the National Literacy Corps model has been implemented in schools across the country and in England. The National Literacy Corps was recognized as an exemplary model at the President's Summit on America's Future in April 1997. Since 2000, the model has been modified for successful implementation in middle and upper …

Discovering Citizenship Through Community Development, Institute For Global Education And Service Learning

Curriculum

Facilitator's Manual: Curriculum to Establish Community Development Youth Corps

Designing Teacher Education Course Syllabi That Integrate Service-Learning, Michael Rowls, Kevin J. Swick

Syllabi

Sample service-learning in teacher education course syllabi are analyzed in relation to important variables impacting the value and use of this pedagogy in teacher education courses and experiences. Results of the analysis – as interrelated with the findings of other service-learning research – point to possible means for strengthening the design and uses of service-learning in teacher education. Guidelines for strengthening service-learning within teacher education courses are presented and discussed.

The National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness, The National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness, National Coalition For The Homeless, The Student Public Interest Research Groups

Partnerships/Community

The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness is a national network of college and high school students, educators, and community leaders working to fight hunger and homelessness in the U.S. and around the world. Guided by the belief that young people are in a unique position to make a difference in our society, the Campaign helps turn concern into action. The Campaign is the largest network of students fighting hunger and homelessness in the country with more than 600 actively participating campuses.

An Approach To Community University Partnerships: Discoveries On The Road To America's Promise, Nancie Teresa Biver

Partnerships/Community

This paper is a journey that explores the complexity and optimism of community/higher education partnerships to support youth. It provides an analysis of the dynamics and history of power and racism. It raises critical questions regarding the role and approach of higher education and America’s Promise, the national alliance for youth. Ultimately, it offers an opportunity to view our communities differently and engage in a process that provides the potential for authentic democratic solution generating, inclusive of the grassroots voice.

This work seeks to enhance the process and intellectual thought supporting the higher education initiative within America’s Promise and community/higher …

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.