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The Impact Of School Based Community Service On Nine Grade Students' Self-Esteem And Sense Of Civic Inclusion, Judy Reese

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

PROBLEM: Community Service (CS) has been enshrined as a panacea for the problems of declining civic involvement among American Youth. Developing a framework to understand the impact of these programs is an essential component to evaluating their effectiveness.

HYPOTHESES: Four hypotheses were tested:
1. CS participation has a positive impact on the self-esteem of students.
2. Participation in CS has a positive impact on the students' sense of civic inclusion.
3. Participation in CS with the elderly has a greater positive impact on perception of the elderly than other types of CS.
4. Students that participate in CS show greater …

Everyday Democracy: A Study Of Two Teachers' Perspectives On Social Education, Elaine Metherall Brenneman

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

As a nation, we are concerned about the values our children learn in school. Opinions regarding the appropriate educational content and strategies to sustain and improve our democratic country span the political spectrum. The social studies, a field dedicated to the development of good citizens, is especially concerned with values issues in education. Research on citizenship education has primarily focused its interest in the development and assessment of appropriate content and teaching strategies. An important, though often neglected, aspect of social education research is the investigation of teacher perspectives. This study suggests that who a teacher is, what she knows, …

School-Sponsored Service Programs And The Educational Development Of High School Students, Andrew Furco

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Currently, a growing number of our nation's school districts are encouraging students to perform community service. Vermont, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, for example, all include community service activities as part of their K-12 education plans. Maryland requires all high school students to complete 60 hours of community service prior to graduation. And as part of California's Challenge Initiative, it is expected that by the Year 2004, every student in California will engage in at least one community service or service-learning experience prior to graduation (1996, California Department of Education).

An Ethnographic Study Of The Qualities And Characteristics Of Democratic Elementary Classrooms Which Motivate Students To Civically Participate, Kathryn M. Obenchain

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study described two self-contained, upper elementary, democratic classrooms in order to determine if there were specific qualities and characteristics in these classrooms which would motivate students to be more participatory citizens. The two classrooms were ethnically and geographically diverse, one in Southern California and the other in the Midwest. The participating teachers expressed a commitment to citizenship education and it had been determined that democratic elements were present in their classrooms. The study was based in the theoretical frameworks of constructivism and interpretivism, and an ethnographic methodology was utilized to describe the classroom environment. Analyses of the data were …

A Study Of The Effects Of A Service-Learning Experience On Student Success At An Urban Community College, Judith Sheryl Berson

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of a service-learning experience on student success as measured by class attendance course completion, final course grades, and end-of-term evaluation data.

Though many outcomes of service-learning experiences have been studied. including ethical values, self-esteem, student personal development, and career preparation, relatively few studies have been conducted on the effects of such experiences on academic achievement, and the studies that have been done have primarily studied students at traditional, four-year, residential universities.

Organizational Context And Young Adult Education In An Urban Service Corps, Robert A. Pence

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

As a medium-sized, state-supported youth corps, the Wisconsin Conservation Corps (WCC) is an established institutional expression of a service corps model that has potential to address some of the educational and economic needs of marginalized young adults from "at-risk" environments. The WCC is a "second chance" work experience program that attempts to prepare 18 to 25 year-old unemployed young adults for employment or continuing education while they complete useful conservation work throughout the state. It is largely a white, male, rural-based program that maintains some crews in the black and Hispanic urban core of Milwaukee. This case study critically examines …

A Policy Study Of Youth Service: Synthesizing Analysis Of Policy Content And Policy Process Over Time, Jean Shumway Warner

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This dissertation uses a case study of youth service proposals to examine how policy is formulated. For this study, youth service refers to federal programs that provide America's youth with opportunities to participate in domestic, non-military, full- or part-time community service activities. A theory is proposed that synthesizes two complementary approaches to the study of policy - process analysis (Kingdon 1984, 1994) and the analysis of policy content (Schneider and Ingram 1990, 1993) --and advocates analyzing policy over time. Four theoretical categories of data -- actors, ideas, opportunities, and strategies -- guide the study.

A Profile Of Service Learning Programs In South Carolina And Their Responsiveness To The National Priorities, Mary Kathryn Gibson Carter

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of Service Learning activities and programs in South Carolina; to explore the relationship between the person coordinating these activities and the degree to which Service Learning is practiced; to determine how Service Learning projects and activities respond to the national priorities of meeting critical educational, human, public safety, and environmental needs; and to determine how many students are participating and the number of hours they are volunteering in Service Learning activities. The study addressed all public schools funded in FY93 with Serve America and FY94 with Learn and Serve America …

Service Learning And Urban Schools: A Method For Developing Attitudes Reflective Of Social Responsibility, Julianne Price

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Currently, a growing number of our nation's school districts are encouraging students to perform community service. Vermont, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, for example, all include community service activities as part of their K-12 education plans. Maryland requires all high school students to complete 60 hours of community service prior to graduation. And as part of California's Challenge Initiative, it is expected that by the Year 2004, every student in California will engage in at least one community service or service-learning experience prior to graduation (1996, California Department of Education).

Psychosocial Development Through Service-Learning Enhanced Spiritual Consciousness In Workcamp Experience, Timothy W. Kidd

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The problem examined in this research was the identification and description of the distinctive components associated with the Christian youth workcamp experience found to promote the psychosocial development of church youth participants and the linkages to enhanced spiritual consciousness.

The unit of analysis for this multi-case study was the Christian youth workcamp. The criteria used for selection of the three cases examined were: (1) location within the Appalachian region; (2) philosophy and practice consistent with service-learning principles; (3) emphasis upon facilitating spiritual development; and (4) logistical concerns. Thirty-four subjects were selected from three church youth groups, each attending one of …

The Effect Of Participation In School-Sponsored Community Service Programs On Student Attitudes Toward Social Responsibility, Helen Marie Marks

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

With the passage of the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the 101st Congress culminated decades of proposals and debate on the importance of community service -especially by young Americans -to the common or public good.¹ The renewal of the "ethic of civic responsibility in the United States" is foremost among the purposes of the legislation. Although the act functions practically to generate and to fund new projects that promote national and community service, its passage also underscores an important moral purpose for student service within a democracy, namely. to develop social responsibility in the young. For schools …

Combining Service And Learning: A Comparison Study Of The Relationship Between A Classroom Sponsored Service Learning Initiative And The Moral, Civic And Intellectual Lives Of College Students, Timothy Patrick Leary

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a classroom sponsored community service initiative on students' moral judgment, commitment to civic and social responsibility, and mastery of academic course content. A multi-method approach was utilized to examine developmental and learning outcomes of students participating in two sections of a Philosophical Anthropology II course, both taught by the same instructor, offered at a small liberal arts college. Students in one section of the course participated in a structured service-Iearning experience of approximately 25 hours in length, while students in the other section were asked to complete a library …

Integrating Service And Academic Study: Service-Learning And Faculty Motivation In Michigan Higher Education, Christine M. Hammond

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Student involvement in community service projects is viewed primarily as an extra-curricular activity on most college campuses (Kendall, 1990; Lieberman and Connolly, 1992). However, an increasing number of educators are calling for greater integration between service and study through courses which incorporate service-learning (Barber, 1989, 1991, 1992: Nathan and Keilsmeier, 1991; NeWlllan, 1992: Stanton, 1987, 1990; Wieckowski, 1992).

Politicians, practitioners, and philosophers offer many arguments to support the inclusion of service-learning in the formal curriculum (Bok, 1982, 1986; Boyer, 1981, 1987; Boyte, 1992; Bradfield and Hyers, 1992; Coles, 1988: Levine, 1989; Stanley, 1989, 1991; Stanton, 1987; Wagner, 1990). This chorus …

A Multiculturally-Responsive Tenth Grade English Curriculum Nurtures An Appreciation For Individual Differences By Immersing Students In The Lives Of Others, Jayne Alexander

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The goal of a practicum was that high school students in non-academic 10th grade English classes would develop an understanding of and appreciation for cultural differences. The English teacher challenged herself, her peers, her students, and the general school population (a regional high school in a growing community in the northeastern United States) to become more knowledgeable and appreciative of many cultures by expanding her own knowledge of ethnic groups; creating a faculty reading club; developing a curriculum that responsibly presented ethnic groups in a relevant format; designing activities that provided opportunities for interaction with other cultural groups and for …

Construction Of An Instrument To Assess The Service Learning Model: Establishing Concurrent Validity And Internal Reliability, Christopher Anthony Payne

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

A paper and pencil test was constructed to investigate the existence of phases as identified by the Service Learning Model (Delve, Mintz, & Stewart, 1990). Subjects with no structured exposure to service-learning activities residing in the residence halls at the University of Northern Colorado (URC) (n =70) and subjects involved in service-learning programs coordinated by the Office of Community Service at Colorado State University (CSU) (n=65) participated in the study during the spring of 1992.

Research objectives provided guidelines for developing the test format and Writing clear and understandable items that reflected the affective, behavioral and cognitive ways in which …

Journalism In The Community Classroom A Curriculum Model For Cultural Journalism In Oklahoma, Linda C. Howard

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This paper introduces the medium of cultural journalism as an effective means of intensified basic communication training and community involvement. Part one contains a report of a needs assessment and a subsequent pilot project on cultural journalism that was conducted at an Oklahoma high school. The needs assessment also reports on similar projects conducted in and around the Oklahoma region, the attitudes of community members toward such a project, the problems and possibilities associated with such curriculum development, and advice from other proponents of experience based education. The report on the pilot project that resulted from the needs assessment--a 36-page …

Selected Changes In Urban High School Students After Participation In Community Based Learning And Service Activities, Kathleen Parks Luchs

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study measured selected changes in high school students as a result of community involvement and participation in order to realize the goal of responsible citizenship. It was designed to ascertain whether students who experienced community service displayed more positive attitudes toward learning than students who had not experienced community service.

The study investigated changes in the areas of: student attitudes toward future life goals as measured by actual behaviors in planning and exploring careers, feelings of personal adequacy or inadequacy as measured by self-esteem in social situations, attitudes toward helping others as measured by social and personal responsibility indices, …

The Ideal Characteristics Of Foxfire Type Projects As Perceived By Teacher Advisors, Robert Dennis England

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Eliot Wigginton, after six weeks of classroom teaching at the Rabun-Gap Nacoochee School in rural north Georgia, was frustrated because he found that his students were not interested in the courses he was prepared to teach. He had graduated from Cornell University in May 1966 with a master's degree and had come to Rabun-Gap to instruct mountain children in English and geography. He realized, fortunately, that if his students were bored it was he who had bored them. He believed that it might be better him to seek another career (Wigginton, 1972).

The Community Involvement Program: Social Service As A Factor In Adolescent Moral And Psychological Development, F. C. Corbett

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The Community Involvement Program is a one-year high school program the aim of which is to lead students to a commitment to the solution of social problems by a combination of direct experience in social service and a classroom component in which to reflect critically on their experience. This thesis studies the effects of participation in the program on the moral and psychosocial development of adolescents.

The Effects Of A Community Involvement Program On Adolescent Student's Citizenship Attitudes, Stuart Harold Stockhaus

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Upon looking at any of the many lists of social studies instructional objectives. one can hardly avoid finding an objective called citizenship. A National Council for the Social Studies sponsored publication on civic education states, "In one sense, desirable citizenship traits in a democratic society remain the same today, in the midst of rapid cultural change. as they were hundreds of years ago. Effective participation by the individual in public affairs continues to require the same four essentials: knowledge. thought. commitment, and action. In application, however. each generation redefines good citizenship to fit demands of the times."

A Comparison Of Experiential And Classroom Learning Models In Teaching Health Problems Of The Poor, Gerald F. Braza

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The general problem was to assess differences, if any, in selected areas of knowledge, attitudes and behavior among students exposed to a classroom model with students exposed to an experiential (community live-in} model in learning about health problems of the poor. Specific problems included: the selection of instruments, the development of methods and materials for teaching the classroom and experiential groups, and the measurement of students' knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to the poor and their health problems.

The Effect Of The Helping Experience Upon The Self-Concept Of The Helper, Hal J. Kelly

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Important among the reasons which many counselors have given for being counselors has been that the profession enables them to develop themselves (Carkhuff and Berenson, 1967). The idealized outcome of this development has been variously termed inner congruity, integration, self-actualization or simply the realization of a basic potentiality. Regardless of theoretical persuasions, counselors, in moments or candid self-revelation, have admitted that for them the act of engaging in counseling relationships hes contributed to personal growth more rewarding than monetary gain and self-satisfaction. This amounts to an untested truism which could be considered fundamental to the philosophical set of many who …