Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Service-Learning On Academic Outcomes: A Statewide Study Of Michigan Learn And Serve Grantees, Stephen Meyer

Project Summaries

Service-learning is a teaching strategy that involves students in service projects that are connected to the curriculum. Service-learning has its roots in the ideas of philosophers, such as Piaget and Dewey, who argued that students learn more when they are actively involved in their own learning and when learning has a distinct purpose (Anderson, Kinsley, Negroni, & Price, 1991; Conrad & Hedin, 1991; Kinsley, 1997). A body of evidence is building in support of the positive academic outcomes of service-learning (see Billig, 2000 for a review). However, the conclusions that can be drawn from many of these research studies are …

Service To Children Through Teaching, School Of Education

Curriculum

This guide features: Lesson Plan for Writing Letter to Military Personnel; Parts of a Friendly Letter; Book for Class to Welcome New Students; Describe Your Teacher; Know Your Town; Care of Classroom Pets; Picnic Game; Positive Characteristics About our Classmates; Teaching Procedures and Practices; and a Service Learning Lesson Plan.

Newspaper Coverage Of Animal Abuse, Lara Jasmine Imbrock

Student Work

The abuse of animals is an important social issue. Animals play a vital role in society, serving as companions and service animals for people. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to evaluate Midwest newspaper coverage of animal abuse in 1993, 1998, and 2002. The theories of social construction of reality, agenda setting, and priming were used to examine the effects of media coverage of animal abuse. Results showed that animal abuse has received increased coverage over the years.

Private Versus Public Juvenile Correctional Facilities: Do Differences In Environmental Quality Exist?, Gaylene Armstrong, Doris Layton Mackenzie

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Expansion in the operation of private sector correctional facilities has sparked a number of debates. A primary concern is that environmental quality for offenders incarcerated in privately operated facilities will be poorer than publicly operated facilities due to the profit motivation of the private sector. This study examined data collected from 48 residential juvenile correctional facilities in 19 states (16 private and 32 public facilities). Self-report surveys, including cognitive assessments of 13 conditions of confinement, were administered to juvenile delinquents (N = 4,121) incarcerated in these facilities. Data from facility records were also incorporated in the analysis. A hierarchical …

Student Experiences With Service-Learning In Sport Management, Gregg Bennett

Higher Education

Many professors utilize academically-based service-learning in their classes to provide students with an experiential experience. In fact, service-learning has increased in popularity in higher education due mainly to the many perceived benefits of the method. Service-learning is being written about extensively by several authors (Gray, Ondaatje, Fricker, & Geschwind, 2000; Hilosky, Moore, & Reynolds, 2000; Jackowski & Gullion, 1998; Mattson & Shea, 1997; Sutton, 1989; Zlotkowski, 1995), as educators grapple with how to implement this effective means of learning into the curriculum.

Fact Book 2003, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Fact Book

The Fact Book has been designed to present a variety of information and data about the University, in a concise, easily-used format. We have included details regarding student and faculty information broken out by college, rank, level, gender, age and ethnicity for both spring and fall semesters. This year we have added additional faculty information which includes both full and part-time by gender and ethnicity. Full-Time excludes faculty on phased retirement and includes six Senior Research Associates not in the bargaining unit. Part-Time includes 15 partial retired bargaining unit faculty. We have also included UNO faculty and staff headcount by …

Md. Service Learning: Classroom Link Weak?, Michelle Galley

School K-12

Maryland students are mucking out horse stalls, dancing in ballets, answering telephones, and ladling soup for the homeless in order to graduate from high school.

Eleven years after the legislature passed a first-of-its-kind state law requiring all public school students to complete 75 hours of service learning, young people are fulfilling the requirement with varying degrees of success.

Using Polvika's Model To Create A Service-Learning Partnership, Gwendolyn F. Foss, Maria M. Bonaiuto, Z. Sue Johnson, Dee M. Moreland

Partnerships/Community

Collaboration can maximize limited resources of universities, school systems, and public health departments by offering learning from experience. Polvika's theoretical model and principles from Community-Campus Partnerships for Health guided development of a service-learning partnership among a university, a county health department, and an alternative school in a large public school district. Of three commonly identified patterns of service-learning, this partnership demonstrated the pattern that equally emphasizes service to a community or agency, and mutual learning by all participants. All organizations in the partnership share a common goal to optimize the health of children in schools, and to provide quality learning …

The Legitimacy Of Experiential Learning In Research Universities, Angela E. Schmiede

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The goal of this historical and exploratory study was to describe and analyze the spread and legitimacy of experiential learning to and within Cornell University and Stanford University. Using an institutional and political framework, this analysis focused on understanding how elements of legitimacy from the academy, the experiential learning field and the external environment intersected to shape the diffusion, forms and purposes of experiential learning within Cornell and Stanford. The constructions of legitimacy within these three different contexts shifted over time, influencing the extent to which experiential learning was adopted; and once adopted, the extent to which it was adapted, …

Community Leaders' Perceptions Of University And College Efforts To Encourage Civic Engagement, Richard A. Brisbin Jr., Susan Hunter

Civic Engagement

"Students who volunteer in the community often end up staying or coming back after they graduate because they find out they can make a difference;' reports one economic development director in West Virginia. He and other community leaders agreed that getting college students involved in community activities not only had short-term benefits for the community but that often their experiences led to long-term gains for community life. This finding is important in a time when scholars, politicians, and pundits argue that a crisis of civic disengagement affects American politics. As a partial remedy for this crisis, educators have linked partnerships …

Service-Learning In Agricultural Instruction: A Guide For Implementing Real-World, Hands-On, Community Based Teaching And Learning, Carol E. O'Neil

Guides

Service-learning (SL) is defined as "a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Bringle and Hatcher, 1995). The service-learning movement has gained tremendous popularity during the past decade in response to visionaries like Boyer (1990), who called for radical change in higher education toward the "scholarship of engagement," in which universities engage with communities as equal partners for the …

Experiential Learning As Service For Others, Mary K. Canales, Helen French

Service Learning, General

In the hours and days immediately after the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept 11, 2001. When it became evident there would be few survivors to care for, nurses realized that despite their clinical skills and medical knowledge, they were powerless to help during this tragedy. Many began to question the meaning of their practice and ask themselves what they could do to serve their country and fellow citizens in this time of uncertainty. Since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, many nurses are learning other ways to serve and translating that service into personal and professional growth.

University Of Nebraska At Omaha, May Commencement 2003, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

For Richer For Poorer, In Debt Do Us Part? Debt Brought Into Marriage And Its Effect On Marital Quality, Michelle Mason

Student Work

This study examines the impact of personal debt accumulated before marriage upon marital quality for individuals. Attention from popular media points to the need for further systematic investigation. This study strives to fill this void in academic research. I use the National Survey of Families and Households to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the effect of debt on marital quality for 433 respondents who were single in 1987-1988 (Wave I), and who were married in 1992-1994 (Wave II). Ordinary Least Squares regression was used to test several hypotheses. Social exchange theory provides theoretical guidance for the analysis. Exchange theory focuses …

Learning That Matters, Shelley H. Billig

Special Topics, General

In Georgia, kindergarten and first-grade students conduct a community mapping activity to figure out the needs of the children within the school. Kindergartners new to the school say that the school layout is confusing and it is hard to find their way to the classrooms. Each class considers solutions, and students decide to label the hallways with street signs. Each class brainstorms potential names for the hallways, and first grade students design and conduct a survey. They eliminate names that do not represent positive images. (No Shock Street because it would scare the five-year-olds.) The surveys are administered, the data …

El Milagro: The Miracle Of Service Learning On The Border, Kathleen A. Baca, Elizabeth J. Gutierrez, Luly Valencia-Glenn

Diversity

In 2000, DoZa Ana Branch Community College (DABCC) received a grant from the American Association of Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning program to develop service learning in southern New Mexico. Poised on the United States- Mexico border, DABCC serves a population that includes 40% colonia residents. Colonias are communities within 150 miles of the border that lack basic infrastructure such as paved roads, water and sewage treatment facilities, and adequate housing. DABCC has developed community partnerships with colonia residents and with agencies that provide services within the colonias. In their presentation, a DABCC team will describe service learning …

Baby Boomers And Generation X: How Organizations Understand The Generational Differences Of Employees, Sharon Rues Pettid

Student Work

The generational differences of Baby Boomers and Generation X have been a topic of increased attention over the last decade; although previous research has not examined to what extent organizational strategy influences an organization’s ability to understand generational differences. This study investigated the influence of the traditional, relational, and cultural strategies for understanding the generational differences of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers and presents the results of interviews with a management representative from 10 companies to determine how their organization understands and deals with generational differences. The research focusedprimarily on the factors of influence for understanding generational differences for each …

Persuading Students To Care: Eugene Lang's Program Aims To Prod Colleges Into Encouraging Civic Involvement, Jeffrey R. Young

Special Topics, General

Democracy in America is at risk, and colleges are not doing enough about it, says Eugene M. Lang, a philanthropist known for tackling large problems in education. Colleges may say they encourage good citizenship, he says, but their efforts are often "random," and students are increasingly tuning out of the democratic process.

Mentoring Youth: A Service-Learning Course Within A College Of Nursing, Janis C. Childs, Susan B. Sepples, Kimberly A. Moody

Higher Education

Faculty at the University of Southern Maine College of Nursing and Health Care Professions developed a service-learning course that connected students and faculty with at-risk children in a local community. Nursing students, with faculty supervision and support, developed, implemented, and evaluated interventions to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors to build and strengthen the participants' resiliency.

Students enrolled in the service-learning course worked in the community where they gained an understanding of what it was like for children and adolescents to live in an impoverished community setting with disorganized family units and weak community support. The students learned to …

Colorado Department Of Education Service-Learning: Evaluation Report, Rmc Research Corporation

Project Summaries

In 2001, the state of Colorado received three federal grants to provide service-learning opportunities for students. Service-Learning Colorado at the Colorado Department of Education, in turn, distributed funds to a total 27 grantees. There were three types of grantees: Community, Higher Education, School Partnership (CHESP), School- or District-Based grantees, and Community-Based grantees.

Civic Engagement And American Democracy, Richard Erdmann

Civic Engagement

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the United States during the 1830’s and his observations say much about democracy in general, democracy in the United States of the 1830’s and democracy today. His greatest fear for the United States was of apathy on the part of its citizens. He saw individualism and material wealth as potent contributors to the United States but also as potential distracters. He felt that the greatest threat existed because democracy might work so well that citizens would become apathetic. At this point the omnipotence of the majority would cause the democratic freedoms to slip away almost …

The Portrayal Of Men In Men's Bodybuilding And Fitness Magazines, Jeff Long

Student Work

Using Objectification theory this study examined several elements of the portrayal of male fitness models in three men’s bodybuilding and fitness magazines through qualitative and quantitative content analyses. The magazines ranged from an overall fitness orientation to a professional bodybuilding focus. A preliminary qualitative study developed coding categories to assess Body Type, Physical and Social Setting, Clothing and Role that were used in a main quantitative study examining male centered instructional bodybuilding and fitness articles. In Muscle and Fitness there was a balanced representation of all three body types. However, in Men’s Fitness the Strong Muscularity body type was the …

Accessibility, Settlement Dispersion, And Unemployment In Slovakia, Pavol Hurbanek

Student Work

The thesis examines the relationship between accessibility and unemployment and the relationship between settlement dispersion and unemployment in Slovakia. The two main hypotheses are as follows: First, the settlements with lower accessibility have higher rates of unemployment. Second, because the areas of dispersed settlement most likely experience poor accessibility, these areas have also higher rates of unemployment. While Slovakia is the main study area, additional analysis is conducted in the case-study region of the Myjava and Skalica Counties in the western part of Slovakia. Several methods are used to evaluate accessibility and settlement dispersion. Container approach and distance approach are …

Integrating Service-Learning Into Watershed Management Programs: Opportunities And Challenges, Tamim Younos, Raymond De Leon, Christine Lewicki

Special Topics, General

The objective of this article is to open a dialogue on integrating service-learning into community based watershed management programs and to discuss opportunities and challenges that a service-learning program presents to universities and communities. The article presents the concept and definition of service-learning, and arguments concerning why institutions of higher education and university faculty and students should be involved with community based watershed management programs.

A Status Report On Community Service Learning In The California State University For The 2001-2002 Academic Year, Season Eckardt

Higher Education

Community service and service learning arc long-standing touchstones in the mission and purpose of the California State University since the first campus was founded in 1857. Partnerships between local communities and CSU faculty and students make numerous goals achievable: they improve the quality of life across California, promote faculty research, and support CSU programs- all while students learn the value and satisfaction that comes from contributing to society. Policymakers and leaders of higher education have expressed renewed interest in utilizing service learning as a vehicle to instill civic values in students. All these elements have contributed to the profound advancement …

Service-Learning: Faculty Manual, Monroe Community College, Community College National Center For Community Engagement

Guides

This handbook has been created for faculty who have integrated service-learning into a current course or have developed a new course with a service-learning component. It includes general guidelines, expectations and forms associated with the service, and is intended to assist you in providing a meaningful experience for yourself, your students and the community site.

Cesar Chavez: Individual Action: Fluff And Fold, Orange County Cesar Chavez Day Initiative

Curriculum

Cesar E. Chavez was one of the most significant and influential civil rights leaders of our time. Chavez devoted himself to social justice and improving the lives of the impoverished and op- pressed. His name, like the name of Martin Luther King, Jr, speaks of character and commitment. This project is in honor of the life and work of Cesar E. Chavez.

The Cesar E. Chavez- "Fluff and Fold" project is a multifaceted service learning experience that will provide your grades 3-5 students with a vehicle that embodies Cesar Chavez' values, addresses homelessness issues, and facilitates gaining life skills all …

Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role Of The Community Partner, Susan Abravanel

Partnerships/Community

The students in Mike Walsh's Natural Resources class at Nestucca Valley Middle School in Beaver, Oregon, are learning in the woods. Twice a month, teams are managing their own experimental forest, a quarter-mile strip of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property in Pacific City divided into 100-by-100 foot sections. Their curriculum begins with measuring and marking out the plots, removing invasive scotch broom plants, and marking and taking inventory of the lodgepole pine trees planted in rows 30 years earlier to hold back the shifting dunes. These 7th- and 8th-grader students will develop comprehensive management plans, outlining in detail which …

International Service-Learning Resources: International Education & International Service-Learning References, Unknown

Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Service-Learning: Community Manual, Monroe Community College, Community College National Center For Community Engagement

Guides

This handbook has been created for Rochester schools, agencies, organizations and businesses who have self-defined needs that will be addressed by Monroe Community College service learning students. It includes general guidelines, expectations and forms associated with the service, and is intended to assist you in providing a meaningful experience for yourself and your MCC student service-learner(s).