Sociology Commons^™

Recent Dissertations On Service And Service-Learning Topics: Volume Ii, Robert D. Shumer, Ann Treacy

Bibliographies

This is the second edition of the Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse review of dissertations on service, service-learning, and related topics. In the first edition we identified approximately 110 studies, limiting the search to studies conducted from 1990 to the present. In this volume we provide information and abstracts on more than 200 studies- and expand the time they were produced to periods prior to 1990. Some date as early as the 1970s.

The goals for doing this literature review are many. First, we want to continue to dispel the notion (as mentioned in the first version) that …

Implementation Of The Chicago Public Schools Service Learning Initiative: The Role Of Teacher Coaches, Elizabeth F. Conlon

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The growth of service leaming during the past two decades is testimony to this method by which young people learn and develop through active participation in service experiences. Legislative initiatives have supported schools in their efforts to involve youth with their local communities through service linked to academic study. In 1984, 9 percent of all high schools offered some form of service learning. By 1999, 46 percent of public high schools alone were using service learning activities (Kleiner and Chapman 1999). At the same time, service learning studies are complicated by the subject's broad-based goals, the varying contexts and age …

Maximizing Civic Learning And Social Responsibility, Arthur Chickering

Higher Education

In August 1999, the Presidents' Fourth of July Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education, drafted by a select group of scholars and college presidents that was convened by Campus Compact and the American Council on Education (ACE), hit the streets. It said,

"We have a fundamental task to renew our role as agents of our democracy. This task is both urgent and long-term. There is growing evidence of disengagement of many Americans from the communal life of our society, in general, and from the responsibilities of democracy in particular. We share a special concern about the disengagement of …

Student Perceptions Of Service-Learning In The Community College, Ruben Michael Flores

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

United States Census Bureau projections predict that Whites' share of the population should decline from 75% in 1990 to 68% in 2010. Thus, mechanisms must be employed to facilitate cooperation and support among and across people from different ethnic and racial groups. This examination seeks to determine if service-learning is such a mechanism. The researcher utilized student experiences and perspectives, through a mixed qualitative/quantitative study, to determine the impact that a service-learning course had on a diverse group of students attending an urban community college.

The researcher originally sought to determine whether a community college service-learning course changed students' perceptions …

The Meaning And Value Of Service In The Scholarly Work Of Education Faculty At Mississippi Public Four-Year Institutions, Thomas Joseph Schnaubelt

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning Mississippi education faculty give to the concept of service within their scholarly work and examine the relationship between faculty definitions, reward structures, and service activity. Survey results from 131 faculty members (45% of the sample) and focus group data from a few faculty members at each campus relating to education faculty activities, perceptions, and attitudes were collected and compared with national data. Definitions and typologies of professional service were compared to other state and national data related to professional service, and attempts were made to identify specific performance benchmarks related …

Pedagogical Effects Of Service-Learning In A Human Exceptionality Course: A Comparison Of Two Approaches, John Clinton Mayhew Jr.

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Service-learning. as a pedagogical approach for increasing social responsibility in students. has increasingly gained acceptance in higher education. With its emphasis on reflection and reciprocity. service-learning combines content-area learning with authentic community-based experiences in order to enhance understanding of the course content and to promote civic responsibility. Although several studies have investigated the effects of service-learning at the college level, few studies have specifically focused on the use of service-learning in special education.

The purpose of this study was to examine the service-learning component of an undergraduate human exceptionality course. One section of the course utilized an unlimited choice (UC) …

Implementing A Web-Based Adaptive Senior Exit Survey For Undergraduates, Jeffrey P. Adams, Timothy F. Slater

Evaluation/Reflection

As part of an institution-wide reform initiative at Montana State University, an adaptive, senior exit survey was developed and delivered via the World Wide Web. Individualized surveys were automatically generated for students so that questions particular to specific major and non-major courses could be administered as well as questions regarding university services. The principle advantages of providing a survey in this format include the ability for students to enter extended student-supplied responses to questions using the keyboard, the use of sampling techniques to target questions to specific student groups, and the delivery of individualized survey results privately to department administrators.

Taking The Lead: A Preliminary Proposal For A K-12 Service-Learning Leadership Organization, Academy For Educational Development

School K-12

Service-learning's advocates are passionate about its potential as an educational reform strategy benefiting students, schools, communities, and the nation. They know that integrating service into core academic curriculum is a powerful way of engaging students' hearts and minds. By combining highly effective teaching strategies with support for students' acquiring an ethic of caring and community responsibility, service-learning does what few other pedagogies can do: it boosts students' academic achievement while also strengthening their civic-mindedness and career preparation. The American public wants students to have this kind of education. According to a new poll conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, Americans agree …

The Dynamic Tensions Of Service Learning In Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective, Adrianna Kezar, Robert A. Rhoads

Higher Education

Senior faculty in a peace and justice program at a small liberal arts college reject the efforts of a student affairs professional to help the faculty connect their teaching to practice through service activities in the local community. One faculty member openly wonders how "out-of-class" activities such as community service have anything to do with interdisciplinary theories of social justice. A director of an office of community service is upset because the provost has decided to develop a Center for Community Service Learning. The director sees this as an attempt to usurp the good work of student affairs and feels …

Renewing The Civic Mission Of The American Research University, Barry Checkoway

Higher Education

Should the American research university have a strategy for renewing its civic mission in a diverse democratic society and, if so, what should it be?

Many American research universities were established with a civic mission to prepare students for active participation in a diverse democracy and to develop knowledge for the improvement of communities. Today, however, it is hard to find top administrators with consistent commitment to this mission, few faculty members consider it central to their role, and community groups that approach the university for assistance often find it difficult to get what they need.

Building Citizenship: How Student Voice In Service-Learning Develops Civic Values, William Morgan, Matthew Streb

Service Learning, General

Objectives. Though many decry the decline in political participation and interest, few academic studies present a clear approach to help reverse these trends. This paper examines the impact of service-learning programs on students’ self-concept, political engagement, and attitudes toward out-groups. Methods. The data come from a pre and post survey given to more than 200 high school students in 10 different schools. We use Huber regression to assess the impact of student voice in the service-learning project on six dependent variables. Results. We show that if students are involved in service-learning projects in which they have a high degree …

Institutionalized Service-Learniing In The 50 States, Kathy Anthes

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is a teaching method that combines service to the community with classroom curriculum. Service-learning is more than merely community service. It is a hands-on approach to mastering subject material while fostering civic responsibility. On a programmatic level, service-learning in America is thriving. Through funds from the Corporation for National Service, almost every state has resources and some level of a service-learning program. Although practitioners and other service-learning advocates have long regarded service-learning as a way to increase student achievement and student civic engagement and decrease a host of problems, such as drop-out rates and school crime and violence, there …

United We Serve: A Call To Universal Jewish Service, Maggi G. Gaines, Sara Paasche-Orlow

Special Topics, General

We have reached a turning point in American Jewish history. Now that large segments of our community are living successful, integrated lives, we have an opportunity to align ourselves behind service to enrich Jewish life and to effect prophetic change in the world. In Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), Rabbi Tarfon admonishes us, "You are not obliged to finish the task, neither are you free to desist from it." The usual interpretation is that our task is bigger than any of us in terms of the quantity of work that must be done. Rabbi Tarfon's dictum, however, also refers …

Promoting Service Learning Via Online Instruction, Greg Bennett, Frederik P. Green

Higher Education

Service learning and online instruction are both important and much debated topics in higher education. Many professors and colleges are attempting to use service learning and online instruction as effective learning tools for their student clientele. Both topics are being written about exclusively in professional journals, as educators grapple with how lo implement these two effective means of learning into class content. The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss service learning and online instruction in a symbiotic educational relationship. The authors discuss the efficacy and benefits of service learning and online instruction, and request ways to incorporate these techniques …

The Bridging Role Of The Community Service Director On The Engaged Campus, Joann Campbell

Higher Education

Declines in civic participation, low voting rates among 18-25 year olds, dwindling federal support for social services, and deficit state budgets have created a climate in which higher education must make a case for the value it adds to society through applications of research and teaching. National and state organizations (such as Campus Compact and state Compacts) dedicated to supporting a culture of service in higher education articulate the university's role as a collective citizen, whose priorities include linking scholarship to community-based needs, using the resources of the college faculty for professional local service, and utilizing federal work study, America …

Scholarship Unbound: Assessing Service As Scholarship In Promotion And Tenure Decisions, Kerryann O’Meara

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Scholars of higher education have long recognized that existing reward systems and structures in academic communities do not weight faculty professional service as they do teaching and research. This paper examines how four colleges and universities with exemplary programs for assessing service as scholarship implemented these policies within colleges of education. Case studies suggest that policies to assess service as scholarship can increase consistency among an institution’s service mission, faculty workload, and reward system; expand faculty’s views of scholarship; boost faculty satisfaction; and strengthen the quality of an institution’s service culture.

School-Community Partnerships In Rural Schools: Leadership, Renewal, And A Sense Of Place, Patricia A. Bauch

Special Topics, General

Rural schools are vulnerable to imitating the reform standards of national and urban school. Urban schools, to which much of the research on current reform efforts has been directed, are not rural schools writ large. Neither are rural communities like urban neighborhood communities. Hodgkinson and Obarakpor (1994) declared "rural poverty is not the same as urban poverty in a different setting" (p. 2). Rather, the context of rural has its own set of community identifiers that make rural schools dramatically different from their metropolitan counterparts. The goals and purposes of schooling and educational renewal processes appropriate for urban and suburban …

Increasing Basic Writers' Thinking About And Understanding Of Literacy Through Literacy-Based Service-Learning, Suzanne Dena Gates

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This project aligned a community college basic writing class with student-performed community service that was specifically literacy-based. The sample consisted of two writing classes, with data collected through an eighteen-week semester. The study was conducted according to qualitative methods and thus allowed for a close look at students' thinking about and understanding of literacy, and how changes in students' thinking about literacy reflected in their class experiences. One basic writing class was designated the service-Iearning class; the other basic writing class was designated the comparison class. Both classes shared the same instructor, texts, in-class activities and writing prompts. The service-learning …

Doing Theology In The City, Paul Fitzgerald

Special Topics, General

The task of theology is often a lonely endeavor. The hush of the library or the archives, the still of the chapel, and the quiet discipline of one's desk are places where theological research and writing unfold, most often in solitary concentration. The classroom on the protected college campus or seminary, the academic conference in large hotels, and even the cherished conversation in the homes of colleagues do open the theologian to other minds and hearts so that theories and insights may be tested in dialogue. However, these exchanges are often located in affluent social contexts which cannot reveal the …

Sparking A Renewed Jewish Commitment To Service, Sara Paasche-Orlow, Maggi G. Gaines

Special Topics, General

Where do Jews stand in relation to service and what might a Jewish commitment to service look like? By reflecting on historical Jewish understandings of service, we hope to gain perspective on the present and the need to rejoin our concepts of God, service, and worship. Such explorations can spark a radical transformation of our social and communal norms.

The Missing Link: Democratic Citizenship In Service Learning A Case Study Of Undergraduate Course Offerings At A Large Urban University, Michael S. Bittner

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to explore a discrete set of service-learning courses to determine. (1) were they of the type conducive to fostering democratic citizens. and (2) did the coordinating center that supported service-learning advocate it for democratic Citizenship. Sixteen university instructors and two administrative staff members from a coordinating center were interviewed, and documents describing the courses and coordinating center were reviewed. Drawing from the literature. a list of ten criteria for democratic citizenship was assembled, and two sets of questions-one for the instructors and another for the administrative staff-were devised to prompt the response of the …

Your Next Steps: Regional Summit Binder, Anne C. Meek

Guides

Welcome to the 2001 Next Steps Regional Summit: Schools and Communities Working Together!

Inside this Resource Binder, you will find a treasury of information on community education, service-learning, school reform, and related issues. We've included examples of projects, policies, initiatives, and tips from practitioners and policymakers. You'll find articles, brochures, journals, and website information too. Although the materials are divided into sections, many pieces could be cross-listed under other sections as well; we have provided annotations in the bibliography to help you browse for materials that will suit you best.

Service Learning In Preschool: An Intergenerational Project Involving Five-Y Ear-Olds, Fifth Graders, And Senior Citizens, Nancy K. Freeman, Sherry King

Intergenerational

Service Learning is a powerful form of experiential pedagogy that is gaining popularity in classrooms from preprimary settings through graduate school. It involves students in activities that explicitly and intentionally integrate community involvement with appropriate academic objectives. This article describes an intergenerational service learning project that brought together preschoolers, golden-agers, and at-risk elementary-aged students. Lunch Time Book Buddies-Pass It On included both direct service and indirect service and made valuable contributions to young children's developing literacy, social-emotional, physical, and cognitive abilities.

Nurturing Future Leaders Via Service-Learning, John T. Boal

School K-12

Coming into the ninth grade, Jon Porges was admittedly "a shy guy" who had a learning disability and who had never volunteered in his life, but when he sat down in freshman English class at Waterford High School in Waterford, Connecticut, in 1996, a slow transformation - life a cocoon becoming a butterfly - took place.

Lessons Learned About Service-Learning: Voices Of Experience About Urban Service-Learning In Saint Paul Public Schools, Saint Paul Public Schools

School K-12

Quality service-learning transforms students, schools and communities. Service-learning creates powerful learning experiences for students and strengthens ties between schools and community. While integrating curricular goals with a real community need, service-learning gives students the power and the voice to work for social change in their world. It engages them in their own learning process. Students become active learners and creators of history who have opportunities to realize their collective and personal power to make a difference. In order to engage in this kind of learning, teachers together with students must work to establish quality partnerships and collaboration with community organizations …

Service Learning: Making The Camp Connection, Joel S. Garavaglia-Maiorano, Joel Pile

School K-12

Service learning, today's buzzword for education through service, is as diverse as are camp programs in our nation. From providing environmental education to tutoring to feeding the homeless, it is both a method and a philosophy. Programming for service opportunities in today's camps offers a variety of options, from short-term experiences to a fully integrated curriculum that links action and reflection. Service learning, therefore, may be best understood as a method to encourage campers to act, reflect, develop, and learn through community-organized service that connects the needs of a community with the knowledge and experience of campers.

From 19th Century Social Reform To 21st Century School Improvement: A Community Service-Learning Quilting Project For Middle School Students, Irene S. Laroche, Leslie Kelly, Cindy Tuttle

Project Summaries

"From 19th Century Social Reform to 21st Century School Improvement" is an interdisciplinary teaching unit built around a community service learning quilting project. It is designed for use by middle schoolteachers who want to integrate lessons from United States history (19th Century social reform), English/ Language Arts (writing of school improvement plans), and mathematics (scale drawing and measurement in quilt design). The unit includes approximately two weeks of academic work; an additional period of time is needed in school or after school if students are going to sew their quilts.

Topic Bibliography On Resiliency And "At Risk" Youth Topic Bibliography, Robin Vue Benson, Robert D. Shumer, Ann Treacy, Michelle Kamenov, Andrea Roufs

Bibliographies

This publication is the result of a comprehensive review of the literature on resiliency and at-risk youth. Some of the most frequently asked questions at the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse are geared toward service-learning as it relates to working with at-risk youth. Often the questions are about research on impacts of service-learning on at-risk youth, or about materials that have been developed to help start service-learning programs for at-risk youth. Information on program examples and national organizations is also in demand. The purpose of this bibliography is to direct you to some of the most reliable, innovative, and popular resources currently …

Youth Civic Development: Implications Of Research For Social Policy And Programs, Constance A. Flanagan, Nakesha Faison

Civic Engagement

Democracies must insure that each new generation of citizens identify with the common good and become engaged members of their communities. Such goals are prominent in the missions of public schools and community youth organizations. This report summarizes research which points to directions youth programs and policies should follow to achieve these civic goals.

The Transformative Power Of Civic Education, Libby Ethridge

Civic Engagement

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer often speaks about his concern over people's apathy and lack of knowledge about the government (Tulsa World, 1999). Teachers in the public schools often comment on how students are not aware of current events and view politics as something that doesn't affect their lives. University professors often complain about how little their students understand about the democratic process. While many seem to agree that this is an issue of concern, few have proposed any systematic action that will actually transform the situation.