Sociology Commons^™

Service-Learning In Social Work Education: Building Democracy Through Informed Citizenship, Ryan Tolleson Knee

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Longitudinal studies spanning the last three decades have indicated that incoming college students have become increasingly concerned with individual gain, competition, and materialism. This, coupled with 1996's lowest voter turnout in 70 years and declining levels of participation in civic groups are indicators that citizens are relatively uninterested in, or lack the capacity to engage in activities that strengthen the democracy. To address this concern, faculty in social work education have been encouraged to reconsider traditional pedagogy and structure curricula so community service is combined with structured reflection; commonly known as service-learning. Undergraduate social work programs typically offer community service …

National Service And The Internet: Building Bridges To Collaboration, Anne M. Ostberg

Service Learning, General

The national service fellow examined how Unified State Plans proposed using the Internet to facilitate collaboration, and how existing state service Web sites reflected the collaboration discussed in Unified State Plans.

Forty-eight states have Unified State Plans for National and Community Service. These plans include as partners several entities: the state commission for national and community service, the Corporation for National Service state office, the state education agency, representatives of higher education, and other representatives of volunteer and service programs. The majority of Unified State Plans (79 percent) propose using the Internet to accomplish goals toward achieving a broad vision …

A Kinder, Gentler Student Body, Linda Jacobson

Special Topics, General

Monica Viega describes what went on in her classroom earlier in the school year as "Jerry Springer fights." Displays of anger and incivility among the 5th graders sometimes grew so intense that furniture would get tossed across the room. But the scene in Ms. Viega's classroom no longer resembles a raucous daytime talk show. Every morning, her Blalock Elementary School students sit in a circle and discuss how they treat one another. They talk about what they see on the television news and about keeping drugs and violence out of their neighborhoods. "This amazes me," Ms. Viega, a first-year teacher, …

Effects Of Service Learning On Student Retention And Success, Trish Axsom, William Piland

Higher Education

Southwestern College (SWC) students who participated in service learning were significantly more likely to complete their English composition course and report greater agreement with statements about learning as it related to career and civic awareness. However, student success rates were not significantly different for service learni11g students.

Service Learning: The Right Thing For The Wrong Reasons?, Gary K. Clabaugh

Special Topics, General

It is a deep and abiding truth that in helping others we help ourselves. Among the many benefits is knowledge. We learn things about others, life, and ourselves that are enriching, even ennobling.

Recruiting Male Volunteers: A Guide Based On Exploratory Research, Stephanie T. Blackman

Special Topics, General

The decision to recruit male volunteers is not one that you should make lightly. Adding men to your pool of volunteers could have a variety of implications for your program, not all of which are positive. Understanding the potential impacts of a greater number of male volunteers may add to your excitement about this cause. The same understanding, however, should also call attention to the possibility that recruitment of male volunteers may not suit your program, may generate additional work for you or your co-workers, or may harbor unforeseen consequences. Legal discrimination or organizational policy issues must also be taken …

Missing Pieces In The Service Learning Puzzle, June R. Chapin

Special Topics, General

The increasing popularity in the schools for sponsoring service learning or community service reflects the grave concern that more has to be done to teach youth to participate in a democratic society. The declining voting turnout and the reported low involvement of adults in community groups are often cited as a need for the schools to counter the current apathy and cynicism about government and political leaders. Whether there really is a decline in civic involvement is open to question but the national debate on promoting civic education and social responsibility is reflected in state and local communities requiring students' …

The Progress Of Education Reform 1999-2001: Youth Violence, Suzanne Weiss

Special Topics, General

Three strategies to stem the tide of youth violence: Prenatal and infant care; small schools; and service-learning.

African-American, Latino, And Hispanic Youth In Service Topic Bibliography, Charles C. Cook

Bibliographies

African-American, Latino, and Hispanic communities have been among the least discussed, least researched, and under-reported groups in the area of community service. Traditions of these cultures have a history of building and enriching their environments by involving youth. Over 80% of African-Americans, Latino, and Hispanic people populate the nation's 100 largest cities. Therefore African-American, Latino, and Hispanic youth who are engaged in community service are involved in strengthening and revitalizing our country's urban centers. Today organizations such as the National Urban League, ASPIRA, and the National Council of La Raza, as well as schools and local community organizations help mobilize …

Summary Report: National Evaluation Of Learn And Serve America, Alan Melchior, Joseph Frees, Lisa Lacava, Chris Kingsley, Jennifer Nahas, Jennifer Power, Gus Baker, John Blomquist, Anne St. George, Scott Hebert, Joann Jastrzab, Chuck Helfer, Lance Potter

Evaluation/Reflection

In 1993, the Nalional and Community Service Trust Act (PL. 103-82) established the Learn and Serve America School and Community-Based Programs to support school and Community-Based efforts to involve school-aged youth in community service. The Learn and Serve program is administered by the Corporation for National Service and funded through grants to states and national organizations, and through them to individual school districts, schools, and community organizations. In 1994-95, the first year of the program, the Corporation awarded approximately $30 million in grants supporting over 2,000 local efforts involving over 750,000 school-aged youth.

The Blossoming Of Service Learning Quality In Maryland Or "How Do We Know It's Getting Any Better?!", Luke F. Frazier

Evaluation/Reflection

It's almost 9:20 on a February morning and the parking lot at Edmondson-Westside High School is mostly quiet. Only a faint thump-thump-thump of the latest urban anthem wafts from a Nissan Sentra double-parked at the entrance. The sky threatens rain as our visiting group of Chicago educators steps from the van and hurries inside. The Chicagoans are here to examine urban service learning in all its glory. And although we have carefully selected sites for our visitors based on their reputations, I am still nervous. Nervous about the quality of what they will see. Nervous that the students won't really …

How Can Service-Learning Strengthen Tutoring Partnerships?, Jennifer Arndt, Bob Seidel

Service Learning, General

Tutoring is usually volunteer service done to benefit learners and their communities. Tutoring should be a partnership between tutor and student. The partnership should also include the teacher, the student's family or household, the school, the tutoring program, and other tutors and students. All of these people and institutions have an interest in the success of the tutoring endeavor. All have something to contribute and something to gain. These relationships might not always be apparent to everyone involved. But if tutoring programs see all involved as learners and teachers, they can illuminate these relationships and strengthen them.

Youth Teaching Youth Survey, Angela Hauer

Evaluation/Reflection

The Youth Teaching Youth workgroup surveyed Minnesota's 87 counties in February and March of 1999 (Appendix A). 68 of the 87 counties responded, 78%. Of those that responded, 44% (30) currently have 'Youth Teaching Youth' programming and 56% (38) do not. Of those that responded to the survey as currently not having 'Youth Teaching Youth' programming, 35% said that it has occurred in their county in the past. In previous years Alcohol Decisions had been done in ten counties, Project 4 Teens had been done in six counties, and Talking with TJ and Self Kare for Kids have both been …

Wingspread Declaration On Renewing The Civic Mission Of The American Research University, Harry C. Boyte, Elizabeth Hollander

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is essential to a democratic society, but far too many Americans have withdrawn from participation in public affairs. Higher education can contribute to civic engagement, but most research universities do not perceive themselves as part of the problem or of its solution. Whereas universities were once centrally concerned with "education for democracy" and "knowledge for society," today's institutions have often drifted away from their civic mission.

The Status Of Service-Learning In The United States: Some Facts And Figures, Robert D. Shumer, Charles C. Cook

Service Learning, General

This report focuses on service and service-learning in high schools. The report compares data from 1984 research with information from two studies of service and service-learning completed in 1997. The data suggest that community service and service-learning in 1984 was available in slightly more than one-quarter of all high schools (primarily to white students), and course-related programs (service-learning) occurred in only about 10% of all schools. The 1997 data indicate that the number of high school students involved in service-related programs has increased 686%; and the number of high school students involved in service-learning has increased3,663%. Using data from studies …

Two Studies Of The Impact Of Performance Feedback On Community Service Learning Among College Students, Mahesh Subramony

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

In Study 1, I manipulated students' access to frequent written performance feedback from agency supervisors. Thirty-eight service-learning students enrolled in a Midwest university were randomly assigned to a performance feedback (experimental) condition and a no performance feedback (control) condition. Student learning from community service (SLCS) was measured both before and after the semester-long intervention. Students in the experimental group did not show significant improvements in SLCS over those in the control condition. However, an individual differences variable, feedback disposition predicted SLCS.

In study 2, I looked at the impact of organizational feedback quality, client feedback quality, student feedback seeking, and …

Problems, Politics, And Possibilities Of A Progressive Approach To Service Learning In A Community College: A Case Study, Kevin L. Burr

Higher Education

Change -- it is easy to determine when change is needed and even what needs to be changed; the problem is effective implementation. Cohen and Brawer (1989) said that community colleges still have not found a way to implement alternative learning methodologies.

It is reasonable to assume that in an institution dedicated since its inception to 'good teaching', new instructional forms will be tried. However, despite the spread of reproducible media, traditional methods of instruction still flourish. Visitors to a campus might be shown mathematics laboratories, the media production facilities, and computer-assisted instructional programs. But on the way to those …

Self Service: Self-Concept Enhancement In High School Students In A Service Learning Program, Sarah Foster

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study attempted to answer the question of whether participation in a high school service learning program can be linked to increases in measures of self-esteem in students. Proponents of service learning claim that it is a valuable means of engaging students, increasing comprehension, and fostering citizenship, but the positive psychological effects are often overlooked.

The Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure self-esteem levels. Personal interviews were also conducted and coded categorically into scales for self-values of competence, self-determination, personal unity, and moral worth. This coding was done according to a framework created by Gordon (1982). The results …

Strengthening And Supporting Service-Learning Objectives, Ins

Project Summaries

In the fall of 1994, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation gave a pilot grant to the Institute for Global Ethics to develop and demonstrate a methodology that incorporates a values-based orientation and reflection component into a selected number of service-learning programs across the country. A continuing two-year grant to expand the initiative got under way in December, 1996.

Service-Learning As A Tool For Violence Prevention An Annotated Topic Bibliography, Ann Treacy

Bibliographies

Bibliographic information for discussions and reports on service-learning as a tool for violence prevention.

Reflection In Service Learning: Making Meaning Or Experience, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Evaluation/Reflection

Traditional methods of instruction based on lectures and textbook readings can be effective in some instances and for some types of! earning, yet many educators seek methods to enhance traditional student learning and to expand educational objectives beyond knowledge acquisition. Two related issues illustrate the limitations of traditional methods. The first is context-specific learning. Students are taught a particular module of content, they are provided examples of how to solve particular types of problems, and then they practice solving these types of problems. However, when the nature of the problem is varied, or when similar problems are encountered in different …

Promising Practice For K-16 - Project Connect: School-University Collaboration For Service-Learning, Education Commission Of The States

Partnerships/Community

Partnership is a recurring theme in education these days: partnerships between schools and communities, between colleges and nonprofit organizations, between high schools and elementary schools, and between K-12 and higher education systems. Whether one refers to the latter partnerships as K-16, Pre-K-H or K-PhD, what truly defines them is the level and type of interactions among the school, university and community.

The Emerging Role Of Service Learning At Jesuit Universities, James J. Fleming

Service Learning, General

We Jesuits love teaching! We are alive when we are in the classroom. The art of teaching-and it is an art in the truest sense-is a medium in which we can create. "When it is most radical," as Madeleine Grumet has so eloquently observed, teaching as a "work of art simultaneously draws the viewer to it, engaging expectations, memories, recognitions; and then interrupts the viewer's customary response, contradicting expectations with new possibilities, violating memories, displacing recognition with estrangement." This is what the learning process can be: seductive, surprising, and transforming.

Applying Theory To Community Service: A Boyeristic Model, Lyle Flint

Service Learning, General

In 1994 fifty faculty members, representing various departments and colleges at Ball State University, met and, for several days, discussed Boyer's (1990), Scholarship Reconsidered The result of these discussions was, A Different Dawn, a proposal seeking a reconsideration of the traditional lines of scholarly productivity. While a full implementation of Boyer's model has not yet appeared in governance documentation, particularly promotion and tenure documentation, at Ball State it has been embraced by the administration and by a large number of the faculty. Central to Boyer's model is the call for service to the community outside of the academy.

Inside A Swiss Army Knife: An Assessment Of Americorps, James L. Perry, Ann Marie Thomson, Mary Tschirhart, Debra Mesh, Geunjoo Lee

Service Learning, General

This study reviews the goals and achievements of AmeriCorps, the national service program championed by President Clinton and approved by Congress in 1993. We identify five AmeriCorps goals: satisfying unmet social needs, developing corps members, enhancing the civic ethic, reinvigorating lethargic bureaucracies, and bridging race and class. The evidence of AmeriCorps' effectiveness is not definitive. Self-reports from recipient programs, selective cost-benefit analyses, and some survey evidence indicate some positive results. More fine-grained survey and field research raise questions about AmeriCorps' overall effects. Much more research is needed before policy makers and citizens can determine AmeriCorps' productivity.

Using Evaluation To Improve And Promote America Reads, Support & Training For Assessing Results

Evaluation/Reflection

This report covers: Project Objectives; Collecting Data; Sample Instruments; Analyzing Data; and Using Evaluation Findings.

Service Learning Makes The Grade, Rich Cairn, Susan Cairn

School K-12

Connecting service learning to specific standards presents challenges for educators. In Minnesota, teachers and students are pioneering assessments that effectively evaluate performance in light of learning goals.

Service Learning: A Vision For Change And Youth Empowerment, Martha J. R. Johnson

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Service Learning: A Vision for Change and Youth Empowerment examines the theoretical and practical framework of service-learning in a curricular setting. Service-learning is both a method and a philosophy of education. This position paper provides teachers and students with the conceptual framework and practical knowledge to implement successful school based service-learning programs that emphasize youth empowerment, democratic process, consensus building, critical reflection, and community collaboration. Key topics included are: definition, philosophy, essential elements, and practical strategies to apply service-learning methodology.

Introduction To Service-Learning, Augsburg College

Service Learning, General

Information for Education students making a difference in our community (EDU 265, EDU 210).

A Lack Of Civic Commitment?, Pablo Eisenberg

Civic Engagement

A recent study on youth leaders.hip and community service, conducted by Peter D. Hart Associates for Public Allies (a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that promotes youth leadership), found that today's young Americans are committed to community service and direct, personal assistance to others. But the survey of 728 people between the ages of 18 and 30 also raised disturbing questions about the young generation's commitment to civic engagement and social change.