Service Learning Commons^™

Strategic Directions For Service-Learning Research: A Presidential Perspective, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Service-learning can be viewed as a form of pedagogy designed to enhance learning and promote civic responsibility as well as one of a set of strategies to link the capacity of a college or university to the needs of society. A commitment to service-learning can become the avenue for a larger transformational change agenda by providing a focus and a reason to consider significant changes in campus priorities, faculty roles and rewards, resource utilization and university-community relationships. The case is made for the role of the scholar/practitioner president and the importance of a legitimate scholarly base to effect institutional change, …

Change As A Scholarly Act: Higher Education Research Transfer To Practice, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Achieving transformational change is a scholarly challenge best dealt with by practicing public scholarship, which is modeled by the leader and encouraged in other members of the campus community. Like all good scholarly work, good decision making by campus leadership begins with a base of scholarly knowledge generated and validated by higher education researchers.

Stone Soup Community Development: Sustainability And Americorp*Vista Projects, Amy Bonn

Curriculum

The Stone Soup Sustainability research project is an evaluation of how AmeriCorps*VISTA (VISTA) projects address continuity and viability. The research examines what elements are important to a project's sustainability and what resources are needed to improve efforts for stakeholders (Corporation for National Service staff, VISTA supervisors, VISTA Leaders and members). Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology, stakeholders were interviewed and asked how they defined a successful project, what strategies they used to develop such a project and what tools would be useful to them. From these findings, the Stone Soup Sustainability series was developed. The series includes a supervisor's guide …

Learning In Deed: Service-Learning And Preservice Teacher Education, Jeffrey B. Anderson

Service Learning, General

Progressive teacher education programs face a pair of daunting yet crucial tasks. New teachers must be prepared to function effectively in schools as they exist today. They also must be educated to take a leadership role in the improvement and restructuring of P-12 education to meet students’ and society’s needs more fully. Service-learning appears to have considerable potential as a method to achieve both these goals.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation believes that meaningful service to the community, combined with curriculum-based learning, builds stronger academic skills, encourages lifelong civic commitment, and improves workplace and personal development skills among youth. Educators lead …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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

Along The Red Road: Tribally Controlled Colleges And Student Development, Ann Marie Machamer

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

American Indian tnibally controlled colleges were created to provide higher education in a familiar cultural setting to a population that is severely underrepresented in American higher education. Since little is known regarding student development at tribal colleges, the purpose of this study was to assess retention, talent development, satisfaction, racial discrimination, and cultural knowledge/identity at tribal colleges using American Indians who attended non-Indian institutions as a comparison sample. In early 1999, survey data were collected from students who entered fourteen tribal colleges and two Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) colleges and from American Indian students who entered non-Indian. institutions in …

At A Glance: What We Know About The Effects Of Service-Learning On Students, Faculty, Institutions And Communities, 1993-1999, Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles Jr., Charlene J. Gray

Bibliographies

"At A Glance" summarizes the findings of service learning research in higher education over the past few years and includes a bibliography. It is designed to provide a quick overview of where we are in the field today and a map to the literature. Particular issues of interest may be explored in greater depth through the annotated bibliography and complete review of research for this period from 1993-99.

This survey of service-learning research within higher education reflects a dramatic increase over recent years that examine the effects of service-learning on students, faculty, institutions, and communities. The scope of this literature …

Introduction To Service-Learning, Augsburg College

Service Learning, General

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

Service Learning Project Matrices, Providence College's Slate Project

Curriculum

Service learning project matrices for Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 3rd/4th grade, and upper elementary levels.

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs, Aitken Company

Curriculum

University of Minnesota Extension Service-Aitkin Performance Package

This curriculum is designed to give students the experience of developing, designing and obtaining financing to open and run their own business. This business is a coffee shop with Internet access that will be open to the general public. Students maintain various jobs to learn about management, operations, inventory, sales and customer service. Students participate in ongoing training focused on skills necessary for operating the coffee shop and for future jobs.

Techniques Utilised To Incorporate Environmentally Focused Service Learning Projects Into Courses In Biology And Economics, Bridget Lyons, Jennifer Mattei, Phyllis Machledt

WCBT Faculty Publications

Sacred Heart University has emphasised the use of service learning for over five years. Service Learning offers students opportunities to learn and develop through active participation in service experiences that are integrated into the academic curriculum. The work meets community needs and is directly linked to the content of the course. A Service Learning course includes reflection and analysis of the service experience. Two recent courses at Sacred Heart University incorporated environmentally focused service learning projects: one in biology and one in economics. This paper discusses the development and outcomes of these two projects: a park restoration project and a …

The National Society For Experiential Education Research Collaborative, National Society For Experiential Education

Service Learning, General

The National Society for Experiential Education is embarking on a new endeavor to advance our understanding of how experiential education impacts learning, teaching, and schooling in various contexts and communities. This endeavor, called the NSEE Research Collaborative, will convene national and local researchers to collaborate on a large-scale, multifaceted research study that will investigate various issues in experiential education.

Service-Learning For Preservice Teachers: Ethical Dilemmas For Practice, David M. Donahue

Service Learning, General

Increasingly in the United States, service-learning is being used to educate preservice teachers. Service varies greatly in its ethical foundation, however, and service-learning presents new teachers with a variety of dilemmas revealing the moral and political nature of teaching and service. This article presents one case of four preservice teachers writing curriculum as a service to a community agency hoping to promote service geared toward social justice among high school students. The case highlights ethical dilemmas faced by teachers in the process and illustrates the potential of service-learning to educate teachers for the moral imperative of their profession.

Doing Well By Doing Good: A Study Of The Effects Of A Service-Learning Experience On Student Success, Judith S. Berson, William F. Younkin

Higher Education

This study explored the effects of service learning on student success in college. The study consisted of 286 students enrolled in six paired community college courses in various disciplines. One section of each pair was taught using traditional subject matter and course materials,while the other section of each pair was required to participate in a 20-hourservice learning activity in addition to the regular course curriculum.Participating faculty completed questionnaires and interviews regarding the courses, and students completed end-of-course evaluations. The results indicated that, overall, students who participated in the sections with a service learning requirement achieved higher final course grades and …

New England College Pre-Service Teacher Service Learning Guidebook, Debra Nitschke-Shaw

Guides

In a democratic classroom, teacher and students strive to create a participatory learning community (Wade, 1997), a community where the voices and needs of all are respected and valued by the members of that community. Democratic education involves connecting with the larger community through meaningful, hands-on involvement. According to John Dewey, "schools should be democratic laboratories of learning closely linked to community need" (National Youth Leadership Council, 1991, p. 4). Therefore, the focus of a democratic classroom should be on responsible participation from all members of the classroom community.

Service-Learning In Economics: A Detailed Application, Kimmarie Mcgoldrick

Service Learning, General

Over the past decade, a significant push has been made toward the adoption or development of alternative methods of disseminating economic concepts to students. Much of this work is grounded in the belief that we, as educators, must recognize who our students are as well as how they process information. Siegfried and colleagues ( 1991) have suggested that more needs to be done to teach students to think like economists. They outlined a number of approaches and changes that have the potential for improving undergraduate economic education by providing opportunities for students to practice thinking like economists.

Animal Tracks Habitat Action Pack, Rhonda Lucas Donald, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks ®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and because this is a "work-in-progress," we welcome any comments you might have for improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you …

De-Platonizing And Democratizing Education As The Bases Of Service Learning, Ira Harkavy, Lee Benson

Service Learning, General

The theoretical bases of academic service learning are examined, with particular attention to John Dewey’s contributions. The service learning movement is conceptualized as part of an ongoing—and still unsuccessful—effort to “de-Platonize” and democratize American higher education in particular and American schooling in general.

What Are Students Learning?: Assessing Service Learning And The Curriculum, Kathryn Blash Cumbo, Jennifer A. Vadeboncoeur

Service Learning, General

Service learning, a method of learning and teaching, has the potential to move our educational system into the 21st century by providing a vehicle for integrating the needs of schools and communities while reflecting current reform agendas and providing meaningful learning experiences for students. In order for service learning to play a role in the transformation of our schools, however, educators must become successful at linking service to learning- making connections between service experiences and academic learning explicit. This paper explores the meaning of learning in service learning by explicating: a) how service learning links to current standards based reform …

Animal Tracks Northern Forest Action Pack, Elizabeth Soper, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and as a ''work-in-progress,'' we welcome any comments you might have for improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you on our mailing …

Animal Tracks Wetlands Action Pack, Maria Hagedorn, Marsha A. Lakes Matyas, Sara Bradley, Cheryl Dixon, Elenor Hodges, Jennifer Kier, Margaret Tunstall, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

Welcome to Animal Tracks®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues.

Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and as a "work-in-progress," we welcome any comments you might have for I improvements. As you turn the page you'll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We'll include you on our …

Developing A Community Service Program For High School Students, Ellen M. Hoefer

Graduate Research Papers

Youth leadership development within community service allows teenagers to serve others, to lead, and to contribute to society in ways that support positive roles, personal values, and communal beliefs in justice and equality. Ideally, community service learning builds supportive structures for youth leaders, encourages positive dialog around new relationships, and empowers others as competent and purposeful individuals.

Learning is not merely answering a teacher's questions to get a grade, but asking oneself questions to understand and to know what to do. When learning is from real life, and the consequences are real, one may have to question the surface appearance, …

The Institution As A Citizen: How Colleges And Universities Enhance Their Civic Roles, Nancy L. Thomas

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This paper is premised on the assumption that civic responsibility is the contemporary version of higher education's historical outreach mission. With that as an understanding, it considers how best colleges and universities can fulfill this commitment of service to external communities, broadly defined to include local, national, and international concerns. The paper offers typologies of ways that institutions structure academic outreach, responsive curricula, land-grant and extension school programs, faculty professional service, coordinating student volunteerism and encouraging public access to campus for athletic or cultural events. Institutions interested in enhancing their civic role can take from this paper strategies for enhancing …

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty; (2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.