Service Learning Commons^™

A. Season Of Service: Introducing Service Learning Into The Liberal Arts Curriculum, Benjamin R. Barber, Richard Battistoni

Service Learning, General

We live in times when rights and obligations have become uncoupled. Individuals regard themselves almost exclusively as private persons with responsibilities only to family and job and yet possessing endless rights against a distant and alien state in relationship to which they think or themselves, at best, as watchdogs and clients and, at worst, as adversaries and victims. The idea of service to country or to the institutions by which rights and liberty are legitimized and sustained has fairly vanished.

National Youth Service: A Developing Institution, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

Twenty years ago, it was rare to find students integrating community service with their formal education. The phrase "service learning" had been born only a few years earlier, and was not yet in common usage.

Today, service learning is fairly common in high schools and their surrounding communities. Many high schools and a few school systems have made it a requirement for graduation. And the federal government now supports service learning both with exhortation and with dollars.

Standards Of Quality For School-Based Service Learning, Alliance For Service Learning In Education Reform

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is a method

• by which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and that are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community;

• that is integrated into the young person's academic curriculum or provides structured time for a young person to think, talk, or write about what he/ she did and saw during the actual service activity;

• that provides young people with opportunities to use newly acquired academic skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities; and

• that enhances what is taught …

The Domestic Volunteer Service Act Of 1973 (As Of October 1, 1993), U.S. Government

Service Learning, General

(a) Because of the long-standing importance of volunteerism throughout American history, it is the policy of the Congress to foster the tradition of volunteerism through greater involvement on the part of individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

(b) The purpose of this chapter is to foster and expand voluntary citizen service in communities throughout the Nation in activities designed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the elderly. In carrying out this purpose, the Corporation for National and Community Service shall utilize to the fullest extent the programs authorized under this chapter, coordinate with other Federal, State, and …

Service- Learning And Forestry, Lei Lane Burrus-Bammel, Gene Bammel, Jack Newhouse

Service Learning, General

Although the topic of "service" appears to have received more attention recently in higher education than in previous years, it is not a new concern. As early as 1869, Charles Elliot, in his Harvard inaugural address, asked, "And what will the University do for the community?" His response was, "It will foster the sense of public duty - that great virtue which makes republics possible." Elliot's premise was that institutions of higher education ought to support those activities which develop generosity, civic mindedness and the capacity for conscientious action. Since the post-Civil War period a number of famous individuals have …

Describing Service-Learning: A Delphi Study, Robert D. Shumer

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is spreading. Congress passed the National and Community Service Act (1990) and states have been implementing service-learning programs in record numbers. With the rapid expansion, people have been asking "Am I doing it right?" or "What is service-learning, anyway?" These are good questions ... ones many have asked for some time.

Clarifying And Measuring Community, Service, And Citizenship, Rutgers University

Service Learning, General

The working group met for the first time at Rutgers University November 22 to 24, 1992 for critical discussions of issues concerning community, service, and learning in the context of education-based service learning programs. The working group's 31 members included representatives from universities, service organizations, foundations, and community activists. Participants worked closely over the two days, meeting in three discreet sessions dedicated specifically to the theory of community and citizenship, the practice of service-based learning, and--with particular reference to service learning-- the measurement of civic outcomes.

California's Serve America Plan And The Landscape Of Reform, Linda Forsyth, Wade Brynelson

Service Learning, General

The California Department of Education has received $1,600,000 under the Serve America subtitle of the National and Community Service Act to award to local partnerships for 1991-92. Considering that California serves some 6 million public and private K-12 students, this is a modest sum. What do we hope to achieve? How realistic are our hopes? This paper discusses Service Learning in the context of a broad landscape of reforms in education and society. These reforms have much to do with our capacity to fulfill our hopes and sustain the service movement.

Going To The Community, Benjamin Barber

Service Learning, General

Let me offer three points. First, I want to take a few minutes to set the context for a democratic education. I want to cite six or seven key choices that I think anybody who's interested in community service as a vehicle of citizen education needs to face and which we face at Rutgers as do other universities around the the country. Thirdly, I want to address Harry Boyte's thoughtful criticisms of communitarianism.

Teacher Education And Service-Learning, Robert D. Shumer

Service Learning, General

Suggestions for needed educational reform have been made for some time. Reports from the 1970s condemned the isolation of schools from their communities and the lack of student participation in the educational process (Brown, 1973; Coleman, 1974; Martin, 1974; Gibbons, 1976). Similar claims were made in the 1980s, where lack of active learning led to student passivity and inability to relate classroom learning to life beyond the school (Goodlad, 1984; Boyer, 1983; Carnegie Council, 1989; W.T. Grant Foundation, 1988). In the 1990s there is a continued call for an end to this isolation, primarily through inclusion of experiential and service-learning …

Community Service Learning And School Improvement In Springfield, Massachusetts, Virginia Anderson, Carol Kinsley, Peter Negroni, Carolyn Price

Service Learning, General

Calls for changes in the education system continually issue forth from various segments of society. Each outpouring of public concern challenges educators to address the needs of young people and to achieve school renewal. The current literature on school reform advocates an agenda of improvement efforts aimed at creating effective, caring schools that will provide active learning opportunities for students. develop learning communities, expand learning into the community. foster collegiality among staff members, and enable teachers to become "orchestra conductors" in the classroom rather than lecturers. But educators ask, "How can all of this be achieved?"

Researching Student Community Service: An Opportunity To Promote Reflection?, Cecil D. Bradfield, R. Ann Myers

Service Learning, General

In recent years there has been a growing interest in student community service. It is suggested that the students of the 1980's and 90's are returning to an ethic of community service. Organizations have developed to promote service from both the student and the academic perspectives. The Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) is a student movement promoting community service. Campus Compact represents the academic administration interest in promoting student community service with presidents of institutions forming the membership in the organization. A third organization, the National Society of Internships and Experiential Education (NSIEE), includes student community service as a form …

Field Experience And Cooperative Education; Similarities And Differences, Joyce K. Fletcher

Service Learning, General

Of all of the benefits associated with experiential education, those related to student development are of the most interest to educators. Those of us who work with students do not need to be convinced of the positive impact work experience has on participants. Anecdotally we share with one another our success stories - stories of individual students who have grown, matured, gained self-confidence or a new sense of direction and purpose because of exposure to what we like to call the real world. Yet, we recognize that these outcomes are not guaranteed, and that in fact, not all students achieve …

Educating For Social Responsibility, Sheldon Berman

Service Learning, General

Schools must help students fight their feelings of powerlessness by developing their sense of community and their confidence that they can make a difference in the world.

National Service: The Overview, Unknown

Service Learning, General

An INDEPENDENT SECTOR national survey report indicates that many Americans are not being asked to volunteer. Among the 41 percent who were asked to volunteer in the past year, 87 percent actually did. Among the 57 percent of those who were not asked, only 30 percent volunteered. These findings suggest that if more Americans are asked to volunteer, the proportion of the population that volunteers can be measurably increased.

National Service And Student Aid: Myth And Reality, Will Marshall, Joel Berg

Service Learning, General

Do citizens who receive government benefits owe a debt of service to society? That question lies at the heart of the controversy surrounding the Citizenship and National Service Act introduced in January, 1989 by Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Charles Robb (D-Va.) and Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Ok.). The bill stems from a May, 1988 proposal by the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) that challenges the efficacy and fairness of existing federal student aid programs and proposes instead a "new G.I. Bill" that would award public aid in exchange for civilian or military service to the nation.

The Value Of Community-Service Programs, John H. Buchanan

Service Learning, General

When both President Bush and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts assume leading roles in a new national movement, there is reason to believe that something significant may be happening.

Such appears to be the case with the growing interest in Washington and elsewhere in youth-focused community-service programs.

Issues And Action In The Streams Of Service, Frank J. Slobig

Service Learning, General

The landscape across the country is sporadically spotted with an increasing number of locations where young people are engaged in sustained significant service. They are involved in part-time school-based programs in junior and senior high schools, in campus-based collegiate programs and in full-times corps.

Service: Linking School To Life, Ernest L. Boyer

Service Learning, General

The current folklore has it that teenagers are selfish, lazy, and undisciplined. The image of an apathetic, self-indulgent generation simply does not square with reality. It doe-s, however, mask the real youth problem in this nation. Former U.S. Commissioner of Education Harold Howe II (1981) captured it powerfully when he called American youth

an island in our society. The messsage it receives from the adult world is, "'We have no use in our economic system for you young people between the ages of 12 and 18, and precious little use in our community affairs. So we suggest you sit quietly, …

Learning In The Community, John Formy-Duval, Ellen Voland

Service Learning, General

Community educators refer fondly to William Carr's words as "the drawbridge analogy." As community involvement specialists, they are committed to keeping the drawbridge down, so that adults from the mainland can both provide and use resources in the school, and so that young people from the school can go regularly to the mainland, learning to apply and understand-what they have read in their books.

Dewey's Theory Of Experience: Implications For Service-Learning, Dwight E. Giles

Service Learning, General

Cornell’s Dwight Giles, Jr. relates John Dewey’s concept about education and experience to service-learning. Giles suggest a dialectical interaction between service and learning, which had implications for ensuring quality in service learning programs and for defining service-learning as a philosophy rather than as a type of program.

Applications Of Developmental Theory To The Design And Conduct Of Quality Field Experience Programs: Exercises For Educators, Michele Whitman, Albert Erdynast

Service Learning, General

Much has been made in experiential learning circles of the implications of empirical findings in developmental psychology for the formulation of a theoretically convincing rationale for field experience education programs of every kind. Of particular significance has been the identification of cognitive structural stages of intellectual, moral, social and ego development through which individuals have been shown to progress--structural transformations of the individual's intra- and interpersonal capacities which closely mirror the traditionally articulated goals of higher education for students' growth. Even as such concepts have been advanced, however, practitioners have voiced persistent reservations about the theory's seeming elitism, the values …

Long-Term Effects Of Community Service Programs, James Beane, Joan Turner, David Jones, Richard Lipka

Service Learning, General

The need to develop connections between life in the school and that in the community is a recurring theme in educational literature. Of the many means for doing this, one of the more prominent is experiential learning or "planned opportunities for learning outside the classroom" (Hamilton 1980). Within the experiential learning concept, one variation which has received a good deal of attention is youth participation programs or community service projects (Olsen 1946; National Society for the Study of Education 1953; Harnack 1974; Coleman 1974; National Commission on Resources for Youth 1974). Such programs involve the active engagement of youth in …

Experiential Learning Theory And Learning Experiences In Liberal Arts Education, Ronald Fry, David Kolb

Service Learning, General

Experiential learning theory can be used to diagnose and understand both learners and learning environments. The results suggest guidelines for making liberal arts education more meaningful to learners by providing them an opportunity to develop adaptive competencies related to career success.

National Youth Service, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

A national youth service program could attack two of the most serious urban problems-the lack of needed services and the excessive levels of unemployment among restless young people.

Patterns Of Volunteer Service By Young People: 1965 & 1974, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

In November 1965 and again in April 1974 the Census Bureau conducted a nationwide survey of volunteers. The first was funded by the Department of Labor,l and the second by ACTION, a Federal agency established in 1971 to coordinate federally-supported volunteerism, and to operate volunteer programs such as VISTA and the Peace Corps.

Service-Learning, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

Service-learning integrates the accomplishment of a needed task with educational growth.

A Survey Of Action-Learning Opportunities, Donald J. Eberly, Richard A. Graham, Sally S. Fuller

Service Learning, General

This is a preliminary report on a survey of Action-Learning opportunities conducted in the Spring of 1972. The survey director was Allan Cameron; a grant from the White House Committee on Youth enabled a number of persons age 15-20 to participate in the survey

Civilian Conservation Corps Program Of The United States Department Of The Interior (March 1933 To June 30, 1943), Conrad L. Wirth

Service Learning, General

I submit herewith my final report as the Department of the Interior Representative on the Advisory Council of the Civilian Conservation Corps. The report consists of two main parts, "Observations" and "Summary and Recommendations," which are summarized below for your convenience.