Service Learning Commons^™

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.

Is Service Learning A Good Idea? Data From The National Longitudinal Study Of 1988., June R. Chapin

Service Learning, General

Service learning is an integral part of social studies that aims to instill social responsibility among students. According to the National Longitudinal Study of 1988, a significant percentage of high school students participated in community work during the previous two years and that this involvement in community service was greatest in church or church-related groups. However, the survey showed that students favor diversity in their choice of community work and that social action is not their top priority. Furthennore, there is confusion about the difference between service and community learning.

Innovative Pedagogy: Academic Service- Learning For Business Communication, Jean L. Bush-Bacelis

Service Learning, General

Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) is an innovative business communication pedagogy. Like community service, AS-L involves students volunteering in the community; however, AS-L requires the infusion of the classroom content into the community service experience. This article describes AS-L, the assignment for a business communication class, and students’ reactions as well as benefits and challenges to its use. The greatest strength of using AS-L is students’ tying theory into actual application of principles, student passion for the work, faculty enthusiasm for the results, and community satisfaction.

Service Learning: What's A Political Scientist Doing In Yonkers?, Glenn Beamer

Service Learning, General

As an urban politics teacher, I discerned a disconnect between what I said about urban politics and what my students understood. Although I offered a variety of perspectives, I nonetheless felt that students were coming to class, and leaving class, with their opinions -- liberal, conservative, and in-between -- formed. Because of the constraints on dialogue about urban politics, I decided to develop a service learning project focusing on urban homelessness and housing. The project would combine elements of a typical undergraduate course and a participant observation project. I wanted a setting in which the students and I would learn …

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.

Service Learning On The Information Superhighway, Bonnie Bracey

Service Learning, General

The Information Superhighway is more than the Internet. It is a series of components, including the collection of...high-speed, interactive...networks that exist today and will emerge tomorrow. It is the satellite, terrestrial, and wireless technologies....It is the information and content that flow over the infrastructure....It is the computers, televisions, telephones, radios, and other products....It is the people who will provide, manage, and generate new information....And it is the individual Americans who will use and benefit from the Information Superhighway. The Information Superhighway...encompasses all these components and captures the vision of a nationwide, invisible, seamless, dynamic web of transmission mechanisms, information, appliances, …

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 …

Why Service-Learning Is Bad, John Eby

Service Learning, General

Service-learning has potential to transform teaching and learning in the academy and to call a generation of students to develop social responsibility and an ethic of service. Research on the learning side of the service-learning equation shows that students develop social responsibility, reduce racism, develop leadership and gain personal and social skills. There are however important questions which must be examined on the service side of the equation. The demands a learning orientation places on service limits its effectiveness and its ability to address community needs at a structural level. The service students do is often ameliorative and the explanations …

Service Learning: More Than Community Service, Bettina Lankard Brown

Service Learning, General

Service learning, like apprenticeship and school-to-work, contextualizes student learning. It provides an environment in which students can acquire organizational, team, problem-solving, and other skills, attitudes, and capabilities necessary for future work and learning. This ERIC Digest looks at service learning: what it is and how it supports vocational and career development outcomes.

Challenges And Strategies For Success With Service-Learning In Preservice Teacher Education, Jeffrey B. Anderson, Terry Pickeral

Service Learning, General

This study examined challenges to the use of service-learning in preservice teacher education and also strategies used to overcome those challenges. We surveyed 123 teacher educators, education deans, and state department of education service-learning coordinators to gain their perspective regarding challenges most critical to the use of service-learning in teacher education. We then interviewed 42 of the survey respondents to obtain detailed descriptions of specific strategies used to overcome challenges. Results indicate the most critical challenges relate to lack of time for teacher educators to plan and implement service-learning, an already overcrowded curriculum, and a lack of alignment of service-learning …

The Spirit Of Volunteerism And Volunteerism In American Schools, Gerald H. Maring

Service Learning, General

In American culture historically and at present, there is a strong tension between "rugged individualism" and commitment to community-mindedness. University of California professor of sociology Robert Bellah et al. (1985) have analyzed this tension in its roots and ramifications from political, literary, philosophical, theological, psychological, and sociological perspectives in their seminal work Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Building upon the findings and perspectives they wrote about in Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Bellah et al. (1991) proposed in their sequel entitled The Good Society what they felt were necessary changes …

How Effective A Tool Is Student Community Service, Martha Naomi Alt

Service Learning, General

Despite the popular appeal among the public, educators, parents, and even students for community service, there is surprisingly little firm evidence that students who engage in service learn more, develop in different ways, or learn different skills than those who do not. What are the implications for policy, further research, and school practice?

Strategic Plan: Fiscal Years 1997-2002, Corporation For National Service

Service Learning, General

Created in 1993, the Corporation for National Service is a public-private partnership that oversees three national service initiatives - AmeriCorps, which includes AmeriCorps*VISTA, AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps and hundreds of local and national nonprofits; Learn and Serve America, which provides models and assistance to help teachers integrate service and learning from kindergarten through college; the National Senior Service Corps, which includes the Foster Grandparent Program, the Senior Companions Program, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).

School-Based Service: Reconnecting Schools, Communities, And Youth At The Margin, Joan Schine

Service Learning, General

The sound of gunshots was not particularly unusual in Washington Heights, a section of New York City where drug deals were common and children learned early to be vigilant. But on a late summer day in 1992, the fatal shot came from a police revolver, and it was a Dominican, a drug dealer, who was killed. The ensuing turmoil, born of the immediate crisis but a reflection of the longstanding antagonism between the youth of the neighborhood and the police, soon become a riot. Most of the police in the local precinct were White. The overwhelming majority of the young …

Service Learning As Civic Participation, Todd Clark, Marshall Croddy, William Hayes, Susan Philips

Service Learning, General

A central question in the service learning field is how service can best educate youth for active citizenship. For more than a decade, the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) has struggled with this question. We have introduced and experimented with various service programs because we have seen firsthand the value of service - how it engenders personal efficacy, empathy, and a sense of responsibility.

Service Learning And Democratic Citizenship, Richard Battistoni

Service Learning, General

Over the course of this semester I have become a citizen of New Brunswick. It could be argued that I was a citizen here well before registering for the course, but I did not feel as if I were one. Having taken the course, I now know why I must work for change, and never accept the status quo - things can always be better. I am now aware of what is happening around me. New Brunswick extends beyond the [campus] bus route. It is filled with people who need aid, people who give aid. people who cannot be bothered …

History Of The Service-Learning It Requirement In Maryland, Kathy Megyeri

Service Learning, General

Schools in Maryland have long provided some opportunities for students to volunteer. There have been the usual walk-a-thons, canned-food drives, visits to the elderly, and tree-planting projects. Building on this tradition, in 1985 the Maryland State Board of Education enacted a requirement that all school systems offer courses and programs in community service, open to all students, for elective credit, to provide opportunities for students to reach beyond themselves to help others. Two hundred of Maryland teachers were trained by the state, and during the 198889 school year, over 1,000 students were engaged in community service projects for credit (Maryland …

Theoretical Underpinnings Of Service Learning, Rebecca Lynn Carver

Service Learning, General

Although the merits of service learning frequently rest on how well it can be argued that the programs improve students' academic skills, this is only one of several outcomes that can result from implementing service learning programs. This article introduces readers to the full range of goals that service learning promises to achieve and to the specific principles that can be put into practice in order to meet these goals. Service learning consciously integrates students' experiences into the curriculum. As such it addresses the three major goals of "experiential education": allowing students to become more effective change agents, developing students' …

Beyond 4-H Community Service... To Community Service Learning, Allan T. Smith

Service Learning, General

For more than 70 years Community Service has been an important part of 4-H. So has hands-on, learning-by-doing, that we now call experiential learning. When you put those two ideas together appropriately, the result goes beyond a "feel good" experience: service activities tied closely to what youth are learning positively impact learning, and genuinely help the community.

Service Learning And Teacher Education: Mapping The Territory, Carole Cook Freeman

Service Learning, General

Since the mid-1980's there has been a renewed interest in progressive approaches to the education of intending teachers¹. In the context of this progressive teacher education activity, several distinct, but related, ideas converge and become the theoretical base for teacher education practices involving (community) service learning.² Among these ideas are renewed interest in authentic field experiences, multicultural education, child advocacy, democratic education, social justice, school reform efforts, autobiography and teacher thinking, and an emphasis on community service in K-12 education. In addition, teacher educators increasingly recognize the gap between the backgrounds of those who intend to teach …

National Service: Expectation Versus Reality, Robert D. Shumer, Jane Maland Cady

Service Learning, General

National service has a long history in America. From the early colonies with their citizen soldiers, to religious organizations and social service, to modern day members of conservation corps and AmeriCorps, individuals have contributed important work for the benefit of their community and country. A more recent focus in the 20th century, initiated by William James' "Moral Equivalent of War" and carried out in the 1993 National Service Trust Act, has accelerated an interest in the concepts and practice of national service.

Service-Learning In South Carolina, Kathy Gibson Carter

Service Learning, General

Thousands of students across South Carolina have helped improve their communities by participating in service-learning programs while strengthening their classroom learning experiences. Service-learning is one of the work-site components of the SC School-to-Work Transition Act of 1994. This Act provides all students with opportunities to connect what they learn in school with the real world through learning experiences at a work-site. Through service-learning, students combine classroom instruction with work-based activities in a non-profit organization or community agency. Students learn valuable interpersonal skills and a strong work ethic by participating as a member of a work team with specific goals.

Third Generation Of Service-Learning Research Yields More Thorough Data, Dale A. Blyth, Peter C. Scales

Service Learning, General

The first and second generations of studies on service-learning, encompassing an era from the 1960s to the early 1990s, can be said to have consisted largely of:

1. research on experiential learning and community service in general (but not service-learning as we define it today); and

2. research conducted specifically on servicelearning programs, but having numerous methodological shortcomings.

Trends In Volunteerism, Georgean C. Johnson-Coffey

Service Learning, General

Discusses four national trends affecting volunteerism: service learning, family volunteering, influence of corporations, and welfare reform. Discusses the impact of these trends on volunteer programs within libraries. Offers examples of how library staff can utilize the skills of volunteers who are allied with these trends in order to provide high levels of quality service to library patrons.

Teaching And Learning: Outside The Box, Unknown

Service Learning, General

PEER TEACHING. COOPERATIVE LEARNING. Context based instruction. Service learning. These effective techniques aren't new teaching methods. Rather, they represent a redis­covery--or renaming--of ways of teaching and learning whose popularity and use in the United States has ebbed and flowed throughout most of this century. This issue of The Link explores four diverse contexts in which this kind of teaching and learning are taking place.

Service Learning: What Is It? Can We Use It?, Terri Feldman Barr

Service Learning, General

I used to work for a Big Eight (now Big Six) Accounting firm. In addition to a tremendous amount of pro bono work that we did, the firm required all of its staff accountants, managers, and partners to become involved with one of the many not-for-profit organizations in the Cincinnati area.

The rationale was that each employee had an obligation to the greater community, to give something of himself or herself to others. And while I also heard that the "real" purpose of this requirement was "practice development" (translate marketing), there were certainly more likely places to network for "paying" …

Service-Learning In One State: Results Of The North Carolina Service-Learning Inventory, Diane C. Calleson, Lani G. Parker, Robert C. Serow

Service Learning, General

Recent years have seen greatly expanded interest in service-learning among educators at both the K-12 and college levels. By most accounts, the initiation of service-learning programs and courses has come about in response to a recognized need to provide more effective citizenship education and to do a better job of preparing young people to be active members of their communities (see, for example, Barber). What is less clear, however, is the overall shape and substance of these programs. Because service-learning usually has a strong local component, not very much is known of the broader patterns and trends at the national …

Community Service Throughout A School System, Anne Bishop

Service Learning, General

Teachers crave moments when student interest is high, questions flow freely, and learning is vivid enough to be retained. One such moment occurred when an elementary student in an environmental service project with wetlands volunteers said, "I learned that there are different types of wetlands and ours is a freshwater wetland that we are helping to stay fresh." These moments happen more often when students actively engage in experiences that involve helping others than during lecture, pencil and paper exercises, or assigned reading. Combined, service and learning become uniquely powerful (Kendall 1990). Facts learned in the classroom become a springboard …

Combining Service And Learning On Campus And In The Community, Barry Checkoway

Service Learning, General

Student workshops are valuable resources for combining service and learning. The challenge, Mr. Checkoway points out, is to recognize their limitations, integrate them with other courses in the curriculum, and find ways to improve their quality.

Linking Learning And Service: Lessons From Service Learning Programs In Pennsylvania, Carl I. Fertman

Service Learning, General

Service is part of most schools. School staff and students participate in car washes, bake sales, dances, read-a-thons, and SK races to raise money for national and local groups and community-based organizations. Other students and teachers provide thousands of hours of more direct service, working at hospitals, providing support services at the Special Olympics, cleaning parks, assisting at shelters and food banks, providing tutoring services, running hotlines, and visiting the elderly. Young people and their teachers can also be found speaking at public hearings, serving on policy boards, and visiting elected officials to talk about the needs of the community.