Service Learning Commons^™

The Effects Of Participation In Service-Learning On Adolescents With Disabilities, Cathy L. Brill

Disabilities

This article examines the effects of active participation in service-learning on adolescents with disabilities. Through a survey of special education teachers, effects on students' socialization, behavior, attitudes, attendance, academic skills, functional skills, and relationships with non-disabled peers are explored. Promising results are found for adolescents with mild disabilities in attendance and academic skills, and for adolescents with moderate to profound disabilities in socialization and relationships with non-disabled peers. Implications for school inclusion of students with disabilities are addressed and recommendations for areas of future study are made.

Integrating Service And Academic Study: Service-Learning And Faculty Motivation In Michigan Higher Education, Christine M. Hammond

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Student involvement in community service projects is viewed primarily as an extra-curricular activity on most college campuses (Kendall, 1990; Lieberman and Connolly, 1992). However, an increasing number of educators are calling for greater integration between service and study through courses which incorporate service-learning (Barber, 1989, 1991, 1992: Nathan and Keilsmeier, 1991; NeWlllan, 1992: Stanton, 1987, 1990; Wieckowski, 1992).

Politicians, practitioners, and philosophers offer many arguments to support the inclusion of service-learning in the formal curriculum (Bok, 1982, 1986; Boyer, 1981, 1987; Boyte, 1992; Bradfield and Hyers, 1992; Coles, 1988: Levine, 1989; Stanley, 1989, 1991; Stanton, 1987; Wagner, 1990). This chorus …

The Effect Of Participation In School-Sponsored Community Service Programs On Student Attitudes Toward Social Responsibility, Helen Marie Marks

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

With the passage of the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the 101st Congress culminated decades of proposals and debate on the importance of community service -especially by young Americans -to the common or public good.¹ The renewal of the "ethic of civic responsibility in the United States" is foremost among the purposes of the legislation. Although the act functions practically to generate and to fund new projects that promote national and community service, its passage also underscores an important moral purpose for student service within a democracy, namely. to develop social responsibility in the young. For schools …

In Service Of Service-Learning: Framing An Evaluation For Effective Programs, Steven Schuman

Evaluation/Reflection

In 1991 at the Wingspread Conference (Giles, Honnet, and Migliore, 1991) two broad questions emerged to help define and frame the evaluation of service-learning programs:

1) What was the effect of service-learning on intellectual, moral, and citizenship development of participants?

2) What was the effect of service-learning on the advancement of social institutions and democracy?

Learn And Serve America: Higher Education Evaluation Requirements, Learn And Serve America

Evaluation/Reflection

Every program that receives Learn and Serve America: Higher Education funding should establish:

• a set of annual objectives
• a system for using "customer" feedback to improve program quality
• a system for collecting additional descriptive and demographic data

Service-Learning: A New Priority For Career Centers, Pamela Franta

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is a term that has been in use for at least twenty-five years. Jane Kendall (1991) stated that she has discovered at least 147 different terms used to express the basic concept of service-learning. It's very difficult to define a concept with such broad usage, but Kendall has attempted to identify key elements of the term. She noted that a concept that has experienced so much resistance and debate over its clarification obviously entails a strong investment on the part of its proponents. There is something uniquely powerful about combining the concepts of service and learning together; this something …

Leadership Training And Service Learning, Ronald G. Billingsley

Service Learning, General

For the past twenty years the University of Colorado at Boulder has offered a leadership training program called The Presidents Leadership Class (PLC) which uses service learning as a fundamental strategy for developing leadership values and skills. Training in PLC is focused around an eight-point vision of ideal leadership characteristics and central to that vision is the belief that leaders should conceive of their actions as they relate to the broader good in society; they should participate in community service activities and forums. The goal is to shape self-concept in ways that make service to one s community seem like …

Service-Learning And The Dilemmas Of Success, Irving H. Buchen, Carl I. Fertman

Service Learning, General

Service-learning as a methodology and a movement has achieved a quantum jump in the last few years. Nationally, it has been given strong impetus by the commitment of Congress and President Clinton. A few years ago, Congress authorized significant start-up funds to make grants to states. A number of states. already extensively involved in service-learning, received substantial grants. Pennsylvania, our home base, for example. received sufficient funds to support, initially, 44 school and community programs throughout the state. Last year. there were 66 programs: and this year. it will go over 90. And Pennsylvania· s growth of support is replicated …

Service Learning For All Students, Carl I. Fertman

Service Learning, General

We are witnessing a transformation in education. Again and again we hear that we are in times of diversification, collaboration, systemic change, and transition. Although these terms apply to cooperative efforts between groups, they stem from the realization that such efforts can efficiently support and prepare students to face increasingly complex challenges, opportunities, and problems. Service learning is a part of this transformation.

Service learning rightly has been called the education of empowerment. It builds self-esteem, renews curiosity about learning, develops interpersonal skills, stirs leadership development, rekindles work and service ethics, and brings the world of careers closer to home. …

Needs Assessment For The Learn And Serve America Program, L. Richard Bradley

Service Learning, General

In almost every community there are a wide range of agencies which seek to address what are commonly understand to be "the needs of the community." Activities range from caring for the environment to ongoing assistance to those with various disabilities to the more temporary needs for food, shelter, and housing for those whose lives may be in transition due to job loss or change or change in marital status. Yet in spite of the commitment of the dedicated people associated with these agencies, most agency directors and community leaders agree that the needs usually outstrip available resources.

To fill …