Service Learning Commons^™

Developing Graduate Educational Technology Programs From A Service Learning Platform, John Lebaron, Dorothy Burke, Christine Maloof

Higher Education

The graduate College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), is in the second year of a service centered model for graduate coursework in educational technology. The two courses Technology and Learning Environments (T&LE, 1994), and Technology and Schools of the Future (T&SF, 1995) had previously been offered as "traditional" academic offerings. In cooperation with the Lawrence Public Schools, one of the poorest districts in the nation, these courses were modified as "service learning" experiences. A more detailed account of the first year of this project (LeBaron and Scribner-MacLean, 1995) is available on request to the authors. This …

"Community Mathematical Services: Service Learning Coursebook In Mathematics, Benjamin S. Winchester

Special Topics, General

The Mathematics Discipline of the University of Minnesota, Morris has moved into the forefront of its academic excellence with the addition of a service learning component in its curriculum. Three professors, Dr. Jon Anderson, Dr. Peh Ng and Dr. Engin Sungur recently received SEAMS (Science, Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics and Computer Science) Mini Grants from Minnesota Campus Compact in 1996. These grants challenge the faculty to find innovative ways to address community/environmental hazards and concerns while enhancing students academic and civic understanding.

Service Learning Coursebook • Ill Mathematics, Benjamin Winchester

Guides

The Mathematics Discipline of the University of Minnesota, Morris has moved into the forefront of its academic excellence with the addition of a service learning component in its curriculum. Three professors, Dr. Jon Anderson, Dr. Peh Ng and Dr. Engin Sungur recently received SEAMS (Science, Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics and Computer Science) Mini Grants from Minnesota Campus Compact in 1996. These grants challenge the faculty to find innovative ways to address community/environmental hazards and concerns while enhancing students academic and civic understanding.

Maryland Service Exchange Directory, Governor's Commission On Service

Partnerships/Community

On behalf of the Maryland Governor's Commission on Service, I am pleased to present the second edition of the Maryland Service Exchange Directory. The Governor's Commission on Service created the Maryland Service Exchange to provide cost-free, program development, technical assistance and training to Maryland's national and community service programs, non-profit and community-based organizations, schools and colleges. At the same time, the Exchange offers a new, innovative opportunity through which Marylanders can volunteer to serve our communities.

Investigating Urban Community Needs: Service Learning From A Social Justice Perspective, Carol Wiechman Maybach

Service Learning, General

Homelessness, poverty, substance abuse, hunger, teen pregnancy, youth violence, and marginalization of the disabled are but a few of the complex social issues that continue to plague urban America. They are also issues that attract the attention of student service providers involved in service-learning programs across the country (Education Commission of the States, 1994). However, few of the higher education service-learning courses focus on the investigation of the needs of the individuals included in these groups in the urban community, and even fewer build service--learning projects around a model that is accountable for the results of the service experience on …

A Developmental Perspective On Community Service In Adolescence, Miranda Yates, James Youniss

School K-12

A substantial number of U.S. adolescents currently participate in community service and there is increased national interest in service programs. This article assesses the assumption of developmental benefits to service participants by critically reviewing 44 empirical studies. It offers a theoretical framework for understanding the findings by connecting them to identity development and delineating three pertinent concepts: agency, social relatedness, and moral-political awareness. These concepts are applied to studies that investigate: ( 1) the characteristics and motivations of participants, ( 2) the effects of service, and ( 3) the process of service. The findings support the conclusion that service activities …

Community Partner Orientation For Service Learning Courses, Service Learning Institute

Guides

We have prepared this manual as a "work in progress" to help you think about the service learning process and practice. We are at a crucial stage in developing service learning infrastructure. We began our work this fall semester supporting 7 courses which involved 160 students in over 30 agency/sites in the Salinas-Seaside-Monterey area. This spring, 24 service learning courses/experiences are being offered as more faculty become involved with extending learning experiences into the community.

We offer you this manual to assist you and inform you of our plans for supporting, monitoring, and evaluating service learning experiences this spring. We …

Crossing Boundaries A Research Agenda Toward Productive Learning And Community Renewal, American Association For Higher Education

Higher Education

Colleges and universities expect that society's pursuit of democratic goals is continuously informed by well-prepared graduates who shape and contribute to the common good. The creative, competent, and committed student is often a faculty's finest form of service. Joining this fundamental mission to the daily tasks of continually building and renewing democracy was the focus of the 12th annual AAHE Research Forum. Crossing boundaries among teaching, research, and service includes making informed commitments and taking responsible actions. But what do we need to know to reconsider who we are and what we do in light of the changing complexities of …

Leam & Serve Higher Education Programs In Minnesota: The Impact And Sustainability Of Service-Learning, Kevin J. Gormley

Higher Education

This article provides a descriptive evaluation of 12 higher education, service-learning programs in Minnesota funded in part by the Corporation for National Service: Learn and Serve America Program.' The research for this project was conducted in 45 days during the summer of 1995 using a phenomenological methodology to examine the impact and sustainability of the programs. The data for this research were derived from interviews with individuals involved in local initiatives. Three main categories of information became evident after analyzing the data: (I) program design, (2) success and impact of programs, and (3) sustainability and the future of service-learning. These …

Sociology And Service Learning At Loyola, Barbara H. Vann

Higher Education

Service learning is a term used to describe efforts to link community service to the academic curriculum. It is a broad, nebulously defined term which at times includes academic endeavors.such as internships, needs assessments and participatory action research (Marullo, !996). A more narrow .usage, and the usage promoted by its advocates, refers to the process through which students participate in organized service activity for academic credit to meet identified community needs and reflect on that service to further their understanding of course material (Bringle and Hatcher, 1994 ). And, as Marullo (1996) has pointed out, when service learning activity is …

Student Experiences With Service Learning In A Business Ethics Course, John Kohls

Higher Education

Service learning provides many challenges and opportunities for the instructor who wishes to test its potential. This paper looks at some of the promise for service learning in the undergraduate Business Ethics course and describes one experience with this project. Quotations from student journals and reflective papers are utilized to present the student's perspective on the project. Some suggestions are offered for insuring effective service learning in courses like Business Ethics.

Large-Scale Institutional Change To Implement An Urban University Mission: Portland State University, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

In response to calls for accountability and effectiveness, public universities are reviewing their missions and are adopting measurable mission-specific goals. An emerging distinctive institutional type is the urban university, an institution characterized by the nature and extent of its responsiveness to the research and educational needs of complex metropolitan regions. This paper concerns the national environment for organizational change, a model for change, and a case study of one urban university that has pursued comprehensive and systemic change in its academic and administrative environment to direct resources to the support of its distinctive urban mission.

Implementing Service Learning In Higher Education, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Higher Education

The current interest in service learning provides universities with a unique opportunity to engage their students in community service, expand their educational agenda, and build reciprocal partnerships - with the community. This article discusses the implementation of service learning by delineating a set of activities for four constituencies: the institution, faculty, students, and community.

Community-Based Learning Projects For The "Real World", Chris Davis

Special Topics, General

As we walked down the street to the next-door elementary school, the I 5 high school juniors with me began reflecting on their elementary school experiences. They remembered the Dr. Seuss stories their teachers had read to them, the art projects, the time to play, the time to just be kids. Life was simpler and more fun then, they all agreed.

Now school mostly means sitting at desks and listening to teachers talk for a large portion of the day. And when teachers aren't talking to them, they take tests, read a textbook chapter, write on a ditto, watch a …

A Service-Learning Contract: Clarity, Commitment, And Completion, Darroll Bussler

Special Topics, General

A student was reporting her service-learning experience to her classmates during a reflection session. She was hesitant to begin ... and then explained \Vhy. Everyone in the class seemed to be having fun and fulfillment in their experiences. She said, "My experience isn't fun. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing; I don't even think they know I'm there, and I don't think I want to finish my service." She then said, "I think we need something like ... a learning contract."

Service Learning: Meeting Student And Community Needs, Denise I. Yoder, Esther Retish, Rahima Wade

Special Topics, General

This article describes a program through which students with learning disabilities and culturally diverse backgrounds, and their peers in the general education program, demonstrated their abilities to be service providers to many people within their community.

Service Learning Teacher Training Manual, Scott Richardson

Guides

This is a guide for trainers who view service learning as a teaching strategy to improve instruction. The guide assumes that the participants in the training are teachers who will use service learning to help their students achieve the objectives of the school curriculum. Some of the training sessions, such as reflection and defining service learning, may be useful for non-school-based programs as well. The bulk of the guide, however, is shaped by our belief that service learning is good education. We view service learning as an experiential teaching strategy with an ultimate aim of promoting student understanding of established …

Guides To Developing Service-Learning Programs, Gail Klosterman

Guides

This document lists those guides in our collection which are most pertinent to service-learning. Each citation provides bibliographic information, an indication of the type of guide, a program grade level, and the source or sources where the guide can be obtained. If an abstract was available from the ERIC database or the author it is included. The next edition of this document will include a greater number of abstracts as our staff continues to abstract and index materials. The guides included in this document meet the following criteria:

1. NSLCC has a copy of the resource on hand for reference by …

Opportunity For All: Linking Service-Learning And Business Education, Edward Zlotkowski

Higher Education

A major criticism of contemporary business education centers on its failure to help business students achieve sufficient educational breath, particularly with regard to the external environment of business. The service-learning movement offers business faculty an excellent opportunity to address this deficiency. By developing curricular projects linked to community needs, faculty can further their students' technical skills while helping them simultaneously develop greater inter-personal, inter-cultural, and ethical sensitivity.

Defining Excellence For School-Linked Services, Esther Wattenberg, Yvonne Pearson

School K-12

For more than a decade there has been great interest in educational circles about school-linked services ways by which children can receive the full range of social services they need to enter their classrooms ready to learn and parents can get the help they need to support their children's development. This publication presents summaries of the proceedings from a day-long conference on school-linked services. The following presentations are summarized:(1) "Welcoming Remarks" (Esther Wattenberg) ;(2) "Anchoring School-Linked Services in Sobering Realities: A Glance at the Past and a Searching Stare at the Present" (Paula Allen Meares);(3)"Response from School Social Workers: A …

Downtown As A Classroom: Social/Architechtural History Of Beaufort, Lady's Island Middle School

Project Summaries

We live in a town rich in history and architecture, yet nowhere in the 12-year curriculum are these subjects taught. The students and staff of Lady's Island Middle are working to rectify this omission. The purpose of "Downtown As A Classroom" is to discover (via oral histories and written records), write, illustrate and publish a top-quality children's account of folklore and fact based on Beaufort's architectural past and present.

The basic premise is that every building tells a story. It is these family stories which 150+ eighth graders, representing the full spectrum of student population, will learn and preserve. By …

Guides To Developing Service-Learning Programs, Gail Klosterman

Bibliographies

This document lists those guides in our collection which are most pertinent to service-learning. Each citation provides bibliographic information, an indication of the type of guide, a program grade level, and the source or sources where the guide can be obtained. If an abstract was available from the ERIC database or the author it is included. The next edition of this document will include a greater number of abstracts as our staff continues to abstract and index materials. The guides included in this document meet the following criteria:

1. NSLCC has a copy of the resource on hand for reference by …

Experiential Education And Civic Learning, Robert H. Mckenzie

Civic Engagement

not only demands experiential education; civic learning reinforces for us the nature of experiential education. To explore the relationship between the two, we must understand a number of factors: the nature of the contemporary challenges to civic learning; the relationship of the purposes that educational institutions choose to that civic challenge; the pedagogical choices available for learning civically; and the relationship of learning theory to the centrality of choice that lies at the core of civic learning. At the end of this investigation, we will find some important guiding principles that civic learning suggests for how we engage in experiential …

Experiential Education And Civic Learning, Robert H. Mckenzie

Civic Engagement

The nature of civic learning not only demands experiential education; civic learning reinforces for us the nature of experiential education. To explore the relationship between the two, we must understand a number of factors: the nature of the contemporary challenges to civic learning; the relationship of the purposes that educational institutions choose to that civic challenge; the pedagogical choices available for learning civically; and the relationship of learning theory to the centrality of choice that lies at the core of civic learning. At the end of this investigation, we will find some important guiding principles that civic learning suggests for …

Community Service To The Elderly A Service-Learning Model: Guidelines For Replication, James M. Mccrea, Sherry G. Cottom

Curriculum

At the University of Pittsburgh, Generations Together, an Intergenerational Studies Program develops programs that bring young and old together in ways that benefit both generations. The University Challenge for Excellence Program (DCEP) works with entering students who are often first generation, mostly African-American, and who may be in need of special assistance during their first year. UCEP seeks ways to raise their self esteem, give them a sense of purpose, connect them to the University, and ultimately to retain them at Pitt through graduation. In 1994, these two university programs joined together with the Housing Authority of the City of …

Animal Tracks Water Action Pack, Karen Romano Young, Charles Wilkinson

Curriculum

This guide contains: Discovery, Awareness, Action and Appendices.

Community Service Leadership Conference, Bill Sigismond, Gary Thompson

Curriculum

Materials from the Community Service Leadership Conference, Saturday, February 3, 1996.

Developing Reflective Learners: Serendipity And Synergy At Wheaton College, Hannah Goldberg, Daniel Golden, Victoria Mcgillin

Evaluation/Reflection

For the past decade, Wheaton College, a small liberal arts institution located in Norton, Massachusetts, has been creating, refining, and integrating a range of initiatives designed to develop students into active and reflective learners. Some of these initiatives grew out of explicit institutional commitments to teaching and learning innovation, while others were in fact happy accidents of circumstance, or situations where an individual interesting program idea took hold, spread into other units of the College, and was itself transformed in the process.

Evaluating Service-Learning Programs, Andrew Furco

Evaluation/Reflection

What we know about service-learning programs regarding impacts on students, communities, institutions:
• little systematic data analysis has been done;
• most existing findings are anecdotal;
• findings that exist are narrow in scope and are typically nongeneralizeable to other programs;
• most studies on service-learning have focused on the impact of service on student (service provider) development;
• there are a growing number of service-learning evaluations that are assessing the impacts of service on communities (service recipients);
• assessments of the impacts of service-learning on institutions are negligible
• regarding impacts on students, we know that service can impact …

Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach, United Way Of America

Evaluation/Reflection

If yours is like most human service agencies or youth- and family-serving organizations, you regularly report on how much money you receive, how many staff and volunteers you have, and what they do in your programs. You know how many individuals participate in your programs, how many hours you spend serving them, and how many brochures or classes or counseling sessions you produce. In other words, you document program inputs, activities, and outputs.