Service Learning Commons^™

Intergenerational Service-Learning, Illinois Intergenerational Initiative

Intergenerational

A retired secretary assists with a high-school business class. When she suffers a stroke the students visit, encourage, and help her through rehabilitation --Intergenerational Service-Learning Members of a fraternity help senior citizens relocate to their new facility. The following semester senior citizens mentor freshman students who are overwhelmed by the university experience --Intergenerational Service-Learning.

An older couple visits a preschool to read and tell stories to the children. Three years later when one of them loses sight, the students take turns reading to them--proudly demonstrating their new skills --Intergenerational Service-Learning.

Retirees visit a Youth Center to …

Connecting School To Work & Service Learning: Building A Competent, Caring Workforce For The 21st Century, Quest International

School K-12

With the year 2000 virtually upon us, the clarion call from both America's businesses and educational institutions is for education reform initiatives to implement creative ways to equip our young people with the skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed to be successful in the world of work and as contributing members of a democracy. What responsibility do we as educators have to provide young people with opportunities to discover and apply their special talents and fulfill their personal commitments within the crucible of real work and service experiences? How can our schools help young people develop the skills and attitudes required …

Transforming Service Learning: An Argument For The Radical Inclusion Of Young People, Dana R. Fusco

School K-12

While much has been written delineating the reasons for supporting service learning, rarely have students' views been included. As a result of creating collective dialogues with young people, this article presents service learning from their perspective. Further, the methodology by which young people could be heard is put forth as a tool for bringing service learning to a new level.

Community Service & Service Learning Initiatives In Independent Schools, Deborah Genzer

School K-12

During the 1996-97 academic year, the National Association of lndependent Schools (NAIS) researched independent school community service and service learning initiatives, thanks to a generous grant from the Surdna Foundation. NAIS conducted a survey of its 963 member schools in the United States, followed by site visits to eight of the respondents. Deborah Genzer, an independent school community service learning coordinator, worked as a consultant throughout the project. The following are the issues addressed by this study, with italicized highlights of findings.

Ollye B. Conley, The Academy For Science And Foreign Language, Education's Unsung Heroes

Project Summaries

The Alabama African American Historic Project has as its objective to research and document the history and culture of Huntsville, Alabama's 19th Century African Americans. This project originated from a question asked by students during a field study to Huntsville's historic Maple Hill Cemetery. While at the cemetery, students located graves of Civil War veterans and former governors of Alabama. Magnificent stories about their lives and outstanding contributions to the city were told. "Where were the African Americans?" was the question asked. This question evolved into Field Studies, Pictorial and Artifacts Exhibits, and Interdisciplinary Units.

Learning Adventures Middle School: Guidebook For Our Expedition Of December 1998, Learning Adventures Middle School

Project Summaries

This guide follows our expedition of December 1998, as we all worked together to make our floor reflect the values and beliefs of our program. Students created individual reports and research to help document this expedition. Portions of their writing appear here to describe our trees.

North Carolina K-12 School-Based Learn And Serve America Program, North Carolina State Board Of Education

Project Summaries

General Goal: To engage school-age youth in service-learning activities to help address the educational, public safety, human and environmental needs of North Carolina

Community Service And Political Identity Development In Adolescence, Miranda Yates, James Youniss

Civic Engagement

This article addresses the interconnection of political socialization and identity development. We begin with Erikson 's work, which identified the development of political commitment in adolescence as a key aspect of identity formation. We then seek to shed light on the social processes through which youth become engaged in political activities and issues. We discuss the influences of family and peers as well as participation in community service and other civic activities. The development of social responsibility and agency, and an understanding of the complexity of social issues are considered as important facets of political commitment. Data from a case …

We The People... Project Citizen, Civic Center For Education

Curriculum

We the People... Project Citizen is a civic education program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in state and local government. It actively engages students in learning how to monitor and influence public policy and encourages civic participation among students, their parents, and members of the community.

Mapping Community Assets Workbook, Diane Dorfman

Curriculum

Asset mapping, drawing a map of what is valuable in our communities, is an exercise in community development. If you are looking for a way to begin work towards organizing local people to take an active role in the place where they live, it is a good idea to start with what you know. If you don't know the place where you live, how will you know how to take advantage of all there is to offer? How will you know how to build a strong, active community without the foundation of assets that are already right there?

This workbook …

Cis Middle School Community Service Handbook 1998-99, Cis Middle School

Curriculum

Our educational philosophy stresses the development of the whole person. Its concerns extend beyond the focus on academic and intellectual achievement and encourage responsible citizenship in the world outside the classroom.

Measuring Progress; Evaluating The Strengthening Of Communities, Phil Bartle

Evaluation/Reflection

Our goal is stated; we want to strengthen communities. We feel that we have a methodology to do so, but how can we know when we have succeeded, or to what extent?

What we may mean by the above question, is, "How do we measure the strengthening of communities that we claim we are doing?" Put in other ways, "What do we mean by strengthening communities, by increasing their capacities, by empowering them?" We can use these three (1 empowering, 2 strengthening, 3 capacity building) interchangeably, although one or another may be more acceptable to different people. …

Evaluation Methods That Build Quality Into K-16 Service-Learning Programs, L. Richard Bradley

Evaluation/Reflection

This document covers: What Service-Learning is; Steps in the Evaluation Process; Initial Conditions for Successful Service-Learning Program Implementation; Service-Learning Evaluation 101; Service-Learning Evaluation 201; Service-Learning Evaluation 301; Comparison of Evaluation Strategies in Relation to Service-Learning; and List of Surveys and Instruments used by the Four-District Consortium.

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships: Characteristics Of Successful University Community Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

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.

Community-Based Education And Service: The Hpsisn Experience, Sherril B. Glemmon, Barbara A. Holland, Anu F. Shinnamon, Beth A. Morris

Partnerships/Community

Health services delivery is increasingly shifting to community-based settings. The competencies required of future health professionals require a shift in their educational preparation. Service leaning is suggested as an educational method with the potential to reform health professions education in tandem with the changes occurring in the health services delivery. The Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN), a US demonstration project of service learning in the health professions, examines the impact of service leaning on students, faculty, communities and institutions across a wide array of universities and community settings. This paper describes the evaluation of the …

Service-Learning In The Community - Are We Ready For The Journey?, William Finger

Partnerships/Community

It's late Sunday afternoon in downtown Raleigh, NC, in a low concrete building next to the railroad tracks. We are working in a small room where the 40 residents will eat supper in about an hour, when a church group serves the only full meal of the day for many of the residents. We have folded the tables and pushed them against the wall. Most of the residents are watching television in the only other common room in the building or lying on their bunks in the men's or women's dorm, each a single large room. A few are in …

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 …