Service Learning Commons^™

Educator's Guide, Rahima C. Wade

Special Topics, General

In the fall of 2003, the National Council for the Social I Studies (NCSS) was awarded a teacher training grant I from the federal Corporation for National and Community Service to fund "CiviConnections: Constructing the past, creating the future." The NCSS proposal was one of just 8 chosen for funding in the new 2003 grant competition on "Linking History, Civics, and Service." From 2003 to 2007, CiviConnections will involve more than 297 teachers and 7,425 3rd - 12th grade students nationwide in linking local history inquiry with community service-learning activities. Teams of three teachers apply for $7,500 grants to cover …

Critical Cotnponents That Support Learning & Service: Evaluation Of Funded Programs, Learn & Serve Ohio

Evaluation/Reflection

Please take a few minutes to complete this external evaluation of your service-learning program funded by the Ohio Department of Education Learn and Service Office.

We realize that this is a different type of report; nevertheless it is mandatory. This evaluation is being e-mailed to you as well as being sent by regular mail.

The extensive Essential Elements component is part of a national effort. While you may not initially see a connection to your program, we hope that this will eventually become evident.

Service Learning Pre-Service Survey For Students, Argie Manolis

Evaluation/Reflection

Please complete this confidential survey honestly. The survey will help service learning program staff assess the success of service learning at UMM for the purposes of UMM's Learn and Serve America grant. Your professor will not know how you, specifically, responded, nor will the survey affect you or your professor in any way.

Service Learning Through The High School Pyramid Model: A Case Study, Fawzia Al-Rashid, Kenyon Walker

School K-12

The intellectual and philosophical roots of service learning have been attributed to the conceptualizations of democratic society put forth by Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s and John Dewey in the early twentieth century (Kenny eta!, 2002). Dewey believed that students would learn more effectively and eventually become better citizens if they engaged in activities that linked service to the community and the curriculum. This idea of linking service to curriculum has been further embraced by advocates of service learning today.

Healthy Neighborhood Healthy Heart Initiative: Bridging Community Health Theory To Civic Commitment, Christine Beck, Joan Wiencek Knurek

Partnerships/Community

Healthy Neighborhood Healthy Heart Initiative (Healthy Heart) is a collaborative service learning experience to address identified health concerns of neighborhood residents. Healthy Heart is a collaborative program of Cuyahoga Community College (CCC) Nursing Education Department, Saint Vincent Charity Hospital (SVCH) Community Outreach Department, and five low-income urban apartment complexes. The program utilizes service learning framework and coalition building. As a result, academic institutions, agencies, target populations, and the community as a whole are positively impacted and collaborate in the experience. The goals of the initiative are to:

1. Empower individuals, families, and groups to make informed health care decisions based …

Growing To Greatness: The State Of Service-Learning Project 2004 Executive Summary, National Youth Leadership

Project Summaries

This report is the first of a series of annual Growing to Greatness (G2G) reports by the National Youth Leadership Council. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words and life, G2G documents the capacity of all youths to be great - to serve, learn, and change the world. Growing evidence, shared by several disciplines and collected across a diverse range of settings, documents young people actively learning and making real differences in communities.

Community Action Problem Solving Teacher Guide, Earth Force

Curriculum

Welcome to the Community History/Environmental Citizenship (CHEC) teacher guide, which is designed to engage students in historical inquiry as part of environmental service-Iearning projects. CHEC materials are a key part of a larger Earth Force Program called Community Action Problem Solving (CAPS). CHEC materials are designed to help students understand:
• how past events affect present environmental issues
• how local environmental challenges have been addressed in the past
• how historical context can help them to effectively address today's environmental problems

An Analysis Of The Reflection Component In The Epics Model Of Service Learning, Lynne A. Slivovsky, Frank R. Derego Jr., Carla B. Zoltowski, Leah H. Jamieson, William C. Oakes

Evaluation/Reflection

Service learning is a pedagogy providing a structured environment for students to link service with course learning objectives. Key to the service learning experience is critical reflection. This gives students the opportunity to examine their coursework in the context of the service they provide to their community and, in a broader sense, the impact they can have on the world. Research has shown that students participating in service learning have a higher comprehension of the course material and also develop an awareness of their local community and the issues it faces. In engineering, there are many examples of service-learning programs …

Establishing Partnerships, Dare Mighty Things

Partnerships/Community

While there are many nationally recognized benefits and advantages to partnership development, the answer to why one seeks to establish partnerships is relatively simple. There is added value in working with other organizations including the sharing of staff and financial resources. Partnership development is nor a new concept. Communities, organizations and individuals have been working together in partnerships to improve the quality of life at the grassroots level for a number of years. There are a number of multi-agency "stakeholder" partnerships both locally and nationally that manage and deliver a wide range of community development programs, as well as service …

Highlights Of Campus Compact's Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Service Learning, General

The trend toward increasing civic engagement among colleges and universities is stronger than ever. In Campus Compact's 2003 survey, member institutions reported not only record participation in community service but also an increase in structural and financial support for initiatives to improve communities and to make civic learning part of academic life.

Three-Year Longitudinal Service-Learning Research Study: Preliminary Findings, Frank D. Aquila, L. Richard Bradley, Jennifer Dodd, Charlotte Jones-Ward

Service Learning, General

Using an experimental design, this study examines the contributions of service-learning to decreased at-risk behaviors, student cognitive, social, and personal development, and academic achievement over a three-year period. During the pilot phase and Years One and Two, teachers and students from eleven different Ohio schools have been surveyed. Preliminary findings are presented.

Changing Landscapes: Enduring Values, Angela Bodino

Service Learning, General

The campus of Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) seems pastoral with 160 acres of woods, a pond, and gentle grassy slopes. Two miles to the west are two golf courses and farmland. Two miles east are homes built in the 17th and 18th Centuries close to the North Branch of the Raritan River, close to a colonial cemetery and the soaring spire of the Reformed Church. This setting reminds us of an early American ethic of hope and change, the promise of vast spaces, new destinies and new communities.

Research Matters, Shelley H. Billig

Service Learning, General

Many people are attracted to service-learning because they see what it does for students, schools, and communities. Students are more engaged in their studies, schools are revitalized, with a new sense of mission and focus, and community members, energized by working with students on service-learning projects, are more supportive of young people and their schools.

This rosy picture is the reality in some settings with well-implemented service-learning, but too often this is not the case. In fact, much service-learning practice is uneven in quality, and research shows that low-quality service-learning has little impact.