Service Learning Commons^™

Long-Term Effects Of Volunteerism During The Undergraduate Years, Alexander W. Astin, Linda J. Sax, Juan Avalos

Higher Education

A growing number of colleges and universities in the United States have become actively engaged in encouraging their undergraduate students to participate in some form of volunteer service (Cohen & Kinsey, 1994; Levine, 1994; Markus, Howard, & King, 1993; O'Brien, 1993). Further, service is increasingly being incorporated into the curriculums of major and general education courses (Cohen & Kinsey, 1994; Levine, 1994). While relatively few colleges include service learning or volunteer service as a curricular requirement, the number is growing and such a requirement has become an increasingly frequent topic of debate (Markus, Howard, & King, 1993). That the top …

Service-Learning And School Curriculum, Amy Yip Ah-May

Special Topics, General

Service-Learning extends the learning process from the classroom to the community, which becomes a supplementary resource to facilitate teaching and learning. This paper uses fragments of reflections to illustrate how Service-Learning course participants learn through the community-service projects and how they feel about their experiences as project leaders. The literature used provides a rich source of data about the meaning of Service-Learning and empirical evidences of the educational effects of learning through serving others. This paper argues that the Hong Kong school curriculum is examination driven and focused on the academic. There is a neglect in the social, moral and …

A Study Of The Effects Of Participation In The Helper Model Of Service Learning In Early Adolescence, Center For Advanced Study In Education (Case)

Special Topics, General

The Service Learning Impact Study is a multifaceted multi-year study funded by the William T. Grant Foundation to examine the impact of the Helper Model of service learning. This research is exploring whether and how participation by middle school students contributes to the development of academic or school-related skills, enhances psychosocial abilities, and leads to the acquisition of skills for the school to work transition.

The goals of this project are to:
• examine the impact of participating during early adolescence in service learning (Helper Program)
• identify how impact is related to program characteristics and the types of service …

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service- Learning Programs (Cambridge-Isanti High School), Cambridge-Isanti High School

Guides

This curriculum is designed to give students the opportunity to experience and discover the arts. It is a collaborative service-learning project between the local artistic community and a ninth grade English/Social Studies class poetry unit at Cambridge-Isanti High School.

Service-Learning In Out-Of-School Programs, Saren Lossli

Guides

This resource contains: Needs/Interests/Resources Assessment; Memory Exercise; What kinds of "learning" opportunities can "servicelearning" offer in out-of-school time programs?; What is service-learning? What is the difference between "service" and "service-learning"?; Why is service-learning important?; Benefits of Service-Learning; Eight Keys to Effective Project Planning; Sample Project Ideas; and Brainstorming Activity.

I Support National Service! A Guide To Promote Reauthorization Of The National And Community Service Trust Act, Youth Service America

Guides

The purpose of the national service reauthorization proposals is to extend longstanding national service legislation -- the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973. The extension authorizes support for programs that encourage Americans to engage in full- time or part-time service in their communities in order to meet unmet needs in the areas of education, public safety, the environment, and other human needs such as health and housing.

Starting Or Expanding An Out-Of-School Program: Five Steps To Starting Something New, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Guides

Step 1: Perceive the Need; Step II: Connect with Others; Step Ill: Conduct a Needs Assessment; Step IV: Utilize Information Gathered to Design a Program or Component; and Step V: Formulate an Action Plan.

Creating A Balanced Program, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Guides

This resource contains: Assessment of needs/interests in the room; Introduction to the Agenda; Defining Aspects of a Quality Program; Defining "Program" and "Components"; Designing an Appropriate Environment; Designing Appropriate Routines/Schedules; Ideas for Themes; Integrating Service-Learning; Keys and Summary; Program Design Tools; and Resource list.

Be Part Of The Equation: A User's Guide On Arts In Community Service, Sam Quan Krueger

Guides

In making art or doing community service, there are common elements such as examining a subject and its context; responding and taking action because of that examination; and involving others in the same experience of examining and responding. Of course, there are differences, as well. Not all artistic endeavors intend for obvious community benefits, nor do all community service activities include artistic qualities or pursuits. However, for those who are working in the overlapping areas between art and community service, there is a need to learn more. The AC3=∞ (IN SHORT, AC3) PROJECT attempts to address this need.

Faculty Handbook For Service Learning, Commuter Affairs And Community Service

Guides

No abstract provided.

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools .To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs (Abraham Lincoln High School), Abraham Lincoln High School

Guides

Abraham Lincoln High School (formally The High School for New Americans) and the Institute for Education and Advocacy used this project as a community awareness and outreach program. The project was created to help immigrant and refugee students introduce themselves to their new community, to foster self-reflection and self-expression in the students, to bring the different academic departments together in a hands-on project, and to help in the healing process of the students in overcoming their recent transition and often traumatic experiences.

Service Learning As A Teaching Strategy, Vermont Community Works

Guides

Included in this resource packet: An Overview of Vermont Community Works; Articulating Social Education at Guilford School; Reflections on Community Building in the Classroom; Professional Development; and Reflections on Service Learning.

Designing Collaborations Ijetween Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs (University Of Minnesota), University Of Minnesota Extension Service

Guides

Dads Make a Difference is a statewide paternity education project where senior high teens, male and female, are trained to teach a 4-lesson school curriculum about the importance of fathers in children's lives to youth in grades 6-8. Designed to help prevent too-early parenting, the curriculum helps older teens discuss the legal, financial, and emotional responsibilities of parenting with younger youth. The Dads Make a Difference middle school curriculum covers these topics: risks and risky behavior; the legal issues of fatherhood; how involved fathers make a difference in the well-being being of children; and the importance of making responsible decisions.

A Guide To Service Learning, Richard D. Pertzborn

Guides

The purpose of this guide is to facilitate successful and meaningful service learning activities for middle school students at River Bluff Middle School. Middle school students involved in service learning activities are positively impacted and provide a service to the community.

Building Effective Partnershis, Saren Eyre Loosli

Partnerships/Community

A definition of "partners": two or more parties with shared interests and goals as well as specific roles and responsibilities in relation to each other's work.

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs (Henry Sibley High School), Henry Sibley High School District 197

Partnerships/Community

The Peer Helping/Community Service class at Henry Sibley High School works in cooperation with the West St. Paul Police Department and the South Robert Street Business Association to assess and evaluate the need of a Community Halloween Haunted House. The goals of this project are to provide a safe, drug-free environment for preschool, elementary, and junior high age students and their families. The students in the Peer Helping/Community Service class learn skills ranging from teamwork, to identifying community needs, to implementation and building of a Haunted House. The class also provides an opportunity for community service participation for several other …

Partnerships That Work: National Service And Business In Welfare To Work, Robert J. Keast

Partnerships/Community

Welfare-to-work has come to the fore of the social policy debate in recent years. This especially has been the case since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). PRWORA significantly altered over 60 years of American welfare policy by creating a public assistance program with the aim of replacing public sector welfare checks with private sector paychecks. In order to reach this goal, time limits on receipt of assistance as well as stronger work requirements have become central in moving people from welfare and into work.

The Middle Years Programme (Myp) Workshop For Teachers & Administrators Beginning With The Programme, Miriam Murphy

International Service Learning & Community Engagement

This workshop features Community Service as Defined by IBO; Structure of Community Service at L'ECOLE D'EDUCATION INTERNATIONALE, St. Hubert (Quebec), a Canada; and Break-out Session.

Make Sure It's Service Learning, Not Just Community Service, Leonard T. Burns

Special Topics, General

Service learning may be made more beneficial to communities by allowing students to participate aggressively in various learning activities, while keeping them abreast with their own social responsibilities. Students must also be given adequate opportunity to reflect on their service experiences.

New England College Pre-Service Teacher Service Learning Guidebook, Debra Nitschke-Shaw

Guides

In a democratic classroom, teacher and students strive to create a participatory learning community (Wade, 1997), a community where the voices and needs of all are respected and valued by the members of that community. Democratic education involves connecting with the larger community through meaningful, hands-on involvement. According to John Dewey, "schools should be democratic laboratories of learning closely linked to community need" (National Youth Leadership Council, 1991, p. 4). Therefore, the focus of a democratic classroom should be on responsible participation from all members of the classroom community.

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.

Community Service Learning Increases Communication Skills Across The Business Curriculum, Mary L. Tucker, Anne M. Mccarthy, John A. Hoxmeier, Margarita M. Lenk

Higher Education

Community service learning offers a unique and rewarding way for business students to reinforce communication capabilities while developing lifelong career and social skills. This article defines community service learning, discusses its importance to business as well as higher education, and describes three community service learning projects. Students in these projects taught elementary students, designed a computer system for a community nonprofit, and developed accounting systems for university divisions. In doing so, they enhanced their understanding of classroom theories and communication skills through service-learning.

Community Service Is A Way To Build Business Leadership, Rebecca Erdahl, Mary Schultz

Partnerships/Community

Minnesotans know that our famed quality of life is not a matter of serendipity. It happens here because we expect it of our businesses and community institutions. It happens here because we expect it of ourselves. It exists because we make sure that the right people come together at the right time to do the right things. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the fact that the two largest local business organizations in the state - the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Minneapolis Chamber of. Commerce-place the nurturing of community leadership as top priorities.

In The Service Of Citizenship: A Study Of Student Involvement In Community Service, Robert A. Rhoads

Higher Education

I learn more through my volunteer work than I ever do in any of my classes at school. Talking to people from diverse backgrounds provides so much insight that people just can't imagine. I study all these different theories in political science and sociology, but until you get a chance to see how the social world influences people's everyday lives, it just doesn't have that much meaning.

I have been involved in volunteer work ever since I was in high school, and I'll probably continue to do stuff like Habitat [for Humanity] until I'm old and gray. I get a …

Service Learning In Overseas Nations: U.S. Student Teachers Give, Grow, And Gain Outside The Classroom, Laura L. Stachowski, Virginia A. Visconti

International Service Learning & Community Engagement

Service learning and overseas student teaching are receiving increased attention in education literature. For example, Kielsmeier (1993) touts service learning as an emerging educational improvement strategy (p. 5) in the U.S. school reform movement. Learning activities, by combining classroom work with service/social action projects, ... can help produce dramatic improvements in student attitudes, motivation, and achievement (Nathan & Kielsmeier, 1991, p. 739).

Weaving Service-Learning Into The Fabric Of Your College, Nan Ottenritter, C. David Lisman

Higher Education

Institutionalizing service-learning can be a rich and complex process. The following ideas about sustainability are offered as points to keep in mind as we go about getting service-learning programs more solidly grounded within our institutions. We've organized our ideas into the following categories: institutional mission, faculty outcomes, student outcomes, community impact, coordination of services, and advancement of the field. Most topics are accompanied by a checklist and "thought prompts." The checklist provides a guide for improving service-learning programs from the perspective of many different constituencies across an institution. The thought prompts are key words that frequently surface in discussions about …

Cross-Cultural Field Placements: Student Teachers Learning From Schools And Communities, Laura L. Stachowski, James M. Mahan

Higher Education

The student teaching experience is typically characterized by a collaboration of school and university-cooperating teacher and university supervisor- to prepare novice educators for the instructional, managerial, and disciplinary demands of classroom teaching. Less often are individuals and groups outside of the immediate school environment perceived as active and important contributors to learning outcomes and professional development for student teachers. However, an increasing number of teacher educators are addressing the role of the community in providing student teachers with information and insights that will enhance the classroom experience in vital ways.

A Pedagogy For Citizenship: Service Learning And Democratic Education, Meta Mendel-Reyes

Higher Education

Maria clutches the papers tightly. After over two hours of waiting through reports, announcements, awards, and other agenda items that seemed much less urgent than hers, the chance to speak has nearly arrived. She looks at the determined face of the African American woman seated beside her, one of several residents living across the street from a trash incinerator that has brought pollution, disease, noise, and rats to their quiet neighborhood. At last, they would have the opportunity to tell their story to elected officials who could do something about it. Maria glances down at the statistics that took her …

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 …