Service Learning Commons^™

Moving Mountains: Institutional Culture And Transformational Change, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Our institutions are changing all the time but for the most part these changes do not make a big difference, either because the results are confined to an isolated segment of the organization or because the environment is not responsive. To be considered truly transformational, the initiative must alter the culture of the institutions by changing select underlying assumptions and institutional behaviors, processes, and products; it must be deep and pervasive, affecting the whole institution; it must be intentional; and it must occur consistently over time (Eckel, Hill, & Green, 1998).

Principles Of Best Practice In Community Service Work-Study, Erin Bowley, Marsha Adler

Higher Education

The following document outlines best practice in combining college and university work-study experiences with community service and service-learning. The principles were created by Erin Bowley and Marsha Adler for Campus Compact after conducting focus groups with practitioners from 52 colleges and universities in May and June, 2002. Ten principles that help construct an effective community service work-study program are listed below, then explained in greater detail with key points and specific campus examples. Representatives from the campuses used as examples are willing to be contacted for further information; their contact information appears at the end of the document.

Service Helix: A Grounded Theory Of College Student Development And Outcomes Through Involvement In Community Service, Mary Kay Schneider

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Community service and service learning have been lauded as ways of teaching civic and social responsibility during college. In order to better understand the concept of social and civic responsibility and whether students gravitated toward these concepts, this study was undertaken. The grounded theory was designed to understand students' experiences with community service, what they see as outcomes from their involvement, and the role of responsibility in this dynamic.

Grounded theory was utilized as the methodology because of the lack of research and theory regarding service and the outcomes for the servers. To achieve depth of understanding, information-rich participants were …

Searching For The Meaning Of Youth Civic Engagement: Notes From The Field, Molly W. Andolina, Krista Jenkins, Scott Keester, Cliff Zukin

Civic Engagement

This article reports on the early lessons from a multiphase, multimethod study of youth civic engagement. It uses insights from expert discussions along with a series of focus groups to explore how young adults approach politics, volunteerism, community, civic duty, and generational identity. The study finds many of the distinguishing characteristics of today's youth to be subtle and nuanced, which poses unique challenges for qualitative research of the generation. The important implications of language are discussed in detail.

Campus-Community Partnerships: The Terms Of Engagement, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Partnerships/Community

The emergence of service-learning in higher education and the renewed emphasis on community involvement presents colleges and universities with opportunities to develop campus-community partnerships for the common good. These partnerships can leverage both campus and community resources to address critical issues in local communities. Campus-community partnerships are a series of interpersonal relationships between (a) campus administrators, faculty, staff, and students and (b) community leaders, agency personnel, and members of communities. The phases of relationships (i.e., initiation, development, maintenance, dissolution) and the dynamics of relationships (i.e., exchanges, equity, distribution of power) are explored to provide service-learning instructors and campus personnel with …

Service Learning: Discovering Effective Communication Strategies By Emphasizing The Community's Perspective, Elizabeth Oppe

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Service learning is a broadly defined term that may encompass a spectrum of projects and course work ranging from acts of charity to activism for social change. "The aim of service learning is always to heighten awareness in our communities that we have the capacity to both learn from and serve each other... and work toward a more just and egalitarian society" (bttp://www.invcol.pdx.edulic.htm). Another description of service learning from Brevard Community College's The Power (1994) explains that, for many community organizations, students augment service delivery, meet crucial human needs, and provide a basis for future citizen support. The Power depicts …

Need To Update Your Information Technology? Try Service Learning, Robin A. Alexander

Partnerships/Community

While the need for information in the nonprofit sector is great, shortages of time, staff, money, and expertise make it hard to use information technology effectively. The result is often a vicious cycle in which staff time is spent compiling information manually when a simple database could dramatically speed the process. But there's no time to create it.

Maximizing Civic Learning And Social Responsibility, Arthur Chickering

Higher Education

In August 1999, the Presidents' Fourth of July Declaration on the Civic Responsibility of Higher Education, drafted by a select group of scholars and college presidents that was convened by Campus Compact and the American Council on Education (ACE), hit the streets. It said,

"We have a fundamental task to renew our role as agents of our democracy. This task is both urgent and long-term. There is growing evidence of disengagement of many Americans from the communal life of our society, in general, and from the responsibilities of democracy in particular. We share a special concern about the disengagement of …

The Dynamic Tensions Of Service Learning In Higher Education: A Philosophical Perspective, Adrianna Kezar, Robert A. Rhoads

Higher Education

Senior faculty in a peace and justice program at a small liberal arts college reject the efforts of a student affairs professional to help the faculty connect their teaching to practice through service activities in the local community. One faculty member openly wonders how "out-of-class" activities such as community service have anything to do with interdisciplinary theories of social justice. A director of an office of community service is upset because the provost has decided to develop a Center for Community Service Learning. The director sees this as an attempt to usurp the good work of student affairs and feels …

Renewing The Civic Mission Of The American Research University, Barry Checkoway

Higher Education

Should the American research university have a strategy for renewing its civic mission in a diverse democratic society and, if so, what should it be?

Many American research universities were established with a civic mission to prepare students for active participation in a diverse democracy and to develop knowledge for the improvement of communities. Today, however, it is hard to find top administrators with consistent commitment to this mission, few faculty members consider it central to their role, and community groups that approach the university for assistance often find it difficult to get what they need.

Institutionalized Service-Learniing In The 50 States, Kathy Anthes

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is a teaching method that combines service to the community with classroom curriculum. Service-learning is more than merely community service. It is a hands-on approach to mastering subject material while fostering civic responsibility. On a programmatic level, service-learning in America is thriving. Through funds from the Corporation for National Service, almost every state has resources and some level of a service-learning program. Although practitioners and other service-learning advocates have long regarded service-learning as a way to increase student achievement and student civic engagement and decrease a host of problems, such as drop-out rates and school crime and violence, there …

The Bridging Role Of The Community Service Director On The Engaged Campus, Joann Campbell

Higher Education

Declines in civic participation, low voting rates among 18-25 year olds, dwindling federal support for social services, and deficit state budgets have created a climate in which higher education must make a case for the value it adds to society through applications of research and teaching. National and state organizations (such as Campus Compact and state Compacts) dedicated to supporting a culture of service in higher education articulate the university's role as a collective citizen, whose priorities include linking scholarship to community-based needs, using the resources of the college faculty for professional local service, and utilizing federal work study, America …

School-Community Partnerships In Rural Schools: Leadership, Renewal, And A Sense Of Place, Patricia A. Bauch

Special Topics, General

Rural schools are vulnerable to imitating the reform standards of national and urban school. Urban schools, to which much of the research on current reform efforts has been directed, are not rural schools writ large. Neither are rural communities like urban neighborhood communities. Hodgkinson and Obarakpor (1994) declared "rural poverty is not the same as urban poverty in a different setting" (p. 2). Rather, the context of rural has its own set of community identifiers that make rural schools dramatically different from their metropolitan counterparts. The goals and purposes of schooling and educational renewal processes appropriate for urban and suburban …

Doing Theology In The City, Paul Fitzgerald

Special Topics, General

The task of theology is often a lonely endeavor. The hush of the library or the archives, the still of the chapel, and the quiet discipline of one's desk are places where theological research and writing unfold, most often in solitary concentration. The classroom on the protected college campus or seminary, the academic conference in large hotels, and even the cherished conversation in the homes of colleagues do open the theologian to other minds and hearts so that theories and insights may be tested in dialogue. However, these exchanges are often located in affluent social contexts which cannot reveal the …

Cesar Chavez: Educating The Heart, Orange County Cesar Chavez Day Initiative

Curriculum

Cesar Chavez was one of the most significant and influential civil rights leaders of our time. Chavez devoted himself to social justice and improving the lives of the impoverished and oppressed. His name, like the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., speaks of character and commitment. This project is in honor of the life and work of Cesar E. Chavez.

The Cesar Chavez project is a multi-faceted service learning experience that will provide your 4lh graders with a unique, hands-on perspective of California History. Whether used to celebrate Cesar Chavez Day (March 31st) with your class or simply as a …

Strategic Directions For Service-Learning Research: A Presidential Perspective, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Service-learning can be viewed as a form of pedagogy designed to enhance learning and promote civic responsibility as well as one of a set of strategies to link the capacity of a college or university to the needs of society. A commitment to service-learning can become the avenue for a larger transformational change agenda by providing a focus and a reason to consider significant changes in campus priorities, faculty roles and rewards, resource utilization and university-community relationships. The case is made for the role of the scholar/practitioner president and the importance of a legitimate scholarly base to effect institutional change, …

Using Hypermedia And Multimedia To Promote Project-Based Learning Of At-Risk High School Students, Tracy Carr, Asha K. Jitendra

Special Topics, General

The term at-risk in this article refers to those students who are in danger of dropping out of school (Rodriguez, 199i). Often, these students have low self-esteem resulting from persistently low academic achievement. One possible reason for academic failure is a mismatch between the student's needs and the curricular expectations. Consequently, it is important to plan to meet individual student needs appropriately and minimize the rate of dropouts. Planning more appropriately requires individualization of goals and curricula.

The Effects Of Service Learning, Shelley H. Billig

Service Learning, General

Research, while limited, finds that students who help others help themselves academically and socially.

After The Summit: Building Community Networks For America’S Youth, Sabrina Burke

Special Topics, General

The purpose of this research project is to provide a guide for local coordinators and organizers of America’s Promise and other national initiatives. It looks at the new paradigm of community youth development how it is changing the ways that social organizations are conducting business. It explores how to create community networks as a way for communities to better serve their young people. In this project, a community network is defined as an association of individuals representing different organizations and associations working together (collaborating) to achieve a common long term vision or goal. Although there is a rich diversity among …

Costs And Benefits And Service Learning, Alan Melchior

Service Learning, General

A growing body of evidence points to school-based service learning as an effective means of achieving a variety of critical school and community goals. But what do we know about the costs of service learning?

Change As A Scholarly Act: Higher Education Research Transfer To Practice, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

Achieving transformational change is a scholarly challenge best dealt with by practicing public scholarship, which is modeled by the leader and encouraged in other members of the campus community. Like all good scholarly work, good decision making by campus leadership begins with a base of scholarly knowledge generated and validated by higher education researchers.

Making An Impact On Out-Of-School Time: A Guide For Corporation For National Service Programs Engaged In After School, Summer, And Weekend Activities For Young People, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Guides

This resource contains: Exploring the Facts about Children’s Out-of-School Time; Understanding Basic Standards for a Quality Out-of-School Time Program; Training Members and Volunteers to Work in Out-of-School Time Programs; Understanding Service-Learning; Tip Sheets: Simple Ideas to Address Important Out-of-School Topics; Training Materials on Important Out-of-School Time Issues; Program Profiles; and Connecting to Additional Out-of-School Time and School-Age Child Care Resources.

Associations Of Civic Attitudes In Service Learning, Christina M. Roemer

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Civic responsibility is comprised of actions and attitudes associated with democratic governance and social participation. Students enrolled at institutions of higher education have the opportunity to transform their social interests into advocacy through personal connections with the community. Service learning is an effective method of increasing citizenship participation and civic responsibility by incorporating community service activities with academic coursework.

This study used survey research to examine the civic attitude scores of service learning students at a large, public, mid-Atlantic state university. The research questions attained information on the associations among students who perform written and discussion reflection activities (outside of …

Engaging Students In Community Issues, Kara A. Mccraw, Susan S. Taylor

School K-12

How can you integrate community resources in the classroom in an exciting and dynamic way? We set out to answer this question in the summer of 1999 when we attended a conference sponsored by the North Carolina Institute of Government. Our immediate goal was to help the freshmen students we teach in a course called ELPSA (Economic, Legal and Political Systems in Action) understand the importance of active citizenship and prudent fiscal decision making. What better way to teach this than through real life examples? After our conference and the introduction to a number of valuable resources and contact points …

Embracing Civic Responsibility, Judith Ramaley

Higher Education

In the past year, there have been several calls for colleges and universities to take up their responsibilities as members of society in order to model the civic virtues and to become instruments of a working democracy. It is becoming clear that a genuine democracy is also a learning society and that good citizenship requires the capacity to form a learning community with others.

Doing Good While Doing Well: Service Learning Internships, Louise Rehling

Higher Education

Internships for students in business and professional communication have rightly been seen as a transitional form of coursework: a guided move away from academia and into the workplace. The assumption accompanying this vision has been that, since most business and professional communication students will graduate to work in industry, the best placements for them are, therefore, necessarily in industry as well. Certainly industry-sponsored internships are valuable as career preparation.

Ruptura: Acknowledging The Lost Subjects Of The Service Learning Story, Tracy Hamler Carrick, Margaret Himley, Tobi Jacobi

Higher Education

As members of the Service Learning collective in the Writing Program at Syracuse University, we have been actively designing and teaching a sequence of undergraduate writing courses that integrate community service in various ways -by asking students to write about the nonprofit agencies where they participate, to write for those sites by producing brochures and websites, and to write with people as tutors in adult literacy programs or in local urban high schools. ¹

Assessing The Effects Of Service-Learning On Student Writing, Adrian J. Wurr

Higher Education

This paper proposes methods to study the impact of service-learning on the writing performance cf native and non-native English speaking students in first-year college composition. Linguistic and rhetorical features commonly identified as affecting judgments of writing quality will be compared to holistic essay and portfolio ratings to describe the impact of different teaching and learning contexts on writing performance. The implications of the study will be of particular interest to L1 and L2 university composition instructors interested in learning more about service-learning and writing assessment.

Evaluating Experiential Teaching Methods In A Policy Practice Course: The Case For Service Learning To Increase Political Participation, Cynthia J. Rocha

Higher Education

This study compares the effects of experiential learning on policy-related values, competency, and activity levels of two groups of recent MSW graduates from one university. The study group received experiential service learning in the MSW program, primarily in an advanced policy course, while the comparison group did not. The author explains experiential teaching and service learning methods, as well the activities included in the policy course. Results indicate that both groups placed a high value on political skills. However, the experiential group was significantly more likely to perceive themselves as competent policy practitioners and to perform policy-related activities after graduation.

Creating Sustainable Service Learning Programs: Lessons Learned From The Horizons Project, 1997-2000, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

In 1997, the American Association of Community Colleges began a three-year grant project to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in community colleges nationwide. Fourteen colleges—selected in a national competition for grants ranging from $4,000 to $10,000 per year— worked together in AACC’s project, Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, to overcome challenges and learn valuable lessons in developing and sustaining academically based service learning programs.