Service Learning Commons^™

The Classroom Researcher's Research Agenda, American Association For Higher Education

Higher Education

Involvement and critique from educators in dialogue with researchers is a critical element for achieving clarity about what research will benefit educational policy and practice. The AAHE Research Forum is convened annually to involve individuals committed to research and scholarship in higher education. The Forum stimulates educators' involvement in creating a research agenda that speaks to current educational concerns. Since each year's agenda is developed around the conference theme, educators and researchers can continually rely on the Forum agenda as an up-to-date source of research questions of common interest that flow from the year's most central educational issues. The Forum …

Dewey's Theory Of Experience: Implications For Service-Learning, Dwight E. Giles

Service Learning, General

Cornell’s Dwight Giles, Jr. relates John Dewey’s concept about education and experience to service-learning. Giles suggest a dialectical interaction between service and learning, which had implications for ensuring quality in service learning programs and for defining service-learning as a philosophy rather than as a type of program.

Reclaiming A Needed Resource: Minnesota's Youth, Minnesota Task Force On Youth Service And Work

Special Topics, General

Report and plan of action to Governor Rudy Perpich

The Effects Of Service Activities On Adolescent Alienation, Raymond L. Calabrese, Harry Schumer

School K-12

This research evaluated the effects of involvement of adolescents in community service activities on levels of alienation. It was proposed that alienation could be reduced through the implementation of a model which utilized community service activities to facilitate adolescent access to adult society, development of responsibility, collaborative and cooperative work, and control over planning and outcomes. It is suggested that adolescent involvement in service activities can produce positive benefits, among which are reduced levels of alienation, improved school behavior, improved grade point average, and acceptance by the adult community. These findings also suggest that females respond more positively to school …

The Youth In Service To Elders (Yiste) Program: A Case Study, Sally Newman, Heather Newman, Roland Onawola, Caroline Thompson

Intergenerational

The Youth In Service To Elders (YISTE) Program was developed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to meet some of the psychosocial needs of the frail elderly and young student volunteers. The objectives were to promote positive interactions between these groups, to improve the psychosocial well-being of the frail elderly, and to improve the student volunteers' feelings about themselves and about aging. This paper describes the YISTE program and its evaluation. The program sequence was recruitment of youth and elders, training of youth participants, supervision of the youth and elder participants, recognition, and evaluation. Two distinctive features of the program were the involvement …

Bibliography Of Research In Experiential Learning, Internships And Field Studies, Jennifer Anderson, Leslie Smith

Bibliographies

This bibliography is designed to be a working tool for those interested in or involved in experiential education. It is not meant to be a static, definitive document, but a resource which is constantly growing and changing as it is used, and as new research becomes available.

Intergenerational Service Programs: Meeting Shared Needs Of Young And Old, Debra L. Cherry, Frank R. Benest, Barbara Gates, Joanne White

Special Topics, General

This society's adolescent and elderly populations share many needs and characteristics. Both often have little access to meaningful social roles. For example, neither is likely to be fully integrated into the work force and, consequently, both groups tend to have high rates of unemployment (Pearl, 1978; Sheppard, 1976). Moreover, their family roles tend to be in transition. Teenagers are ·in the process of gaining independence from their parents while many older adults face changes such as the loss of a spouse or decreased family power relative to their middle-aged children. The lack of meaningful social roles has been blamed for …

Evaluating Student Volunteer And Service-Learning Programs: A Casebook For Practitioners, Michele Whitham, Eric C. Little, Michael Whitesage, Richard Cone, Jane Szuru Permal, Jack Knott, Roy A. Weaver, James H. Mcelhinney, Joyce K. Allen, Roger Henry, Terrence J. Mctaggart, Janet Warnert

Evaluation/Reflection

Today, evaluation concepts and methods are widely available to those who plan and administer student volunteer programs. Unfortunately, however, evaluation has all too often been carried out-and written about-in ways that have robbed it of its usefulness to people dealing with the realities of day-to-day program operation. Evaluation has thus acquired the reputation among practitioners of being too complex, too costly, too time-consuming, even too threatening to be of much practical value.

A Meta-Analysis On Experience Based Career Education, Ronald B. Bucknam, Sheara G. Brand

Special Topics, General

Our meta-analysis of 80 evaluations of Experience Based Career Education (EBCE) programs shows that EBCE works. Students not only scored significant gains in career, life attitude, and academic skills during their EBCE experience, but they also showed significantly greater gains in all three of those outcome areas than comparison students who received the regular high school curriculum. The positive statistical significance of the findings was so large that we developed a new index, called the "Basic Index of Strength" or the BIS, in order to discuss and compare differences in the strength of the findings.

Intergenerational Service-Learning: Contributions To Curricula, James P. Firman, Donald E. Gelfand, Catherine Ventura

Intergenerational

This article reports some findings from a national demonstration project involving the National Council on the Aging (NCOA) and thirteen colleges and universities. We studied 39 courses in which students were involved in service-learning in aging. We describe and discuss (1) the range of demonstrably feasible 'adoptions, (2) what faculty say their students learned from the experiences, and (3) faculty perceptions of personal benefits and costs associated with developing and directing these projects.

Students As Resources To The Aging Network, James P. Firman, Donlad E. Gelfand, Catherine Ventura

Intergenerational

In times of shrinking resources and growing needs, the aging network must increase its efforts to involve the voluntary sector in services and programs for the aged. A relatively untapped source of manpower is our nation's 12,300,000 students in 3,200 colleges and universities. This article, based on the findings of a national demonstration project, examines feasible outcomes and practical limitations of service-learning as an approach for increasing the involvement of students in providing services to older persons.

Service Experience And The Moral Development Of College Students, Margaret Gorman, Joesph Duffy, Margaret Heffernan

Higher Education

A considerable body of literature on deliberate moral education is now accumulating. Blatt was the first to explore the effect of 'classroom discussion on the level of moral judgment, Others have continued to report on moral education in both the secondary and college levels,

The Impact Of Experiential Education On Adolescent Development, Daniel Conrad, Diane Hedin

School K-12

This article summarizes the findings of a national study of 27 varied programs and concludes that experience-based educational programs can have a significant positive impact on the social, psychological, and intellectual development of adolescents.

Helping The Community: An Untapped Resource For Troubled Children, Alec J. Allen, Martin L. Mitchell

Special Topics, General

All too often adults have cornered the market on helping. They work within voluntary organizations and church groups to meet the needs of the community. for many this service continues within their jobs as educators and social service providers. Occasionally a place is cast aside for youth to participate. The challenge becomes how to involve troubled youth in helping others to reap the benefits popularized in the phrase "It is more blessed to give than to receive." If there is strength to be derived from.giving, then let us be creative in sharing these opportunities with those who have more to …

Learning Outcomes: The Measurement And Evaluation Of Experimential Learning, John S. Duley

Evaluation/Reflection

The focus of this paper is on measuring and evaluating the learning acquired by students in field experience education, not on program evaluation. This paper serves as an introduction and supplement to the books listed on the last page. One of these, EFFICIENT EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE IN FIELD PLACEMENT, is provided as part of this PANEL Resource Paper.

Applications Of Developmental Theory To The Design And Conduct Of Quality Field Experience Programs: Exercises For Educators, Michele Whitman, Albert Erdynast

Service Learning, General

Much has been made in experiential learning circles of the implications of empirical findings in developmental psychology for the formulation of a theoretically convincing rationale for field experience education programs of every kind. Of particular significance has been the identification of cognitive structural stages of intellectual, moral, social and ego development through which individuals have been shown to progress--structural transformations of the individual's intra- and interpersonal capacities which closely mirror the traditionally articulated goals of higher education for students' growth. Even as such concepts have been advanced, however, practitioners have voiced persistent reservations about the theory's seeming elitism, the values …

Long-Term Effects Of Community Service Programs, James Beane, Joan Turner, David Jones, Richard Lipka

Service Learning, General

The need to develop connections between life in the school and that in the community is a recurring theme in educational literature. Of the many means for doing this, one of the more prominent is experiential learning or "planned opportunities for learning outside the classroom" (Hamilton 1980). Within the experiential learning concept, one variation which has received a good deal of attention is youth participation programs or community service projects (Olsen 1946; National Society for the Study of Education 1953; Harnack 1974; Coleman 1974; National Commission on Resources for Youth 1974). Such programs involve the active engagement of youth in …

Developing And Implementing Service-Learning In Aging, Donald E. Gelfand, James P. Firman

Intergenerational

This article focuses on the potential benefits of service-learning in aging to students, the university, and the community. We first discuss the concept of service-learning, clarify its parameters, and describe the types of projects that best exemplify its unique blend of service and learning. Opportunities for service-learning are examined using examples from the current Intergenerational Service-Learning Project of the National Council on Aging. The complexity of' initiating and gaining acceptance of service-learning in aging projects is explored, with particular attention given to supervisory and curriculum issues. Finally, the national implications of' service-learning in aging are discussed, as well as the …

Journalism In The Community Classroom A Curriculum Model For Cultural Journalism In Oklahoma, Linda C. Howard

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This paper introduces the medium of cultural journalism as an effective means of intensified basic communication training and community involvement. Part one contains a report of a needs assessment and a subsequent pilot project on cultural journalism that was conducted at an Oklahoma high school. The needs assessment also reports on similar projects conducted in and around the Oklahoma region, the attitudes of community members toward such a project, the problems and possibilities associated with such curriculum development, and advice from other proponents of experience based education. The report on the pilot project that resulted from the needs assessment--a 36-page …

Selected Changes In Urban High School Students After Participation In Community Based Learning And Service Activities, Kathleen Parks Luchs

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

This study measured selected changes in high school students as a result of community involvement and participation in order to realize the goal of responsible citizenship. It was designed to ascertain whether students who experienced community service displayed more positive attitudes toward learning than students who had not experienced community service.

The study investigated changes in the areas of: student attitudes toward future life goals as measured by actual behaviors in planning and exploring careers, feelings of personal adequacy or inadequacy as measured by self-esteem in social situations, attitudes toward helping others as measured by social and personal responsibility indices, …

Intergenerational School Projects: Examples And Guidelines, James P. Firman, Anita M. Stowell

Intergenerational

The residential, educational, and recreational patterns of modern American society tend to isolate the young from the old. Because there is little interaction between the age groups, each generation tends to stereotype the other. Educators must realize that these age-related stereotypes affect our interpersonal relationships, our self-images, and, consequently, our potential to live a full, rewarding life.

Youth Socialization Via National Service, Donald J. Eberly

Special Topics, General

As a frame of reference for this paper, I have chosen the 1977 keynote address given by Harry Silberman to the Society for Experiential Education. At that time he outlined "five major arguments against using work experience as a vehicle for the socialization (of youth) to adulthood."

Toward Cognitive Development Through Field Studie, Barbara A. Hursh, Lenore Borzak

Higher Education

Although field study is as ancient as the apprenticeship concept, field study programs have been recreated in recent years as innovative features of many colleges and universities. These programs are as diverse as the institutions that sponsor them. Some are part of cooperative education plans whereby students alternate between a term on campus in regular classwork and a term off-campus in paid employment. Others combine working and studying in the same term. Nearly all have as a primary objective exposing students to a world or perspective beyond the traditional classroom, usually for the purpose of advancing career planning.

The Ideal Characteristics Of Foxfire Type Projects As Perceived By Teacher Advisors, Robert Dennis England

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Eliot Wigginton, after six weeks of classroom teaching at the Rabun-Gap Nacoochee School in rural north Georgia, was frustrated because he found that his students were not interested in the courses he was prepared to teach. He had graduated from Cornell University in May 1966 with a master's degree and had come to Rabun-Gap to instruct mountain children in English and geography. He realized, fortunately, that if his students were bored it was he who had bored them. He believed that it might be better him to seek another career (Wigginton, 1972).

Experiential Learning Theory And Learning Experiences In Liberal Arts Education, Ronald Fry, David Kolb

Service Learning, General

Experiential learning theory can be used to diagnose and understand both learners and learning environments. The results suggest guidelines for making liberal arts education more meaningful to learners by providing them an opportunity to develop adaptive competencies related to career success.

Evaluating Serving Learning Programs: A Guide Of Program Coordinators, Action

Evaluation/Reflection

Evaluation is a skill which is often surrounded with an aura of mystery. As a result, many program coordinators are reluctant to undertake evaluations. Some feel they do not have the necessary and special skills. Others do not see how evaluation -- which seems to concern itself with past activity-- can work to make programs different or better in the future. In point of fact, however, evaluation is one of the administrator's most important tools for planning future operations. And evaluation is most definitely a tool that can be used successfully by program coordinators who have not had any special …

The Community Involvement Program: Social Service As A Factor In Adolescent Moral And Psychological Development, F. C. Corbett

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

The Community Involvement Program is a one-year high school program the aim of which is to lead students to a commitment to the solution of social problems by a combination of direct experience in social service and a classroom component in which to reflect critically on their experience. This thesis studies the effects of participation in the program on the moral and psychosocial development of adolescents.

National Youth Service, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

A national youth service program could attack two of the most serious urban problems-the lack of needed services and the excessive levels of unemployment among restless young people.

The Effects Of A Community Involvement Program On Adolescent Student's Citizenship Attitudes, Stuart Harold Stockhaus

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Upon looking at any of the many lists of social studies instructional objectives. one can hardly avoid finding an objective called citizenship. A National Council for the Social Studies sponsored publication on civic education states, "In one sense, desirable citizenship traits in a democratic society remain the same today, in the midst of rapid cultural change. as they were hundreds of years ago. Effective participation by the individual in public affairs continues to require the same four essentials: knowledge. thought. commitment, and action. In application, however. each generation redefines good citizenship to fit demands of the times."

Patterns Of Volunteer Service By Young People: 1965 & 1974, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

In November 1965 and again in April 1974 the Census Bureau conducted a nationwide survey of volunteers. The first was funded by the Department of Labor,l and the second by ACTION, a Federal agency established in 1971 to coordinate federally-supported volunteerism, and to operate volunteer programs such as VISTA and the Peace Corps.