Service Learning Commons^™

The Abcs Of Reflection: A Template For Students And Instructors To Implement Written Reflection In Service-Learning, Marshall Welch

Evaluation/Reflection

Despite the importance and appeal of reflection in service-learning courses, many instructors and students struggle with implementing the process in a meaningful and practical way. This article provides a brief overview of the role of reflection and continues by describing a generic, user-friendly template for written reflection. The description includes an example to illustrate the approach and concludes with suggestions for holistic assessment procedures.

Evaluation Plan Checklist, Project Star

Evaluation/Reflection

Purpose of This Checklist: The Evaluation Plan Checklist will help you assess how "operational" your Evaluation Plan is. It has been designed to show what information is missing or not fully developed.

Why Use This Checklist: This Checklist will help ensure that your Evaluation Plans are clear and doable. It will provide tips to assist you in developing Evaluation Plans that stand alone and can be implemented by people new to the program. Implementing your evaluation should not depend upon some secret knowledge, or one person's memory of what sections of the Plan mean.

When to Use This Checklist …

Basic Data Analysis Steps (Pre And Post Data Analysis, Post Data Analysis), Project Star

Evaluation/Reflection

This packet is intended to assist AmeriCorps staff members who have had little or no data analysis experience. This document illustrates a simple way to analyze information using the example of a youth reading attitude survey. For further information, call Project STAR (800-548-3656) or visit the Web page at http://projectstar.org.

Self-Assessment Tool For Service-Learning Sustainability, Community-Campus Partnerships For Health

Evaluation/Reflection

This self-assessment tool was designed to assist you in assessing the stage of institutionalization of service-learning (SL) at multiple levels within your institution your department or division, your school or college, and your university or organization as a whole. We encourage you to consult your colleagues, students and community partners as you complete the tool. The tool is comprehensive, but please don't feel overwhelmed -if you don't know an answer, simply mark that on the form. Your answers, and the discussions that it stimulates, will assist you in developing a plan for SL sustainability. Having a better handle on what …

Minnesota Youthworks Americorps Sample Data Collection Tools, Minnesota Youthworks Americorps

Evaluation/Reflection

This guide contains sample program evaluation tools.

Methods And Strategies For Assessing Service-Learning In The Health Professions, Anu F. Shinnamon, Sherril B. Gelmon, Barbara A. Holland

Evaluation/Reflection

The "End-of-Program Survey" for faculty is intended to describe the perspectives and attitudes of faculty members on several issues related to their experience(s) teaching service-learning course(s). Topics assessed by the survey include the faculty's view on the impact they perceive service-learning has had on their students, their motivation for incorporating service-learning into their classes, the process of teaching service-learning courses, community involvement and the influence of service on their own professional development.

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 National Society For Experiential Education Research Collaborative, National Society For Experiential Education

Service Learning, General

The National Society for Experiential Education is embarking on a new endeavor to advance our understanding of how experiential education impacts learning, teaching, and schooling in various contexts and communities. This endeavor, called the NSEE Research Collaborative, will convene national and local researchers to collaborate on a large-scale, multifaceted research study that will investigate various issues in experiential education.

Opinion: The Public Intellectual, Service Learning, And Activist Research, Ellen Cushman

Service Learning, General

While I support the good intentions of those who have recently proposed definitions of the public intellectual, I find these definitions problematic in their narrow delineation of the word "public"- they focus on a "public" consisting of middle and upper class policy makers, administrators, and professionals, and, in doing so, omit an important site for uniting knowledge-making and political action: the local community.

Self-Assessment Rubric For The Institutionalization Of Service-Learning In Higher Education, Andrew Furco

Service Learning, General

The Self-Assessment Rubric for the Institutionalization of Service-Learning in Higher Education was designed to assist members of the higher education community in gauging the progress of their service-learning institutionalization efforts on their campus.

The rubric is structured by five dimensions that are considered by most service-learning experts to be key factors for higher education service-learning institutionalization. Each dimension is comprised of several components that characterize the dimension. For each component, a threestage continuum of development has been established. Progression from Stage One: Critical Mass Building to Stage Three: Sustained Institutionalization suggests that the institution is moving closer to fully institutionalizing …

Service-Learning For Preservice Teachers: Ethical Dilemmas For Practice, David M. Donahue

Service Learning, General

Increasingly in the United States, service-learning is being used to educate preservice teachers. Service varies greatly in its ethical foundation, however, and service-learning presents new teachers with a variety of dilemmas revealing the moral and political nature of teaching and service. This article presents one case of four preservice teachers writing curriculum as a service to a community agency hoping to promote service geared toward social justice among high school students. The case highlights ethical dilemmas faced by teachers in the process and illustrates the potential of service-learning to educate teachers for the moral imperative of their profession.

Educational Excellence For All Children Act Of 1999, U.S. Department Of Education

Service Learning, General

The President announced that he would shortly send to the Congress the "Educational Excellence for All Children Act of 1999," his proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). This legislation reaffirms the critical role of the Federal Government in working with schools, school districts, and States to promote educational excellence for all children. Every child, parent, grandparent, and taxpayer deserves high quality public schools in their communities.

More specifically, the proposal would build on the 1994 ESEA reauthorization, which established the core principle that disadvantaged children should achieve to the same challenging academic standards as …

Priviledged Servants: Community Service In Private High Schools, Ellen Clarissa Reynolds

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Traditionally, the school has been the primary role model for citizenship development. One method schools may use to convey the roles and models of involved citizens is through community service experiences.

Public and private schools throughout the United States include community service as part of the curriculum and/or extracurricular activities. Service promotes responsibility, a caring ethic, and growth of community. Service can improve society through individuals working together and forming a bond with one another. Service provides opportunities to witness the diverse cultures of society. Through service, students may experience affective and cognitive development, form relationships with community members, and …

Health Professions Schools In Service To The Nation, Sherril B. Gelmon, Barbara A. Holland, Anu F. Shinnamon

Conference Proceedings

The Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN) was a multi-site, multi-year program designed to explore service learning as a tool for curricular reform within health professions education, and as a method for effectively preparing future professionals for work in a new health delivery system. With sponsorship from the Corporation for National Service and The Pew Charitable Trusts, 20 institutions were invited to participate from 1995 to 1998. The program was administered by the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco. A project-wide evaluation was commissioned at the beginning of the …

Health Professions Schools In Service To The Nation: Evaluation Report, Sherril B. Gelmon, Barbara A. Holland, Anu F. Shinnamon

Higher Education

The Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN) was a multi-site, multi-year program designed to explore service learning as a tool for curricular reform within health professions education, and as a method for effectively preparing future professionals for work in a new health delivery system. With sponsorship from the Corporation for National Service and The Pew Charitable Trusts, 20 institutions were invited to participate from 1995 to 1998. The program was administered by the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California at San Francisco. A project-wide evaluation was commissioned at the beginning of the …

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.

Off The Playground Of Civil Society: Freeing Democracy's Powers For The 21st Century, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

"Civil society" is now the defining map of our civic life. Embedded in its framework are assumptions about the activity of the citizen and the meaning of democracy. The idea of civil society today vividly illustrates the power of framing concepts to structure resources and define political themes. Major foundations have divisions of civil society that allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to volunteer activity. Government agencies give time off to their employees so that they can "do citizenship." Presidents gathered last year at the Summit on Volunteerism to praise the idea. Meanwhile, a coalition organized by "end of work" …

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.

Elder Mentors: Elder Mentors And At-Risk Youth, Marc Freedman

Intergenerational

Many at-risk youth are growing up isolated from the range of caring and consistent adult relationships so important for navigating the treacherous course from adolescence to adulthood. An accumulation of longitudinal research suggests that adult relationships-- provided not only by parents, but by grandparents, neighbors and other interested adults--are a common factor among resilient children, who achieve success despite growing up in disadvantaged and stressful circumstances. An important, and not often addressed, question for social intervention is whether the circumstances of more at-risk youth could be improved through efforts designed to provide greater access to these relationships.

Professional Digital Portfolios And Academic Community Learning (Service Learning), P. Elizabeth Pate

Project Summaries

Academic community learning is an educational experience characterized by:

a. active participation in an extended, thoughtfully organized learning experience that meets actual community and student needs;
b. collaboration among student, school, and community;
c. integration of community learning experiences into the student's academic curriculum;
d. provision of structured time for reflection and evaluation; and
e. enhancement of what is taught by extending student learning beyond the classroom and into the community (College of Education Academic Community Learning Taskforce, 1998).

Service-Learning In Economics: A Detailed Application, Kimmarie Mcgoldrick

Service Learning, General

Over the past decade, a significant push has been made toward the adoption or development of alternative methods of disseminating economic concepts to students. Much of this work is grounded in the belief that we, as educators, must recognize who our students are as well as how they process information. Siegfried and colleagues ( 1991) have suggested that more needs to be done to teach students to think like economists. They outlined a number of approaches and changes that have the potential for improving undergraduate economic education by providing opportunities for students to practice thinking like economists.

Citizenship Service Learning: Becoming Citizens By Assisting Immigrants, Robert Koulish

Civic Engagement

Citizenship Service Learning (CSL) serves to reinforce the strengths inherent in the traditional principles of higher education while concurrently transcending its limitations. CSL principles are celebrated on two grounds. The first is pedagogical. Following liberal arts traditionalists, CSL adheres to the class- room as a site for developing cognitive skills through accumulating information and learning research methods. It then stretches the learning process into the civic arena, where students gain tools in problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, and team work through the experience of working with immigrants.

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.

Service Learning: What's A Political Scientist Doing In Yonkers?, Glenn Beamer

Service Learning, General

As an urban politics teacher, I discerned a disconnect between what I said about urban politics and what my students understood. Although I offered a variety of perspectives, I nonetheless felt that students were coming to class, and leaving class, with their opinions -- liberal, conservative, and in-between -- formed. Because of the constraints on dialogue about urban politics, I decided to develop a service learning project focusing on urban homelessness and housing. The project would combine elements of a typical undergraduate course and a participant observation project. I wanted a setting in which the students and I would learn …

The Quality Assurance Component Of The Quality Mangement System, Demonstration Project For People With Disabilities

Disabilities

This document contains a list of performance measurement areas to be used in the DPPD. This document is developing from left to right, so the content of the columns to the right are less developed than those on the left. The Performance Measures are being developed by the Quality Management Workgroup of the DPPB Stakeholder's Advisory Committee.

Integration Of Service, Education, And Research In Local Official Public Health Agencies, Larry W. Chambers, John Hoey, Jane Underwood, Namrata Bains

Special Topics, General

Chambers et al discuss improved education for future public health practitioners. continuing education of existing staff, and research and evaluations activities in local official public health agencies in Ontario Canada.

Final Report: 9-B English Service-Learning Evaluation, Moorhead High School, Moorhead, Minnesota, Mark K. Covey

Evaluation/Reflection

Mark Jensen, English faculty at MHS offered his service-learning program for an evaluation. This evaluation was initiated by Jeanie Jacobs consequent to the conditions of a grant she received; the structure of this evaluation evolved over several team meetings between Jensen, Ann Larson (District 152 Director of Community Service-learning) and myself.

Evaulation Workgroup Initial Proceedings, Learn And Serve America

Evaluation/Reflection

The following sessions are included: Learn and Serve Data Collection; Rolling Up Local Evaluation Results into a State-Wide Evaluation; Answered and Unanswered Questions About National Service; The Disappearing Handprint: A discussion about how to ascertain the impact of Learn and Serve America K-12 when integrated within a system - within an institution.; and Using Community Resources, Especially College/University programs;