Service Learning Commons^™

Expanding And Sustaining Partnerships, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

The Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) Program requires adaptations in the university environment. We must examine and reinterpret (1) the roles and responsibilities of faculty; (2) the design of the undergraduate curriculum; (3) the structures of the university that create the capacity and support to sustain different working relationships with the community; and (4) our definitions of success and quality.

Central Park East Secondary School (Cpess) At A Glance, David Smith

School K-12

Ramon, a senior at Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), pushes his way through the doors of the school into the crisp December morning. Covering the three blocks to Mr. Sinai Hospital in minutes, Ramon greets the hospital security guard, heads through the doors marked "employees only," and makes his way to a small auditorium where the weekly CPESS/Mt. Sinai Health Careers Internship Seminar takes place.

Community Connections Kit: Practical Materials For Involving Your Community In Character-Building, Wise Skills Resources

Guides

Many recognize that there is a crisis in American schools today. School violence rates are increasing. Test scores are plummeting in many areas. High dropout rates continue to plague numerous school districts. And our prisons are bursting with men and women who have failed in school. While school districts and state governments wrestle with making our educational system effective, schools are faced with mounting social problems that cannot be solved by merely teaching academic skills.

Seniors For Schools Program Survey 1997-98 (Teachers), Seniors For Schools

Intergenerational

Please complete the following survey. Your responses are very important to us. They will be used, along with student information, to help assess the success of the Seniors for Schools (SFS) program at your school this year and to improve the program for next year. If you feel that the information requested by a particular item is not something you can respond to, based on your involvement with the SFS program, please write "NA" next to the item and continue to the next item. This survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Please return your completed survey to the …

Student Perceptions Of Aging And Disability As Influenced By Service Learning, David Greene

Intergenerational

This study examined the effects of two community service learning experiences on student perceptions of aging in a nursing home and on community-based living with a disability. According to content analysis of student narratives, service learning resulted in increased student awareness of issues pertinent to the students' companions in both settings. This heightened awareness was discussed in terms of the capacity for empathy. While both experiences were effective. there were differences in student responses to the two service learning settings. This suggests a uniqueness in benefit from different settings for service learning. Instructors should design community placements accordingly being cognizant …

Promoting Intergenerational Strategies: The Role Of The Corporation For National Service, Harris Wofford

Intergenerational

Provides information on the Corporation for National Service which works with thousands of nonprofit partners to promote intergenerational strategies. Examples of intergenerational programs supported by the corporation; Supporting roles of the corporation; Aspects about the involvement of older Americans in intergenerational programs that need more research.

Intergenerational Service-Learning, Illinois Intergenerational Initiative

Intergenerational

A retired secretary assists with a high-school business class. When she suffers a stroke the students visit, encourage, and help her through rehabilitation --Intergenerational Service-Learning Members of a fraternity help senior citizens relocate to their new facility. The following semester senior citizens mentor freshman students who are overwhelmed by the university experience --Intergenerational Service-Learning.

An older couple visits a preschool to read and tell stories to the children. Three years later when one of them loses sight, the students take turns reading to them--proudly demonstrating their new skills --Intergenerational Service-Learning.

Retirees visit a Youth Center to …

Connecting School To Work & Service Learning: Building A Competent, Caring Workforce For The 21st Century, Quest International

School K-12

With the year 2000 virtually upon us, the clarion call from both America's businesses and educational institutions is for education reform initiatives to implement creative ways to equip our young people with the skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed to be successful in the world of work and as contributing members of a democracy. What responsibility do we as educators have to provide young people with opportunities to discover and apply their special talents and fulfill their personal commitments within the crucible of real work and service experiences? How can our schools help young people develop the skills and attitudes required …

Transforming Service Learning: An Argument For The Radical Inclusion Of Young People, Dana R. Fusco

School K-12

While much has been written delineating the reasons for supporting service learning, rarely have students' views been included. As a result of creating collective dialogues with young people, this article presents service learning from their perspective. Further, the methodology by which young people could be heard is put forth as a tool for bringing service learning to a new level.

Community Service & Service Learning Initiatives In Independent Schools, Deborah Genzer

School K-12

During the 1996-97 academic year, the National Association of lndependent Schools (NAIS) researched independent school community service and service learning initiatives, thanks to a generous grant from the Surdna Foundation. NAIS conducted a survey of its 963 member schools in the United States, followed by site visits to eight of the respondents. Deborah Genzer, an independent school community service learning coordinator, worked as a consultant throughout the project. The following are the issues addressed by this study, with italicized highlights of findings.

Ollye B. Conley, The Academy For Science And Foreign Language, Education's Unsung Heroes

Project Summaries

The Alabama African American Historic Project has as its objective to research and document the history and culture of Huntsville, Alabama's 19th Century African Americans. This project originated from a question asked by students during a field study to Huntsville's historic Maple Hill Cemetery. While at the cemetery, students located graves of Civil War veterans and former governors of Alabama. Magnificent stories about their lives and outstanding contributions to the city were told. "Where were the African Americans?" was the question asked. This question evolved into Field Studies, Pictorial and Artifacts Exhibits, and Interdisciplinary Units.

Learning Adventures Middle School: Guidebook For Our Expedition Of December 1998, Learning Adventures Middle School

Project Summaries

This guide follows our expedition of December 1998, as we all worked together to make our floor reflect the values and beliefs of our program. Students created individual reports and research to help document this expedition. Portions of their writing appear here to describe our trees.

North Carolina K-12 School-Based Learn And Serve America Program, North Carolina State Board Of Education

Project Summaries

General Goal: To engage school-age youth in service-learning activities to help address the educational, public safety, human and environmental needs of North Carolina

Community Service And Political Identity Development In Adolescence, Miranda Yates, James Youniss

Civic Engagement

This article addresses the interconnection of political socialization and identity development. We begin with Erikson 's work, which identified the development of political commitment in adolescence as a key aspect of identity formation. We then seek to shed light on the social processes through which youth become engaged in political activities and issues. We discuss the influences of family and peers as well as participation in community service and other civic activities. The development of social responsibility and agency, and an understanding of the complexity of social issues are considered as important facets of political commitment. Data from a case …

We The People... Project Citizen, Civic Center For Education

Curriculum

We the People... Project Citizen is a civic education program for middle school students that promotes competent and responsible participation in state and local government. It actively engages students in learning how to monitor and influence public policy and encourages civic participation among students, their parents, and members of the community.

Measuring Progress; Evaluating The Strengthening Of Communities, Phil Bartle

Evaluation/Reflection

Our goal is stated; we want to strengthen communities. We feel that we have a methodology to do so, but how can we know when we have succeeded, or to what extent?

What we may mean by the above question, is, "How do we measure the strengthening of communities that we claim we are doing?" Put in other ways, "What do we mean by strengthening communities, by increasing their capacities, by empowering them?" We can use these three (1 empowering, 2 strengthening, 3 capacity building) interchangeably, although one or another may be more acceptable to different people. …

Evaluation Methods That Build Quality Into K-16 Service-Learning Programs, L. Richard Bradley

Evaluation/Reflection

This document covers: What Service-Learning is; Steps in the Evaluation Process; Initial Conditions for Successful Service-Learning Program Implementation; Service-Learning Evaluation 101; Service-Learning Evaluation 201; Service-Learning Evaluation 301; Comparison of Evaluation Strategies in Relation to Service-Learning; and List of Surveys and Instruments used by the Four-District Consortium.

Community-Based Education And Service: The Hpsisn Experience, Sherril B. Glemmon, Barbara A. Holland, Anu F. Shinnamon, Beth A. Morris

Partnerships/Community

Health services delivery is increasingly shifting to community-based settings. The competencies required of future health professionals require a shift in their educational preparation. Service leaning is suggested as an educational method with the potential to reform health professions education in tandem with the changes occurring in the health services delivery. The Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN), a US demonstration project of service learning in the health professions, examines the impact of service leaning on students, faculty, communities and institutions across a wide array of universities and community settings. This paper describes the evaluation of the …

Service-Learning In The Community - Are We Ready For The Journey?, William Finger

Partnerships/Community

It's late Sunday afternoon in downtown Raleigh, NC, in a low concrete building next to the railroad tracks. We are working in a small room where the 40 residents will eat supper in about an hour, when a church group serves the only full meal of the day for many of the residents. We have folded the tables and pushed them against the wall. Most of the residents are watching television in the only other common room in the building or lying on their bunks in the men's or women's dorm, each a single large room. A few are in …

Service Learning: More Than Community Service, Bettina Lankard Brown

Service Learning, General

Service learning, like apprenticeship and school-to-work, contextualizes student learning. It provides an environment in which students can acquire organizational, team, problem-solving, and other skills, attitudes, and capabilities necessary for future work and learning. This ERIC Digest looks at service learning: what it is and how it supports vocational and career development outcomes.

Challenges And Strategies For Success With Service-Learning In Preservice Teacher Education, Jeffrey B. Anderson, Terry Pickeral

Service Learning, General

This study examined challenges to the use of service-learning in preservice teacher education and also strategies used to overcome those challenges. We surveyed 123 teacher educators, education deans, and state department of education service-learning coordinators to gain their perspective regarding challenges most critical to the use of service-learning in teacher education. We then interviewed 42 of the survey respondents to obtain detailed descriptions of specific strategies used to overcome challenges. Results indicate the most critical challenges relate to lack of time for teacher educators to plan and implement service-learning, an already overcrowded curriculum, and a lack of alignment of service-learning …

Assessment And Service Learning, International Service Learning Conference, Sheila Bailey

Conference Proceedings

Workshop Objectives:

Participants will...

- Identify the difference between program evaluation and student assessment;

- Identify national efforts in the United States and issues in service learning and assessment;

- Review a tool to create learning activities which link standards, curriculum, learning goals and assessment;

- Identify resources for student assessment, including the National Study Group on Assessment and Service Learning.

The Evolution Of Character Education: From Hellfire And Brimstone To Constructivism, Arati Singh

Special Topics, General

Since colonial times, character education has played a kaleidoscopic role in American schools. Seventeenth and eighteenth century Puritan curriculum was synonymous with an exceedingly rigid and religious moral code. Nineteenth century policy makers adopted a Pan-Protestant, and then a generalized Christian philosophy of character education, as they pursued a common school system. As twentieth century American society grew increasingly pluralistic, the religious basis of character education succumbed to a more secular framework. Predictably, this century has seen character education be demoted to just one of many competing items on the national education agenda. Paradoxically, today's violence-filled headlines evince a more …

The Impact Of Service-Learning On Participants In Community-Based Organizations, Kay S. Bailey

Thesis, Dissertations, Student Creative Activity, and Scholarship

Research questions examined variables addressing the impact of service-learning on participants in community-based organizations during the 1997 summer session. The researcher set out to determine whether young people engaged in service-learning programs were likely to be involved in other service organizations, whether they are likely to continue to enroll in service-learning programs, likely to be committed to participation in voluntary service as adults, whether they value their service-learning experience, see value to themselves and to the community, and if differences exist by ethnicity and gender.

A survey instrument was mailed to the six program coordinators in the study for administration …

The Spirit Of Volunteerism And Volunteerism In American Schools, Gerald H. Maring

Service Learning, General

In American culture historically and at present, there is a strong tension between "rugged individualism" and commitment to community-mindedness. University of California professor of sociology Robert Bellah et al. (1985) have analyzed this tension in its roots and ramifications from political, literary, philosophical, theological, psychological, and sociological perspectives in their seminal work Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Building upon the findings and perspectives they wrote about in Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Bellah et al. (1991) proposed in their sequel entitled The Good Society what they felt were necessary changes …

Methodological Problems In Evaluating Service Learning Projects, David A. Payne

Evaluation/Reflection

The ever increasing use of "service learning" as an adjunct to the ongoing instructional programs in public schools and higher education has challenged the conduct of both formal and informal evaluations. This article considers threats to internal validity in evaluating "learn and serve" projects with particular attention to data collection design and instrumentation. Mixedmethods designs are likely to be most effective, particularly when the intent is to focus on valueadded assessment, and there is considerable variability in the nature and extent of implementation of learn and serve activities.

School-To-Work And Service-Learning, Madeleine S. Hengel, Robert D. Shumer

Bibliographies

This document has been prepared as a brief review of resources and readings on Service-Learning and School-to-Work. The series, "Links, Connecting Theory With Practice," is being developed to give practitioners and researchers who contact the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) a point of reference in beginning to look at topics and current issues in service-learning.

Service-Learning (SL) and School-to-Work (STW) both extend learning beyond the classroom into real world contexts where broader problem-solving and decision-making skills are addressed. While service-learning provides opportunities for students to participate in learning activities within their community that utilize their academic and vocational competencies, School-to-Work helps …

Service-Learning And School-To-Work Linkages, Bob Bhaerman

School K-12

In this brief based on a section of a forthcoming NSEE monograph on The Role of Service Learning in Educational Reform by B. Bhaerman, B. Gomez, and K. Cordell, ti·om the American Association for Career Education (AACE), the concepts of service-learning and school-to-work transition are reviewed: linkages, similarities, and differences between service-learning and school-to-work are noted; and several key issues are discussed.

The Status Of Faculty Professional Service And Academic Outreach In New England, Sharon Singleton, Cathy Burack, Deborah Hirsch

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

In 1994 the New England Resource Center for Higher Education surveyed New England colleges and universities about the professional service faculty are engaging in, and the policies and structures that support such activities. Information was obtained from 120 institutions. As seen through a wide lens, there is considerable institutional commitment to faculty professional service. A majority of respondents reported that service is both a stated part of their institutional mission and that faculty, administrators and staff supported that commitment. However, a sharper focus reveals a gap between statements and practice: only a third of the respondents were able to demonstrate …

Service Learning In Maryland: Making Academics More Relevant, Marian Rouse Finney

Special Topics, General

Maryland is the first state in the nation to require every student to perform service as a condition of receiving a high school diploma. During the last 15 years, a strong support system for service learning has emerged in Maryland. The diversity of opportunities for service are broad, challenging, and inviting.