Service Learning Commons^™

What Do We Know About The Impact Of Field Based Programs On Students?, Janet Eyler, Dwight Giles Jr.

Higher Education

The literature on field based education programs for undergraduates is voluminous, but surprisingly unhelpful in answering the most important question of all, "What difference does it make in the lives of students?" In this presentation we have focused on this largely unanswered question, first (1) examining the goals commonly held for such field experiential approaches as cooperative education, academic internships, field components of classes, and service learning then (2) discussing evidence for impact on students and finally (3) identifying critical gaps in our knowledge of how these programs affect students.

Challenges Of Replicating Success, Jay Altman, Tom Malarkey

Service Learning, General

Khrishnamurti used to tell a story about Man walking along the shore of the sea of life looking for the shell of truth. God and the Devil are watching from atop the cliffs rising far above the sand and water. Man finds the shell of truth in the roaring surf and picks it up. God turns to the Devil and says, "I've got you now, for Man has discovered truth."

I'm not worried," replies the Devil. "Just wait until he organizes it."

Although we hope no one would ever presume to have found the truth, most of us in the …

Service And Volunteerism: Working Together For Our Future, Youth Service California, Volunteer Centers Of California, Inc., Calserve

Conference Proceedings

As you gather for this important Conference, you have the best wishes of the White House Office of National Service -- and the full expectation that you will re-double your efforts on behalf of service.

President Clinton, at the ceremony signing the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1991, said, "I hope, believe and dream that national service will remain throughout the life of America, not a aeries of promises, but a aeries of challenges, across all the generations an4 all walks of life, to help us to rebuild our troubled but wonderful land....Today we are taking a stand …

Looking For Young People Listening For Youth Voice, John Beilenson

Service Learning, General

Where are the young people? This is the question I find myself asking as I make my way around the offices of national and community service programs in Washington and across the country. I have worked in and for youth service and youth serving organizations since 1985, so I have few illusions. Offices are for adults. If you want to find the youth in youth service, you generally have to get out to project sites-schools and playgrounds and parks where young people are actually doing service.

Public Law 103-82 [H.R. 2010] September 21, 1993 National And Community Service Trust Act Of 1993, Corporation For National Service

Special Topics, General

An Act To amend the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to establish a Corporation for National Service, enhance opportunities for national service, and provide national service educational awards to persons participating in such service, and for other purposes.

Summary Of National And Community Service Trust Act, Serve America

Special Topics, General

The national service initiative is designed to address the nation's problems by mobilizing Americans of every background, but particularly young people, in service to our communities and country. The programs support service extending from our youngest elementary students to our oldest citizens, and will fund service ranging from part-time volunteer activities to full-time public service with educational awards.

Community Service Promotes, Marlow Ediger

School K-12

School and society are interwoven. not separate entities. Therefore, the goats of schools should be integrated with those of the surrounding community and society as a whole. Middle school student service helps integrate those goals.

Measuring Citizenship Project, Walt Whitman Center For The Culture And Politics Of Democracy

Evaluation/Reflection

Issuing out of the success of the Civic Education and Community Service Program at Rutgers University, in 1992 the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy embarked on a measuring citizenship project to explore the relationship between community, citizenship, and service learning. The Project's main goal is to develop a working, empirical instrument that will measure the impact of service learning and other forms of civic experience on citizenship. This civic literacy test will determine how service learning and other civic experiences, such as jury service or military service, effect an individual's perceptions and commitments to his …

Community Servicelearning And The Vocational Teacher, Robert D. Shumer

Guides

While many have tried to understand the notion of service-learning, no one seems to agree on one definition or description. A Wingspread conference in 1990 defined service-learning as both a philosophy and a program (Giles, Honnet, & Migliore, 1991). The National and Community I Service Act (1990) contained a four part definition which described characteristics and processes of service-learning, including reflective components which tie service experiences to a curriculum.

Community Service Program: Evaluation Information System Manual, The Commission On National And Community Service

Evaluation/Reflection

In 1990 Congress established the Commission on National and Community Service (CNCS) under the National and Community Service Act. The mandate of the Act is to test innovative and model programs to "renew the ethic of civic responsibility" through service to the community.

Service Learning Belongs, Allen Wutzdorff

Higher Education

he field of service learning is rapidly coming in from the margins of education as we move into the 1990s. Across the country, students and faculty alike are examining the learning potential of what is already a socially positive force. This growth is not unlike the growth of college internship programs in the 1970s and '80s, where increasing numbers of college students majoring in disciplines not traditionally associated with "experiential learning" were given the opportunities to test out and apply their knowledge and abilities in work settings. An important result of this move into the "real world" was, of course, …

Looking For Help Long Overdue: Where Has Higher Education Been?, Robert Wood

Higher Education

For more than a decade, the American public has carped and complained about the condition of American education. Some have gone so far as to wring their hands over the apparent futility of reform efforts. Overall, the nation has found the state of its public elementary and secondary education unacceptable. It has especially lamented the tragic condition of urban public schools, yet it docs not seem to know what to do about it.

Maryland Student Service Alliance Teacher Training Manual, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maggie O'Neill

Guides

The Maryland Student Service Alliance definition of service-learning is:

Making a difference through actions of caring for others, in the school or in the community, through direct service, indirect service and advocacy, with preparation and reflection.

The most important word in the definition is Actions. Service is not intentions or plans or discussing ideas. Service is doing something to make the world a better place.

H.R. 2335, June 8 1993, Committee On Education And Labor Bill, U.S. House Of Representatives

Service Learning, General

To amend certain education laws to provide for service-learning and to strengthen the skills of teachers and improve instruction in service-learning, and for other purposes.

Developing Community Partnerships Through Service Learning Programs, Jay Cooper

Partnerships/Community

Community service programs have existed on college campuses for years but did not fully emerge as they have during the past 10 years. More than 700 volunteer programs exist at colleges and universities throughout the country (Fioerchinger, 1991). National organizations such as the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), the Campus Compact, and the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) have served to stimulate and firmly establish service learning as a movement and an educational priority in this country. In addition to the emergence of college service programs and national organizations, programs such as the National Student Clean-up for Hunger, Into …

National Youth Service: A Developing Institution, Donald J. Eberly

Service Learning, General

Twenty years ago, it was rare to find students integrating community service with their formal education. The phrase "service learning" had been born only a few years earlier, and was not yet in common usage.

Today, service learning is fairly common in high schools and their surrounding communities. Many high schools and a few school systems have made it a requirement for graduation. And the federal government now supports service learning both with exhortation and with dollars.

Culture For Service, James P. Brawley, William H. Denton, Beryl Mitchell

Higher Education

Community Service Learning promotes active citizenship and addresses community needs through youth service. It is an educational process which involves young people in their own learning as they give valuable service to the community. Research has shown that numerous benefits accrue from the practice of service learning. Students' level of social responsibility increases, their critical thinking skills improve, and they become more competent in their subject matter. Teachers are able to combine instruction with real-world experiences. Educational institutions are able to link significant academic concerns with major community problems and improve community relationships.

The Service-Learning Scholars Program At The Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, Irene Fisher, Linda Bonar

Higher Education

The creation of the Service-Learning Scholars Program (SLSP) represents the culmination of five years of experiential learning in the University of Utah's Lowell Bennion Community Service Center. The initiation of this program also signals the beginning of the second major growth stage in the integration of community service into the mainstream of this major state university.

Teaming Up At Ucla: A Report To The Campus Outreach Opportunity League, Robert D. Shumer, Parvin Kassaie

Higher Education

Do community service. This has been the charge of reports on post-secondary education for the past several years. From the Carnegie report (College: The Undergraduate Experience in Higher Education, 1987) to the passage of "human corps" legislation in California, efforts have been undertaken to expand the number of college students involved in service. Yet students have always done service. Boy Scouts, Key Clubs, Red Cross, fraternities and sororities, undergraduate student projects for the homeless, hungry, and illiterate have .been outlets for service for years. While so many service programs already exist, the real issue is: how do we get a …

Community Colleges: School Community Relationships, David Deckelbaum

Higher Education

The community college functions of community service and continuing education persistently tie the colleges' goals and objectives to their surrounding communities. The community colleges have an opportunity to invest in their own future by embracing and nurturing their relationship with the community. This fostering of an enhanced school- community connection occurs when the colleges involve themselves in the educational, cultural, recreational, and social services of the community. The economic and business links to the community must be strengthened where they already exist and new programs promoted with an eye toward mutually beneficial endeavors.

Challenging College Students' Assumptions About Community Service Tutoring, Jodi L. Borstein

Higher Education

Many adults view community service as a wonderful idea that college students should want to do-or be required to do-as part of their education; yet few have asked why students volunteer for community service. Policymakers and education reformers see student involvement as a way for students to give back to their communities while attending higher education institutions. More than 1,700 tutoring or mentoring programs for at-risk youth are currently operating in institutions of higher education across the country (Tierney & Branch, 1992, p. 1).

Students Teaching Students: A Model For Service And Study, Peter W. Dillon, Robyn Van Riper

Higher Education

When students teach each other, something magic happens. Professors and teachers alike spend much of their time trying to create connecting moments of inspiration when new ideas light up a student's face (Duckworth, 1987). At LEAD USA, a non-profit organization in Williamstown, Massacl1usetts, we have found a way to increase the likelihood of these moments of enlightenment. We call it Students Teaching Students (STS). Students Teaching Students is an innovative curricular model in the tradition of John Dewey and Paulo Freire that provides college students with opportunities to design and teach their own courses for full academic credit.

Models Of Service And Civic Education: An Occasional Paper Of The Project On Integrating Service And Academic Study, Keith Morton

Higher Education

Citizenship education is generally recognized as the primary reason for supporting service-learning on college campuses. Assumptions about citizenship affect how programs and curricula are structured. An analysis of programs around the country identified four sets of "core assumptions" about civic education that inform service-learning courses and programs. This paper is intended to be useful to faculty designing service-learning courses and to those who want to make explicit multiple frameworks for understanding service experiences.

Standards Of Quality For School-Based Service Learning, Alliance For Service Learning In Education Reform

Service Learning, General

Service-learning is a method

• by which young people learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and that are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community;

• that is integrated into the young person's academic curriculum or provides structured time for a young person to think, talk, or write about what he/ she did and saw during the actual service activity;

• that provides young people with opportunities to use newly acquired academic skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities; and

• that enhances what is taught …

Outline Of Legislation: National And Community Service Trust Act, Corporation For National Service

Special Topics, General

The national service initiative is designed to tackle the nation's problems by mobilizing Americans of every background, and particularly young people, in service to our communities and country. The programs extends support for service from the youngest elementary students to our oldest citizens, and includes everything from part-time volunteer activities to full-time public service jobs. The centerpiece of the effort to support service is a new program to offer educational awards to Americans who make a substantial commitment to service.

"Leave School And Learn": Seekonk High School's Independent Study Program, Jay D. Anderson

Special Topics, General

Change comes slowly to education. Schools are bound by tradition and a high school curriculum often remains constant. There are many reasons for a curriculun1 not changing, including meeting the course pre-requisites for college admission. Often, however, there is a resistance to change. As a result, many students take the same courses as their parents took when in school.

Tackling Society's Problems In English Class, Jim Burke

Special Topics, General

A high school teacher's impromptu unit on "Social Problems" gave his students an opportunity to develop their writing skills while expanding their concept of community.

Fairy Tale Friends, Mary Chamberlain

Special Topics, General

As students grow into responsible citizens. they need to realize that the quality of their lives is affected by the quality of the relationships in their lives.

This Community Service learning Unit - Fairy Tale Friends - was designed as part of the language Arts, English and Reading, curriculum. Middle School students will work on a Fairy Tale Unit. They will learn characteristics of Fairy Tales and fiction, using strategies of the writing/reading process. and cooperative learning. After the completion of the unit, they will work with elementary students, helping them write Fairy Tales.

Part two of their instruction will …

State Of Service Report: Executive Summary, Minnesota Office On Volunteer Services

Special Topics, General

Since the mid-1980's Minnesota has articulated a comprehensive vision for youth service which calls for the integration of service into the full spectrum of a person's life. Organizations reaching K-12 young people, college students, adult volunteers, and full- and part-time service volunteers in the Minnesota Conservation Corps and other programs would provide service opportunities at every age level for every Minnesotan. We continue to advance toward that vision with important achievements outlined in this report.

Evaluation Of An Intergenerational Service-Learning Project For Undergraduates, Robert G. Bringle, John F. Kremer

Intergenerational

An appropriate objective within a liberal arts approach to education is enhancing students' awareness of attitudes toward their own aging. A combined intervention of intergenerational experience and didactic instruction had a favorable effect on students' attitudes toward older adults i11 general and on students' uie'w of their own later lives. Additional positive consequences are discussed, and suggestions for running similar curricular components are presented.