Service Learning

1
Service Learning

• Module 2, Session 5

2
What is service learning?

• Method under which students learn and develop
  through active participation in thoughtfully
  organized service that 1) is conducted in and
  meets the needs of a community
• 2) is coordinated with an elementary or secondary
  school, IHE, community sservice program and the
  community
• 3) helps foster civic responsibility
• 4) is integrated into and enhances the core
  academic curriculum
• 5) provides structured time for the students to
  reflect on the service experience.

3
Service learning is NOT

• Punishment
• Randomly assigned projects in the community
• Mandated

4
What are the benefits of service learning?

• Increases in measures of personal and social
  responsibility, communication, and sense of
  educational competency
• Reduced levels of alienation and behavioral
  problems
• Increases in ability to bond with adults greater
  trustworthiness, reliability, and responsibility

5
Quality Indicators - service learning

• Integrated learning
• Student voice
• High quality service
• Collaboration
• Civic responsibility
• Reflection
• Evaluation

6
Quadrant exercise Read each scenario on the
following two slides and place it on the quadrant
below.
A
B
High service, high academic
High Service, Low Academic
C
D
Low service, low academic
Low service,high academic
7
Scenarios for quadrant exercise

• All students must complete 10 hours of service to
  graduate. The City Council and Volunteer Center
  create a list of needs and match student
  interests and talents to meet those needs.
  Students write a letter to their parents
  describing their experience.
• John Darwin uses homelessness as a theme in his
  class. Students read 100 pages on homelessness
  from books and magazines and prepare an oral
  report or skit to demonstrate what theyve
  learned.
• Judith Jones includes an ecology strand in
  biology built around a creek restoration project.
  Students work at the creek site one day each
  month, where they collect data and specimens and
  monitor conditions, which are the focus of lab
  reports and discussion. Members present an
  annual progress report to the county
  commissioners every May.

8
More scenarios

• All classes at Horace Brown Middle School compete
  in the Thanksgiving service learning derby by
  collecting food cans for the Food Bank. A
  dumpster is located in front of the school so
  that parents can throw cans in from the car as
  they drop off their children. Two most popular
  cans were cranberry jelly and pumpkin.
• Judy Bloom teaches an intro course in assessment
  for student teachers. She assigns students in
  teams of two to work with a beginning teacher
  from a nearby elementary school. Each beginning
  teacher identifies a question about their
  teaching they would like to understand better,
  which becomes the focus of an assessment project.
  Class culminates in an evening program where
  teams give their reports to the beginning
  teachers and discuss what theyve learned.