ServiceLearning as a 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program Design

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Service-Learning as a 21st Century Community
Learning Centers Program Design

• Shelley H. Billig
• Stephany Brown
• RMC Research Corporation

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For 21st Century Community Learning Centers

• Why Service-Learning Should Enhance Academic
  Achievement
• Evidence of Effectiveness
• How to Maximize Academic Achievement with
  Service-Learning
• Making the Case
• Key factors
• Action planning
• Crafting messages

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Why Service-Learning Should Enhance Academic
Achievement

• How Service-Learning Works
• How People Learn
• How the Brain Works
• Other Supporting Cognitive
• Development Theories

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How Service-Learning Works

• Service-learning is a form of experiential
  education where learning occurs through a cycle
  of planning, action, and reflection. Working
  with others, students acquire knowledge and
  skills and apply what they learn in community
  settings as they try to meet community needs.
  They experience consequences, both literal and
  emotional.

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Relationship to Learning (Eyler and Giles, 1999)

• Service-learning experiences
• are typically positive, meaningful, and real
• involve cooperative rather than competitive
  processes, thus promoting skills associated with
  teamwork and interdependency
• address complex problems in complex settings
  rather than simplified problems in isolation

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Service-learning experiences (continued)

• offer opportunities to engage in problem solving
  by requiring students to gain knowledge in
  specific contexts rather than drawing upon
  generalized or abstract knowledge
• promote deeper learning because results are
  immediate and are not contrived (no right
  answers in the back of the book)
• are more likely to be personally meaningful and
  to generate emotional consequences

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How People Learn (National Research Council, 1999)

• Understanding is much more than knowing facts.
• People build new knowledge and understanding on
  what they already know and believe (scaffolding).

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• Learning is mediated by the social environment in
  which learners interact with others.
• Effective learning requires that students take
  control of their own learning.
• The ability to apply knowledge to novel
  situations, that is, transfer of learning, is
  affected by the degree to which students learn
  with understanding.

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Learning and Memory

• Learning is the act of making (and strengthening)
  connections between thousands of neurons.
• Memory is the ability to reconstruct or
  reactivate the previously-made connections.

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Memory is a ProcessPat Wolfe. (2001).
Rehearsal
Sight
Sound
Elaboration Organization
Sensory Memory
Long-Term Memory
Working Memory
Smell
Initial Processing
Retrieval
Taste
Touch
Forgotten
Forgotten
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Other Supporting Theories

• Multiple Intelligences
• Constructivism
• Developmental Theories (youth need
  relationships!)
• Experiential Learning Theories
• (show meinvolve me)

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Evidence

• Service-learning has been found to make an impact
  on state tests in
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia service-learning
  programs)-reading/language arts and science
• Michigan (all Learn and Serve programs)
  writing, social studies, historical perspective,
  earth science, inquiry and decision making
• New Hampshire (environmental programs) language
  arts, math, science, and social studies and
• Vermont (environmental programs) reading.

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Evidence

• Students have made gains on problem solving
  essays in Hawaii, Colorado, and Pennsylvania
• Students have shown increases in attendance rates
  and decreases in dropout rates in many states
  and
• Students have shown increases in affective,
  behavioral, and cognitive engagement in Hawaii,
  Colorado, Michigan, Florida, Oregon, and
  Pennsylvania.

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How to Maximize Academic Achievement with
Service-Learning

• Link to standards
• Use instructional strategies with the greatest
  effect sizes and
• Create a nurturing learning environment.

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Research-based StrategiesEffect Sizes and
AchievementMarzano, et al. (2001).
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Creating a Climate for Learning
Safe
High Challenge
Low Threat
Nurturing
Inclusive
Encourages Risk-taking
Multi-sensory
Stimulating
Collaborative
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Effective After School Programs (Caplan and
Calfee, 1998)

• Are integrated with the regular school program
• Draw on community resources
• Include recreational programs
• Focus on at-risk youth
• Promote a climate of inclusion
• Create a culturally sensitive climate
• Provide good facilities management
• Promote a safe and healthy lifestyle
• Engage the public
• Involve parents
• Provide professional development for staff and
• Recruit, train, and reward volunteers.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness

• Principle 1 A program must be based on an
  assessment of objective data about the drug and
  violence problems in the schools and communities
  to be served.
• This should become part of the planning and
  assessment of the service-learning program so
  that the effect of the service-learning activity
  can be measured for both students and
  communities. For 21st Century Community Learning
  Centers, you should look at both academic
  performance and reduction of risk behaviors in
  determining the need for before- and after-school
  programs.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness (continued)

• Principle 2 A program must be based on
  performance measures aimed at ensuring that these
  schools and communities have a safe, orderly, and
  drug-free learning environment and that there are
  quality academic enrichment opportunities.
• These measures should be built into the
  service-learning approach, both in terms of
  creating the environment for success and ensuring
  its sustainability.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness (continued)

• Principle 3 The program must be grounded in
  scientifically-based research that provides
  evidence that the program to be used will enhance
  academic achievement, and reduce violence and
  illegal drug use.
• There is a body of research that clearly shows
  that service-learning is related to improvement
  of academic performance and reduction of many
  risk factors, including decreased violence and
  illegal drug use.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness (continued)

• Principle 4 The program must be based on an
  analysis of the prevalence of risk factors,
  protective factors, buffers, assets, or other
  variables, identified through scientifically-based
  research, that exist in the schools and
  communities in the State.
• By its nature, service-learning has a unique
  advantage in being related to protective factors
  and assets that exist in schools and states.
  Self-efficacy, social responsibility, bonds with
  adult role models, and other positive variables
  are built into the service-learning experience.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness (continued)

• Principle 5 The program must include
  consultation with and input from parents.
• Service-learning is well liked by parents. Their
  input and approval is typically sought in all
  service-learning programs and parents sometimes
  join in the service activity.

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Link to Principles of Effectiveness (continued)

• Principle 6 The program is evaluated
  periodically against locally selected performance
  measures and modified over time based on the
  evaluation to refine, improve, or strengthen the
  program.
• High quality service-learning programs typically
  engage in evaluation and assessment so that
  planners understand impact and can improve the
  approach.

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Making the Case

• Where are you on the developmental continuum?
• Awareness
• Motivation to adopt
• Deepening practice
• Scaling up
• Sustaining

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Key Factors

• Who will be the champions?
• What type of leadership support will be needed at
  the school, district, and state level?
• What evidence of success is needed?
• What professional development will be provided?
• What will the infrastructure for support
  (resource allocation, expertise, problem solving)
  look like?
• How will you get the necessary visibility for
  your efforts and when should you become visible?
• What incentives are available?
• How will a macrostructure (norms and cultural
  values) be developed?
• How will collaborative partnerships be developed
  and maintained?

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Dialogue

• Discuss your own situations. How would you
  answer each of the questions about key factors at
  the SEA level in your state?
• With the answers, develop an action plan for
  getting started, scaling up, or sustaining your
  current partnership at the SEA.
• What are the key messages that you need to
  develop that will resonate best in your state?