Why ServiceLearning

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Why Service-Learning?
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What is Service-Learning?

• Service and learning are two words that alone
• neednt be defined, but to put the two words
  together
• as Service-Learning, one gets a hybrid definition
  of
• both. Its meaning incorporates both knowledge and
• experience with action and responsibility, which
• ultimately enhances education and develops
  altruistic
• ideals and civic responsibility.

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History of Service-Learning

• The need for service organizations began in the
  early
• 1900s when small towns and villages grew into
• larger metropolises eroding the neighborhood
• community network. The growing need for service
• caused some individuals to respond with
• community based action that eventually evolved
• into a national effort.

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That Was Then This is Now

• 88 of high schools offered a service-learning
  curriculum
• 5,400,237 high school students were involved in a
  
• service connected curriculum
• overall growth of high school students engaged in
• service-learning between 1984 to 1997 grew 3663
  percent!
• 2 million of the 6.7 million college and
  university students participated in
  service-learning

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PERSONAL INTERPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

• I learned the people I served are like me
• I learned to understand myself better
• I learned to appreciate other cultures

• THROUGH THE SERVICE-LEARNING EXPERIENCE STUDENTS
  DEVELOP
• Increased confidence
• Personal efficacy
• Strong leadership skills
• Communication skills
• Listening skills
• Public speaking skills
• Ability to work with others
• Tolerance for diversity

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Dewey's "Developmental Democracy"

• Service-learning - A new idea?
• Philosopher John Dewey (b. 1859) believed
  education could act as a response to social
  problems in what he called a laboratory for
  democracy. His theory was based on the premise
  that children developed the understanding,
  skills, and dispositions required for democratic
  life not only by reading about them in books, but
  by interacting democratically in their learning
  activities.

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ACADEMIC LEARNING

• when you apply what youre learning thats the
  way you really learn it if you dont practice
  it, youre not going to learn it-University of
  San Diego student

• SERVICE-LEARNING PROVIDES STUDENTS
• A deeper understanding of what is learned in the
  classroom
• The ability to use what is learned
• The ability to apply knowledge to real life
  situations and social issues
• Specific skills learned within the context of the
  service site.

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Reflection

• Service, combined with
• learning, adds
• value to each and
• transforms both.
• -Honnet Poulsen 1989

• The role of reflection in
• service-learning is to provide
• the transformative link
• between the action of serving
• and the ideas and
• understanding of learning.

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Methods of Reflection

• I think the main thing that helps is that all
  of us in the organization, we sit down and talk
  about the different problems . . . We do it every
  Sunday . . . sit down and talk about the
  different things.
• -Bentley College Student

• Small group discussion
• Creative expression through art, role play,
  presentations or other types of projects
• Journal writing

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Goals of Reflection

• The 4 Cs Principles of Reflection
• Continuous reflection is an ongoing, critical
  reflection to be used before, during and after
  the experience to greater enhance learning
• Connected reflection is the link between service
  and academics
• Challenging reflection is a way in which to
  encourage students to engage issues in a more
  critical way. To ask questions and develop
  alternative explanations for experiences
• Contextualized reflection is applying reflection
  in a meaningful way as it corresponds to the
  environment and situation of the experience

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Value of Reflection

• All those things we had to do for
  service-learning. Each one successfully helped me
  to pull together what Id learned. As youre
  going along, youre not really seeing what youre
  learning every minute. But, when you have to pull
  it all together and really think about it, I
  think it helped me realize what had taken place.
  -University of San Diego student
• Well, in my opinion. I think that whats helpful
  for me is to have personal and also group
  reflection . . . I think theres something really
  important in having a voice and sharing your
  opinions and ideas and bouncing those off other
  people. -University of Colorado student
• After I write down my thoughts and everything, I
  can look back and find answers to questions that
  I thought were impossible to find. Like Ive
  found answers to some questions just through
  writing what has happened. -East
  Tennessee State University student

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Why Service-Learning?

• I can honestly say that Ive learned more in
  this last year in community service than I
  probably have learned in all four years of
  college. Ive learned so much. Maybe because I
  found something that Im really passionate about
  and it makes you care more to learn about it-and
  to get involved and do more.
• -University of Washington student

• Service-learning motivates students to learn
• it aids in personal development
• helps students connect to others
• helps students develop commitment to active
  citizenship
• enhances understanding of issues and subject
  matter
• helps students apply knowledge and skills they
  learn in one setting to other settings
• Service-learning coupled with critical reflection
  helps students reframe the way they think about
  complex social issues

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Works Cited

• Eyler, Janet, and Giles, Dwight E., Jr. Wheres
  the Learning in Service- Learning? San
  Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass Inc., 1999.
• Eyler, Janet, and Giles, Dwight E., Jr. A
  Practitioners Guide to Reflection in
  Service-Learning Student Voices and Reflections
  Nashville, TN, Vanderbuilt University, 1996.
• Honnet, E.P., and Poulsen, S. Principles of Good
  Practice in Combining Service and Learning.
  Wingspread Special Report. Racine, Wis.
  Johnson Foundation, 1989.
• Senese, Guy, and Tozer, Steven E., and Violas,
  Paul C. School and Society Historical and
  Contemporary Perspectives Bosten, MA, McGraw
  Hill, Inc., 1998.
• (still need to add Bens citations)