A Guide to Service Learning in Sport Management

1
A Guide to Service Learning in Sport Management
Dan Drane University of Southern Mississippi
2
What is Service Learning?

• An academically based educational encounter in
  which students participate in organized service
  activities related to course concepts that meet
  predetermined community needs. (Drane, 2001)
• An approach that provides thoughtfully organized
  experiences that integrate students academic
  learning with service that meets actual community
  needs (Corporation for National Service, 1993).
• A credit bearing educational experience in which
  students participate in an organized service
  activity that meets identified community needs
  with reflection of the service activity in such a
  way as to gain further understanding of course
  content, a broader appreciation of the
  discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic
  responsibility (Bringle Hatcher, 1996).

3
What is Service Learning?

• An educational activity, program, or curriculum
  that seeks to promote students learning through
  experiences associated with volunteerism or
  community service (Sheckley and Keeton, 1997).
• A form of experiential education in which
  students engage in activities that address human
  and community needs together with structured
  opportunities intentionally designed to promote
  student learning and development (Jacoby, 1996).
• A type of experiential learning that engages
  students in service within the community as an
  integrated aspect of a course.

4
Student Benefits of Service Learning

• Enriches student learning of course material and
  understanding of reading materials.
• Engages students in active learning that
  demonstrates the relevance and importance of
  academic work for their life experience and
  career choices.
• Increases awareness of current societal issues as
  they relate to academic areas of interest.
• Broadens perspectives of diversity issues and
  enhances critical thinking skills.
• Improves interpersonal skills that are important
  in achieving personal and professional success.
• Develops civic responsibility through active
  community involvement.

5
Community Benefits of Service Learning

• Provides substantial human resources to meet
  educational, human, safety, and environmental
  needs of local communities.
• Allows the energy and enthusiasm of college
  students to contribute to meeting community
  needs.
• Fosters an ethic of service and civic
  participation in students who will be tomorrows
  volunteers and civic leaders.
• Creates potential for additional partnerships and
  collaboration with the educational institution.

6
Faculty Benefits of Service Learning

• Ability to demonstrate teaching effectiveness for
  promotion and tenure.
• Development of innovative approaches to
  instruction.
• Opportunities for collaborative community
  research and project development.
• Integration of service with teaching and
  research.

7
Institutional Benefits of Service Learning

• Enriches and enlivens teaching and learning.
• Builds reciprocal partnerships with the local
  community.
• Creates new areas for research and scholarship.
• Increases opportunities for professional
  recognition and reward.
• Extends campus resources into the community and
  reinforces the value of the scholarship of
  engagement.
• Supports the institutional mission.

8
Ways to Integrate a Service Component

• Independent 4th credit option
• Required within a course
• Option within a course
• Class service projects
• Disciplinary capstone projects
• Service research projects

9
Common Questions Faculty ask about Service
Learning

• What is service learning?
• How is service learning different from other
  types of practice-based education?
• Will service learning take too much time?
• Does service learning take too much class time?
• How do I evaluate the students performance?
• How can involvement in service learning
  strengthen my professional research?
• What risks are involved in service learning?

10
Faculty Role in Design of Service Learning

• Determine service contribution that meets
  curricular objectives
• Develop community partnership
• Structure service project or activities
• Fit scheduling constraints
• Minimize conflict with other course objectives
• Identify reflection exercise

11
Faculty Role in the Implementation of Service
Learning

• Include service learning on the syllabus.
• Address risk management issues.
• Coordinate with agency staff to oversee service
  activities.
• Evaluate performance of students.
• Solicit departmental support.
• Assess course design.

12
Keys to Service Learning Success

• Academic credit is awarded for learning gained
  from the experience, not the service itself.
• Students in the class provide a needed service in
  the community.
• The service experience relates to the subject
  matter of the course and is enhanced through
  readings, projects, and presentations.
• The service experiences are aimed the development
  of civic responsibility as well as career
  preparation.

13
Keys to Service Learning Success

• The class syllabus is developed to include the
  service learning experience into the teaching and
  learning objectives of the course.
• The faculty member becomes acquainted with each
  community agency and they are included in the
  service planning.
• Preparation for the service experience includes
  student training, clarification of expectations
  and responsibilities, and risk management issues.
• Students, faculty, and community representatives
  are included in the evaluation process.

14
Assessing Service Learning Opportunities

• Find out
• Agency mission
• Current needs of the agency or community
• Contact person
• Location of service site
• Number of students the agency can accommodate
• Training requirements
• Insurance issues
• Scheduling requirements

15
Service Learning Reflection

• Personal journals
• Directed writings
• Experiential research papers
• E-mail discussions
• Ethical case studies
• Portfolios
• Personal narratives
• Exit cards
• Class presentations
• Weekly logs

16
National Organizations

• American Association for Higher Education
• Break Away
• Campus Contact
• Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL)
• Community - Campus Partnerships for Health
• Corporation for National Service (CNS)
• Invisible College

17
National Organizations

• National Information Center for Service Learning
• National Society for Experiential Education
• Partnership for Service Learning
• Payton Philanthropic Library
• Student Coalition for Action in Literacy
  Education
• LISTSERVS
• service-learning_at_csf.colorado.edu
• jsl_at_csf.colorado.edu

18
You leave your legacy not by what you have, but
by what you have done.