Service-Learning
Kathy, if you have a set of links about Service-Learning I can post here, that would be great. I titled the Action Idea Service-Learning rather than Community Service because I thought the ideas discussed better reflected the definitions of Service-Learning I saw various places, including this one from California State University, Chico:
http://www.csuchico.edu/psed/servicelearning/mod1/mod1_1-2.html
Below are 3 definitions of Service-Learning to consider:
Definition One: The National and Community Service Trust Act of 1990 provides the nation with a clear definition: "Service-Learning is a method - A) under which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that is: (1) conducted in and meets the needs of a community; (2) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; (3) helps foster civic responsibility; and B) is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled; and provides structured time for the students or participants to reflect on their service experience."
Definition Two: The National Youth Leadership Council (1991) defines Service-Learning as: "A teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility."
Definition Three: A concise definition is provided by Follman, Watkins, and Wilkes (1994): "Service-Learning is the formal integration of service into student instruction and learning."
From the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse: http://www.servicelearning.org/article/archive/35/
For example, if school students collect trash out of an urban streambed, they are providing a service to the community as volunteers; a service that is highly valued and important. When school students collect trash from an urban streambed, then analyze what they found and possible sources so they can share the results with residents of the neighborhood along with suggestions for reducing pollution, they are engaging in service-learning. In the service-learning example, the students are providing an important service to the community AND, at the same time, learning about water quality and laboratory analysis, developing an understanding of pollution issues, learning to interpret science issues to the public, and practicing communications skills by speaking to residents. They may also reflect on their personal and career interests in science, the environment, public policy or other related areas. Thus, we see that service-learning combines SERVICE with LEARNING in intentional ways. There are many other illustrations of how the combination is transforming to both community and students.
- Service-learning is not
- An episodic volunteer program
- An add-on to an existing school or college curriculum
- Logging a set number of community service hours in order to graduate
- Compensatory service assigned as a form of punishment by the courts or by school administrators
- Only for high school or college students
- One-sided: benefiting only students or only the community
Apparently we missed the boat on DOE funding. This conference May 28 would have been interesting!
http://www.doe.mass.edu/csl/news03/wkshp_descrip.html
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