What Is Service-Learning? Community Service-Learning Rich Harris, Director Wilson Hall 201 568-3463 [email protected] .

What Is Service-Learning?

Community Service-LearningRich Harris, Director

Wilson Hall 201568-3463

[email protected]/csl

What is the Difference Between

Volunteering and

Service-Learning?

Volunteering

• Focused on the individual. The agency is generally grateful just to have the help

• The service experience is focused on how it makes the “volunteer” feel

• No structured learning - learning unknown

• Reflection not built into the experience

• A gateway to deeper forms of service

Service-Learning

• Reciprocity of benefits between the “service-learner” and the agency

• Focus on benefits and learning of both the “service-learner” and agency.

• Structured learning component that prepares the service learner for the service experience

• Structured and guided reflection experiences built in

Defining Service-Learning

What are the Elements of Good Service-Learning?

JMU Service-Learning Definition(Modified From the National and Community Service

Trust Act of 1993)

• Students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service

• Is conducted in and meets the needs of a community

• Is coordinated with an institution of higher education and with the community

• Helps foster civic responsibility• Is integrated into and enhances the academic

curriculum of the student• Includes structured time for the students to

reflect on the service experience

JMU Service-Learning Educational Goals

• Link academic studies with the service experience

• Personal growth and development for participants

• Life long commitment to service and civic involvement

Elements of Good Service-Learning

• Reciprocity

• Thoughtfully Organized Service - Partnerships

• Enhances Academic Learning

• Structured Time for Reflection

• Fosters Civic Responsibility

Reciprocity Between the Community and JMU

•Partnership developed and defined by the host community and JMU•The needs of all partners (JMU and the community) are clearly identified to each other•The experience meets the needs of all partners•It is okay to say that some projects or partnerships are not appropriate because one or both partners needs are not being meet

Thoughtfully Organized Service

• All partners contribute to the development of the service and partnership structure

• The expectations, roles and responsibilities of each partner is agreed upon and defined

• The purpose, expectations and structure of the service experience is explained to all participants

Enhances Academic Learning

• As part of service-learning courses

• Connects co-curricular service-learning (ASB, FWS, personal community service, etc.) to students academic studies

Action Research

Service-Learning Course

Service-Learning Component

Extra Credit for Service-Learning

Levels of Service-Learning Courses

Structured Time for Reflection

• Reflection is the way all participants discover, articulate and act on what they learn from the experience

• Reflection time and structure is integrated into the service-learning experience

• The best reflection is ongoing, allows for different structures and builds on previous learning and insight

Fosters Civic Responsibility

• Makes connections between current service-learning and future actions

• This process is ongoing and takes place over time and multiple service-learning experiences

• Looks at causes and develops skills and actions for change

Action without reflection leads to burnout;

Reflection without action leads to cynicism.

Reflection: The Heart of Service-Learning

The Three Reflection Questions

• What? Looks at what happened. What did you/we do? What happened? What were individual and group feelings? What relationships were developed?

• So What? Looks at making meaning of the experience. What impact did the experience have on you and the group? How have you and and the group changed because of the experience? What have you learned or what questions have been raised?

• Now What? Looks at what will be done in the future because of the experience. Will you take any actions or make any changes because of the experience? Will you make plans to change others? How will this experience shape your future? The groups future?

Cone and Harris Experiential Learning Model(1996-Modified from Kolb 1984)

Pre-Reflection

Concrete Experience

ReflectionActive Experimentation

Conceptualization

Mediated Learning

The Four C’s of Reflection

• Continuous and takes multiple forms

• Connected to academic learning and life

• Challenging – pushes the student to stretch and grow

• Contextualized – gives background information, guided questions, connection to learning goals, modeled by the instructor

The JMU Mission:

We are a community committed to preparing students

to be educated and enlightened

citizens who will lead

productive and meaningful lives

Evidence of CS-L’s Impact on JMU Mission

• Peace Corps – 2008- JMU Ranked #14 Nationally for large universities (53 active alumni). (347 total since 1962, 247 in the past eight years.)

• Model Community Based Federal Work Study Program - Connecting Classroom Learning and Real-World Living – 2008 – Campus Compact.

• President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction – 2007 - Corporation for National and Community Service and Campus Compact.

• Princeton Review – 2005 – Selected as a Colleges With A Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement.

• U.S. News and World Reports – 2002 – JMU Ranked #24 Nationally for Service-Learning Programs

• Break Away – 1999 Alternative Spring Break National Program of the Year• Mother Jones Magazine, 1998 and 2003 – JMU, Top 10 Activist Schools• Who Cares Magazine, 1997 – JMU, Top Ten Schools That Make A

Difference

The CS-L Mission Statement:

Community Service-Learning is a partnership joining JMU students, faculty, staff and the surrounding

communities by identifying and coordinating intentional service

opportunities to cultivate social responsibility and life-long

learning, thereby fostering a generation of leaders committed to positive social change.

The Service-Learning Process

Action(Now What)

Understanding(So What)

Exposure(What)

The Service-Learning Process

• Exposure– Diversity - Different people, groups and

organizations– Different ways of thinking– New situations– Feeling of perplexity or satisfaction– Historically this has been volunteerism

The Service-Learning Process• Understanding

– Builds on exposure– Understanding the perspective and history of different

individuals, groups and organizations– Multiculturalism– Understanding causes of social issues– Understanding the influence and effect of power and

privilege in society– Involves both reflection and formal educational

processes– Creates an attitude of openness and wanting to learn

more– Historically this has been the emphasis of service-

learning

The Service-Learning Process

• Action– Builds on exposure and understanding.– A developmental and ongoing process that develops

over time– Getting involved in and influencing the decision

making and change process– Development of skills and behaviors to address

improved quality life and unmeet needs for all members of society

– The University is actively involved in this process and in the community.

– Nationally this is being called civic engagement