The functional area of service-learning is currently emerging as an acknowledged department at an institution of higher education. The theoretical roots of service learning go back to John Dewey, and the early twentieth century. However, current research on service-learning pedagogy dates back only to the early 1990’s. Best practices for the field are still being created as more and more new offices are springing up on campuses throughout the United States and institutions internationally. The reason this functional area is becoming ever popular is due to the positive impact it has on students and most all educational outcomes.
Service-learning is considered both academic and co-curricular. Academic service learning is credit bearing and co-curricular being non-credit bearing. There have been several definitions of service-learning established, all by reputable authors in the field. Eyler and Giles (1999) cite Jane Kendall as stating there are 147 definitions of service-learning. One of the most comprehensive definitions is stated by Wajert (1998) and says academic service learning consists of six elements. Three are community based, and three are campus based.
“On the community side: the student provides some meaningful service (work), that meets a need or goal that is defined by a community. On the campus side: the service provided by the student flows from and into the course objective, is integrated into the course by means of assignments that require some form of reflection on the service in light for course objectives, and the assignment is assessed and evaluated accordingly” (p. 5).
Eyler and Giles (1999) suggest that there is significance in the hyphen between service and learning and that is where the definition...
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...gan Journal of Community Service Learning, 14(2), 5-15.
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While some say that college is a good investment due to its tendency to grow a student's character and intellectual ability, the downsides to college sorely outweigh the potential benefits that it has. While college does grow a student in multiple ways, “57% say that the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend.”(Doc F). This majority opinion demonstrates that the growth you can achieve in college is sorely outweighed by its economic cost, and not worth doing.
Community service hours are a significant issue to all students around the globe, as they are taking a substantial amount of time away from their lives scouring for some kind of work to do. This is especially a problem for those who do not live near any public organizations, and do not have the schedule to do any work for them. Most students go searching around their neighborhood asking if their neighbors have any work for them, which does not help anyone academically. Thus, most community service hours that are done don’t relate to their academic classes or technical area.
The argument about if college is worth it or not has been one of the biggest arguments throughout the media for decades. Students suffer a lot from the debts that they get from college and also the amount of studying that they do in college and when they graduate they ask themselves “is graduation from college really worth all the money that we paid and all the work that we have done?”
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
Service learning is a rather new concept, but it has proven advantageous in connecting students with their communities when paired with reflection and when included in school curriculum. . Weigert’s (1998) view of ser...
Owen and Sawhill maintain that college can positively affect one’s life by “affecting things like job satisfaction, health, marriage, parenting, trust, and social interaction. Additionally, there are social benefits to education, such as reduced crime rates and higher political participation” (Owen and Sawhill 640). By expressing this, Owen and Sawhill are trying to bring to mind the idea that by going to college, you will be an all around better citizen, which definitely plays with emotions because who doesn’t want to be a good citizen. Furthermore, Owen and Sawhill remark on the college decision process. Here, thier general claim is that when choosing a college, it is better to choose a college that will benefit you financially, not just the one you
I really think that having the service learning-project in the Unity and Diversity class is great. In class we have talked about minorites and disadvantaged groups, and volunteering in the minority places has everything to do with our class. The suggestions I have for revising the requirements of the service-learning component in a future class would be to require more theories and concepts into our papers. I think you should require more terms in our papers, so that we look more into our books and notes. Other than adding more concepts into the paper I don’t think anything else should be changed.
How did a departmental faculty generated 12,000 hours of student community service in one semester? The following is a qualitative analysis of conversations with faculty members in a department that recently instituted a service learning requirement for all student majors. The campus is a large urban comprehensive university with a multi-ethnic student body. Approximately fifteen faculty members were interviewed for this study. While most of those interviewed included service learning components in their courses, interviews with faculty members who resisted or refused to incorporate service learning were conducted as well in order to understand varying faculty attitudes towards service learning.
A service learning experience is designed to enhance a student 's growth in personal and social development and to obtain an understanding of community involvement. For my service learning experience, I volunteered at Change Point Center. In this reflection paper, I will discuss in depth information about the services that Change Point provides, my goals while I was there,and what I ultimately learned from this experience.
Students go to college in search of knowledge, a new lifestyle, and the hope of a job after graduation. For many young adults, college is a rite of passage into an independent, mature new lifestyle. Not only is higher education a rite of passage, for some, it is also an opportunity to have a better life. Overall, college is a wonderful part of many people’s lives, yet the way the college education system is conducted wastes students time and money. College is basically composed of two parts: general education classes and major specific classes. General education courses are the source of wasted time and money, and should not be required of students. A few of the problems associated with general education classes are that they are basically a repeat of high school, unfortunately they can be the demise of students, they are costly, and they waste time.
There are always some activities for the betterment of a community. If we get involved ourselves in those, we will certainly have some useful experiences in our life too. Service Learning is one of those activities, and it is primarily a service of a community with the application of the knowledge and guidance obtained in the college. Moreover, Service Learning is a way for a student to practice the education that he learns from the college, which in result strengthens the student academically. As a result, A student can be aware of the social issues through Service Learning, and he can apply his ideas and knowledge to come up with a solution. Similarly, Service learning also provides a source of communicating with the professional of the community, which can be helpful for a student regarding the education and employment. There are many organizations in our society, which create the opportunity for Service Learning. The ones that I am most interested in are the American Red Cross and City House homeless shelter. I like these organizations because these both are doing wonderful job b...
The article opens up describing a background of service learning through factual information and opinions of other people. Values of both service and learning are separately described discussing the importance of both. Service learning is described to initiate civic participation in the lives of future students through real life learning experiences solving problems. Incompetence of senior citizens use of technology is addressed as an issue faced in many communities according to the article. However, service learning students were trained to tutor senior citizens to technological advances. Another point the article addresses is that a relationship and knowledge was often acquired for both the student as well as the senior citizen. The student offered
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
“Service concept plays a key role in service design and development. It defines the how and what of service design and it helps mediate between customer needs and the organisation’s strategic intent.” (Goldstein, 2002) Hesket (1986) defines the service concept as the way the “organization’s would like to have its services perceived by its customers, employees, shareholders and lenders”. This means how the organisation wants itself and the goods and services that it sells to be seen by the people involved in the organisation.
Portelli, P. "Self-Directed Learning Effects in Voluntary Associations Organizational Framework." In Expanding Horizons in Self-Directed Learning, edited by H. B. Long et al., pp. 255-267. Norman, OK: Classic Book Distributors, 1997.