Service Learning in Higher Education

INSTRUCTORS: Janet Eyler & Dwight E. Giles, Jr.
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment
OFFICES: Payne 206 & Mayborn 104
OFFICE PHONES: 322-8522 & 322 8273
E-MAIL: janet.s.eyler {at} vanderbilt(.)edu; dwight.e.gilesjr {at} vanderbilt(.)edu
CLASS: Mayborn 105 Wednesdays 4:10-7:00PM

PURPOSE

This class is a hands-on, minds-on engagement in the practice and theory of service learning – the integration of community service and related academic study. Students will assist a service learning program with planning, implementation or evaluation and integrate this experience with study of current practice, theory and research. Students who plan careers in higher education will find this interesting and useful as in the last ten years there has been increasing commitment to providing service-learning opportunities on campuses. Many student services and other higher education positions include the need to offer leadership to these programs.

By the end of the course students will:

• Develop skills for collaborative work with community partners
• Assist in planning, implementation and/or assessment of service learning program
• Critique existing service learning research literature
• Identify ways in which service learning advances goals of higher education
• Describe the range of service learning programs in higher education
• Apply experiential learning theory to service learning
• Describe theoretical roots of service learning

If there are students in this course whose interests lie with K-12 rather than higher education service learning, we will identify appropriate core reading alternatives and incorporate this focus into our seminar discussions. There is a rich body of practice, theory and research in K 12 service learning.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Service Learning Project: The project will allow you to provide service to a service-learning program.

The project you choose must meet these criteria:

• Must provide service to the host organization or program.
• Offers opportunities for immersion in the daily activities of the service learning program, including direct service activities as well as administration.
• Must be able to engage in one or more of the following dimensions of service learning: planning, implementation, evaluation.
• Produces a product that:
• Meets the host organization's needs
• Links the experience to the goals of the course.
• Furthers the students own intellectual and professional goals.
• Ideally the projects will provide a window on the cutting edge issues and practices in service learning in higher education.

Personal Journal: You should keep a personal journal in which you record descriptions of your service activity as well as personal interpretations of the experience. This document is personal and will not be directly shared with others, but will serve as a useful data base for both the service learning project and for your final exam/reflective paper.

Personal Goals Statement: You need to review the overall goals for the course and reflect on your personal needs and identify what you hope to accomplish over the course of the semester. This goals statement will be a significant starting point for the development of your final reflective paper.

Final Exam/Reflective Paper: At the end of the semester you will reflect on your own process of learning and evaluate your progress towards achieving the goals you identified during the first weeks of the class. In this paper, you will integrate course material related to practice, theory and research on service learning with your experiences and accomplishments.

In-Class Presentations / Seminar Leadership: There will be opportunities during the course of the semester for individuals or small teams to share the results of reading, analysis or observation with the class. Examples include: analysis of college mission statements and their fit with service learning, exploration of organizational web sites related to service learning and sharing specialized reading assignments.

COURSE MATERIALS

Edward Zlotkowski (ed.) Successful Service Learning Programs. Bolton: MA: Anker Publishing Co. 1998;

Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, Jr. Where's the Learning in Service Learning. San Francisco: Jossey Bass 1999

Additional readings on service learning research and theory will be in the Classpak available through campus copy or on reserve in the Education Library.

COURSE GRADING

Service Learning Activity and Project: 50%
Goal Statement: 5%
Final Exam/Reflective Paper: 25%
Seminar preparation and participation: 10%
Weekly assignments: 10%

COURSE OUTLINE & READING SCHEDULE

Much of what we do in this course will grow out of the experiences students have in their projects and the questions that arise from our early study of the practice, research and theoretical literature. We have outlined readings and topics for the first part of the course; we will collaboratively develop the last part of the course based on questions and interests generated in the first half

January 12

What is service learning? What does service mean in your life?

• Joseph "Cultivating Compassion" Foundation News, March/April 1990
• Speaker: Sharon Shields

January 19

How does service learning fit into the mission of higher education?

• Zlotkowski text Chapter I "A new model of excellence"
• Pairs of students will be responsible for each of the following four chapters:
  Chapter 2 "On the shoulders of giants: Augsburg College"
  Chapter 5 "Community college and service learning: Brevard CC"
  Chapter 6 "Rediscovering our heritage: Community service and the historically black college."
  Chapter 8 "Comprehensive design of community service: … Portland State University"
• Kendall et al "Building experiential education into the mission and values of your institution." Strengthening experiential education within your institution. 1986 pp. 7 24
• Assignment Due: Pairs of students will analyze mission statements of colleges and universities using modified version of NSEE guidelines.
• Projects: Clients will present needs and share ideas

January 26

How can service learning contribute to higher education reform?

• Zlotkowski Text Chapter 9 "Making a major commitment: Providence College"
• Schon, "Knowing in action: The new scholarship requires a new epistemology" Change, 1995, November/December pp. 27 34.
• Boyer, "Creating the new American college" Chronicle of Higher Education, 48 March, 1994
• Stanton "Institutionalizing Service learning within postsecondary education: Transformation or social adaptation." Partnership
  Perspectives Vol. I #1 1998 pp. 9 16.
• Pollock "Early connection between service and education" Stanton, Giles & Cruz, Service-learning: a movement's pioneers reflect on its origins, practice, and future. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. 1998, pp. 12 32.
• Assignment Due: Personal Goal Statement
• Projects: Clients will share needs and ideas

February 2

Students will break into two teams; one team will explore research literature on institutionalization of service learning, the other will look at faculty involvement.

• Institutionalization Readings:
  Holland "Analyzing institutional commitment to service: A model of key organizational factors." Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 1997, pp 42 55. Ward "Service learning and student volunteerism: Reflections on Institutional commitment" MJCSL, 1996 pp. 55 65.
• Gray et al. Rand report:
  Coupling service and learning in higher education: The final report of the evaluation of the Learn and Serve America higher education program. 1998 Zlotkowski Text Chapter II "We make the road by walking: University of Utah"
• Faculty Involvement Readings:
  Nelson and Gore?
  Hammond "Integrating service and academic study: Faculty motivation and satisfaction in Michigan higher education" MJCSL, 1994, pp. 21 28.
  Antonio, Astin & Cress Community service in higher education: A look at the nation. Stanford, 1998, unpublished MS
  Zlotkowski Text Chapter 3 "Curriculum and community connection: … Bates College"
• Assignment Due: Web Search. Each student will brief class on resources available through their assigned organization's web site.

February 9

Strategies for Establishing Service Learning in Higher Education

• Speaker: Tim Stanton, former director Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford
  University Sr. Fellow Haas Center and International Consultant on Service Learning
• Assignment Due: Review Haas Website.
• Project teams: Meet in class and share ideas and questions

February 10

University Lecture on Service Learning Stanton talk 4pm

February 16

What do we know about student outcomes of service learning?

• Gray et al (1998), Rand report. Sections on student learning in library reserve
• Astin & Sax, "How undergraduates are affected by service participation" Journal of College Student Development. May/June 1998 pp. 251 263.
• H. Markus, Howard & King, "Integrating community service and classroom instruction enhances learning: Results from an experiment. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis,1993, pp. 410 519.
• Mabry, "Pedagogical variations in service learning and student outcomes: How time, contact, reflection matter." MJCSL, 1998 pp32 47.
• Miller, "Linking traditional and service learning courses: Outcome evaluation using two pedagogically distinct models." MJCSL 1994, pp. 29 36.
• Eyler & Giles, Chapters 3-6, Where's the Learning in Service Learning, 1999

February 23

How does Service Learning Affect Student Outcomes

• King "How do we know? What do we believe?" Liberal Education, 1992, vol. 78 # 1 pp. 28.
• Ehrlich, "Civic learning: democracy and education revisited" Educational Record, Summer/Fall 1997, pp 57 65.
• Wolfson & Willinsky "What service learning can learn from situated learning" MJCSL, 1998 pp. 22-31.
• Eyler & Giles Chapter 8 "Program characteristics of effective service learning" Where's the Learning in Service Learning, 1999
• Project Teams: Share progress report

March 2

How does service learning make a difference for communities and society?

• Barber, "Service, citizenship and democracy: Civic duty as an entailment of civil right." Evers National Service Pro and Con. 1990. pp. 27 43.
• Putnam, "Bowling alone: America's declining social capital" Journal of Democracy, 1995, January pp. 65 78.
• Varlotta "Service learning: A catalyst for constructing democratic progressive communities" MJCSL, 1996, 22-30.
• Zlotkowski text Chapter 7 Communal participatory action research & strategic academically based community service: … Penn.
• Eyler & Giles Chapter 7 Where's the Learning in Service Learning? 1999
• Project Teams: Project outlines and timelines presented in class.

March 16

• How do you design, implement and assess effective service learning programs?
• CIC Engaging Communities and Campuses Council of Independent Colleges working paper 1999

March 23

• Evaluation of Service Learning Programs
• Speaker: Jeanne Henry Evaluation of Tennessee Service Learning Initiatives

March 29 to be planned in response to issues that arise during semester
April 6 Final presentation [clients invited]
April 13 Consultation sessions on final projects and issues
April 20 Final presentation [clients invited]