Service learning

Service learning

Service learning is a pedagogy that links academic learning to student-directed

community service and intellectual enquiry and reflection.

It enriches the learning experience,teaches civic responsibility

and strengthens communities.

Changing a service program to a Service learning program

Service program:For Clean Up Australia Day, a teacher at a local school decides that students will clean up part of the banks of the Brisbane River.

Re-orient to include student direction and academic learning

• consult with the local community• vote to clean up part of the banks of the Brisbane River • plan the project • observe, take inventory and clean up the river bank • analyse what they found; hypothesise about its

sources• look at the impact of the pollutants on flora and fauna• share the results with the local council and residents• offer suggestions for reducing pollution – perhaps by

writing a brochure and developing a web site.

Links to curriculum• Maths – analysing survey results• SOSE – voting, contacting the council• Science – analysing water and pollutants• Geography – comparing water quality of different

rivers and maps of watersheds• English – writing a brochure or a report• Art – designing a brochure or a map• Information Technology – developing a web site

with resources for preventing pollution.

Enrich the process with intellectual inquiry and reflection

• Investigate a wide range of concepts and values including, for example: ‘community’ and ‘responsibility’.

• Draw distinctions between different kinds of responsibility – students may not be causally or legally responsible for the pollution, but do they have some social or moral responsibility to improve the situation?

• Examine their assumptions about moral responsibility by asking, for example: ‘What is the extent of our moral responsibility? How do we judge this? What is it to be a good citizen?’

Making such distinctions develops and sharpens thinking skills.

Service learning:

• links to academic content and standards • involves young people in helping to determine and

meet real, defined community needs • includes on-going, meaningful reflection and analysis• is reciprocal in nature, benefiting both the community

and the service providers • can be used in any subject area so long as it is

appropriate to learning goals• works at all ages, even among young children.

(America’s National Commission on Service-learning)

Service learning is not:• an episodic volunteer program • an add-on to an existing school curriculum • logging a set number of community service hours

in order to graduate• compensatory service assigned as a form of

punishment by the school or the courts • only for high school or tertiary students• only for ‘at risk’ students • one-sided - benefiting only students or only

community.(America’s National Commission on Service-

Learning)

Types of service

Formal service:For example:• Driving for meals-on-wheels• Being on a roster to serve

morning tea once a month

Informal service:For example:• Shopping for an elderly

neighbour• Helping to stack chairs after

an event

Types of formal service• Direct service which involves hands on, direct contact,

for example working on the Mission Beat Bus. • Indirect service which involves hands-on, but not

direct contact, for example knitting blankets for a Winter Appeal.

• Advocacy which requires speaking out on behalf of an issue.

• Research which requires finding out information.

Combining research, service and advocacy achieves very powerful outcomes for students learning about

society.

BENEFIT CONTINUUM

RECIPIENT -------------------------------------- PROVIDER

FOCUS CONTINUUM

SERVICE ------------------------------------- LEARNING

Service- Learning

Community Service

Internship

Volunteerism Work Experience

Models of service learning• Embed service-learning into the curriculum of

a single subject in a single year.• Use service-learning as the vehicle for a ‘rich

task’ approach.• Have service-learning as a single, stand-alone

course - elective or compulsory.• Take a whole-of school approach, in which

each year works on a facet of the project.• Take an inter-school approach.• Have a ‘service event’ which individual

teachers then link to their curriculum.

Implementation Overview• Decide what you want to achieve – learning and service.• Start small -

– Extend existing service activities into service-learning activities. – Focus on projects within the class, within the school, with a feeder

school, or with projects that require limited external visits. • Get support from the Principal.• Develop a support team within the school.• Plan, plan, plan - thoroughly. • Involve students as much as possible - in the initial planning

and throughout the project. • Get help - trainee teachers, retired teachers, parents etc.• Publicise your success – throughout and finally. • Make a school copy of your service-learning folder.

Getting StartedIdentify ‘starting points’, for example:• curriculum outcomes achieved through activities

- ‘Develops and implements own ideas in response to an investigation of needs and wants.’

• curriculum outcomes which address values - ‘Describes how Australian people, systems and communities are globally interconnected and recognizes global responsibility.’

• existing programs – Anti-Bullying.• existing community engagement activities -

Anzac Day.• interests of parents and/or students.• work of local community organisations.

Enriching the ‘starting points’When enriching the ‘starting points’, ask: - In this

activity/area of the curriculum/area of interest, how can:

• values that are implicit be made explicit, reflected upon, modeled by teachers and acted upon

• student direction be encouraged• learning be made explicit – academic learning (links to

the curriculum) and other types of learning.• intellectual inquiry and reflection be included• the community be served (initially it might be the

school community)• parents be involved• the project be celebrated• the project be evaluated?

Introducing service learning – Step 1

Quality matters!First - design good quality service learning.

Researched based practices that improve student outcomes

Eight characteristics of effective service learning practice.1. Curriculum integration2. Ongoing, cognitively challenging reflection activities3. Student direction4. Respect for diversity5. Service is meaningful6. Both progress monitoring and process monitoring7. Sufficient duration8. Reciprocal partnerships

1 - Curriculum integration

Good quality service learning is planned and implemented with specific learning objectives in mind that are tied to content standards.

With strong integration, students’ test scores in the subject matter area with which service learning is integrated can increase significantly.

(Billig and Klute 2003, Billig and Sandel 2003, Meyer, Billig and Hofschire 2004; Santinire, Giraud and Groskopf 1999)

1 - Curriculum Integration

Factors related to higher academic impacts are:• Clarity of academic goals.• Clear connection between goals and activities.• Reasonable scope.• Support through focused reflective activities.

(Ammon, Furco, Chi and Middaugh 2001)

1 - Curricular Integration – be clear about learning objectives

• Academic learning in any subject.• Learning to be a learner:

– Critical thinking, problem-solving, communication skills• Learning about community:

– People, issues, resources, policies• Inter and intra-personal learning:

– Working collaboratively with others– Learning about other cultures– Exploring personal values, ethics; appreciating different values– Developing self-efficacy and empathy

• Career learning.• Civic learning.

2 - Ongoing, cognitively-challenging reflection activities

Reflection is the critical link. Through reflection, students:

• Connect experience with learning • Develop a sense of community in the school/class• Improve observation and communication skills• Develop an appreciation of community assets• Deepen knowledge of issues or policy• Develop an interest in taking action• Develop greater understand personal values• Develop inquiry skills

2 - Ongoing, cognitively-challenging reflection activities

Effective reflection is:• Continuous – before, during and after the project.• Connected – to specific learning objectives.• Cognitively challenging – demanding problem-solving,

decision-making, exploration, classification and hypothesis-testing skills.

• Contextualised – appropriate to the subject and student.

• Varied – multiple forms of reflection – written, oral and nonlinguistic.

(Eyler, Giles and Schmiede 1996; Pritchard and Whitehead 2004)

3 - Student direction

When service is imposed from above without youth input and without adequate structure and support, young people may view their service experience with indifference, suspicion or even hostility.

(S.H. Billig)

Giving students a say in every phase of a service-learning project has a strong influence on academic and civic engagement.

(Billig, Root and Jesse 2005, Bradley 2003, Fredericks, Kaplan and Zeisler 2001)

3 - Student direction

Students:• engage in problem solving, decision making,

planning, goal setting and helping others.• see themselves as change agents.• develop leadership and public speaking skills.• have improved interactions with teachers.

4 – Respect for diversity

Explicit teaching of respect and discussion of diversity is associated with multiple civic and character outcomes.

(Billig, Root and Jesse 2005; Powers, Potthoff, Bearinger and Resnick 2003; Blozis, Scalise, Waterman and Wells 2002)

It is most important that activities benefit both students and those being served so that students’ stereotypes of others are not reinforced.

4 – Respect for diversity

Ask: how will students demonstrate respect for people:

• from diverse cultural backgrounds• with different ideas• with disabilities• from different generations• who have different life circumstances.

5 – Service is meaningful

When service learning is viewed as valuable, useful, relevant and interesting, young people become more engaged and acquire more knowledge and skills.

(Billig, Root and Jesse 2005; Blank 1997)

5 – Service is meaningfulTeachers can enhance students’ feelings that projects are

meaningful by providing activities that:• are substantive but not overwhelming• are relevant and useful to them and those they serve –

an interesting challenge that meets an important need• are chosen by students and require analysis and

problem-solving• provide a personal connection to the task – often

through the formation of a relationship• elaborate beyond information in textbooks• explicitly connect to previous experience• require cognitively challenging skills - comprehension,

explanation, exploration, debate etc.

6 – Progress monitoring and process monitoring: to improve practice

Progress monitoring:assessing the progress made towards reaching

goals.Process monitoring:analysing the processes used to ensure that

learning is maximised.

When the monitoring is well connected to the tasks and outcomes and when teachers use this data to improve practice, service-learning achieves stronger outcomes.

(Billig, Root and Jesse 2005)

7 - Duration

Quality service-learning has sufficient time for students to transfer the academic knowledge learned through service experiences to other parts of the curriculum.

Projects must be at least 70 hours long to have an

impact on students. This includes preparation, action, reflection and demonstration of results.

(Billig, Root and Jesse 20005)

8 - Reciprocal partnerships

Reciprocity is associated with sustainability of service-learning.

(Kramer 2000; Ammon, Furco, Chi and Middaugh 2002)

Reciprocal partnerships have:–Mutual benefit–Shared vision–Two-way communication– Interdependent tasks–Common goals.

Agency School

Focus End product – clients served.

Process – knowledge gained

Why engage? Community need. Strategy to educate

Project planning Templates – past and present

Student direction – to learn and lead.

Scheduling Needs of clients Class scheduling

Site access Not responsible for ensuring access.

Cost, liability, scheduling

Measure success Service provision Meeting curricular standards

Assessment How did we do? What will we do differently?

Introducing service learning - Step 2

Motivate:• Students• Parents• Staff• Community Agenciesto become involved…..

Service learning and students: inform and motivate.

Before the project:• Tell stories and watch videos.• Invite someone with a personal experience to speak.• Ask parents involved in community service to speak.• Ask representatives from community agencies to visit..• Organise a trip to a local community agency.• Invite older students to present to the class. During the project:• Focus on student direction.• Reflect before, during and after the project.• Ask students and community agency to evaluate.

Service learning and parents: inform and motivate

• Students (or the school) present to parents.• Get students to ask parents, for example:

– What they care about in the community– How members of the family have served others– For suggestions about how the community might best be served.

• Tell parents the philosophy, goals and activities of the project and keep them updated.

• Make service visible in the school – photos, bulletin boards, student’s artwork, agencies’ thank-you letters.

• Invite parents to the service-learning celebrations.

The ‘learning challenge’J. Howard - Principles of Good Practice for Service Learning Pedagogy

Discuss the ‘learning challenge’ in service learning. ‘In service learning, students must not only master

academic material as in traditional courses, but also learn how to learn from unstructured and ill-structured community experiences and merge that learning with the learning from other course resources. Furthermore, in traditional courses students must satisfy only academic learning objectives. In service-learning courses, students must satisfy both academic and civic learning objectives. All of this makes for challenging intellectual work, commensurate with rigorous academic standards.’

S-L and staff: inform and motivateOutline the characteristics of authentic service-learning:• Projects are positive, meaningful and real.• Involve cooperative, rather than competitive experiences.• Address complex problems in complex settings.• Offer students opportunities to engage in complex

problem-solving.• Deeper thinking is promoted – no ‘right answers.’• Is personally meaningful and so supports social, emotional

and cognitive learning and development.• Helps develop home, school, community partnerships.Discuss that Service Learning is an excellent way of

implementing the Quality Teaching Framework and values education.

Service learning and the community

Start small and simple:– class or school community– feeder school– remote community.

If working locally, find out which agencies:• are located nearby – students need time to travel to

and from and produce meaningful work.• would be willing to work with students of this age.• conduct appropriate activities at the time service-

learning is being timetabled.• have sufficient staff to nominate at least one person

to coordinate the program.

Service learning and the community: finding the agencies

To find suitable agencies, visit:• Churches• Community Centers• Neighbourhood Centers• Local Councils• Ask parents and teachers for adviceAlso consider:• Local police• Hospitals• Libraries• Schools for Special Purpose.

Is It Worth It?

Service learning is ‘Quality Teaching in

Action’

Intellectual qualityDeep knowledge

As they engage in addressing a real world issue, students focus on key concepts. They explore those concepts, clearly articulating the relationship among them to ensure that their knowledge is deep.

Deep understandingStudents demonstrate their deep understanding of ideas and concerns surrounding the service-learning issue in number of ways, including solving problems, giving explanations and drawing conclusions.

Intellectual qualityProblematic knowledge

Students consider the issues from multiple perspectives, recognizing alternative possibilities and considering a range of options for their project. As they do so they discover that knowledge is problematic.

Higher order thinkingService-learning tasks require students to use higher order thinking skills to organise, recognise, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate knowledge and information about the issue at hand.

Intellectual quality

MetalanguageStudents are encouraged to employ metalanguage relevant to the subject or processes on which they are focused.

Substantive communicationStudents reflect throughout the project. They discuss the project and articulate and communicate their ideas and arguments to others, in substantive communication.

Quality learning environment

Explicit quality criteriaThe criteria that ensure the quality of all aspects of a service-learning project are made explicit for students.

EngagementStudents are engaged in real-life projects that they have helped to shape, and which make classroom learning come alive. This is highly motivational.

Quality learning environment

High expectationsConceptual risk-taking is encouraged as students investigate their community and identify a need experienced by a real audience. This determines that high expectations are set for the students’ project.

Social supportStudents form a project team in which they inquire about real issues and respect and value each other’s contributions. This provides strong social support.

Quality learning environment

Student directionStudents propose, plan and implement their own project to meet identified community needs, and so clearly demonstrate student direction.

Student self-regulationWhile engaging in cooperative decision-making, students self-regulate their behaviour.

Significance

Background KnowledgeStudents make use of their own background knowledge in establishing community needs and in planning and implementing the project.

Cultural KnowledgeProjects often require understanding, valuing and accepting the knowledge, traditions, beliefs and values of diverse social groups, so opportunities for incorporating cultural knowledge of different groups often arise.

SignificanceKnowledge integration

Activities and projects are real-world, so knowledge integration is inevitable since students must bring to bear on their deliberations and activities knowledge from various Key Learning areas and subjects.

InclusivityInclusivity is demonstrated as all students are encouraged to recognize differences and group identities and to be aware of the need to support members of non-dominant groups. Each individual involved in the project has their own special role to play, and is valued in that role.

Is it worth It? research summaryNOTE: The more responsibility, autonomy and choice students

have, the greater the effects. (Shelly Billing)

Personal/social development• Increase in personal and social responsibility, as well as

in communication and educational and social competence.

• Elevated self-esteem, self-efficacy and sense of responsibility to their school

• More accepting of cultural diversity • Less likely to be referred to the office for discipline • Less likely to engage in unprotected sexual activity,

violent activity and behaviors leading to arrest

Is it worth it? Research SummaryCivic Responsibility• Higher awareness of community needs and felt they

could make a difference• Increased understanding of how the government works • More likely to be active in community organizations Academic Learning• Higher scores on state test of basic skills; higher test

scores on several state assessments • Higher grades and higher scores on state tests

measuring reading for information and mathematics than non-participants (Elementary School)

• Schools reported attendance increases each year for three years

Is it worth It? research summaryCareer exploration and aspirations• Students reported that they learnt career and

communication skills and gained more knowledge about career possibilities.

• Students developed positive work attitudes and skills School and communities• More respect between students and other students,

teachers and other teachers, and students and teachers • Students and teachers have a greater bond to the school • Less teacher turnover and greater teacher collegiality • Members of communities participating in service-learning

view youth as valued resources and positive givers to their community

Service learning – what our Lutheran theology says…

Creation and preservation of the universe:God’s creation was good…God still preserves his creation by making humans caretakes of God’s Creation (Genesis 1:28; 2:15) We are to value and preserve the environment God allows us to enjoy (CL3) p.5 Theological Notes (CSCF)

Sin and evil:The effects of sin…sin has resulted in broken relationships with God, ourselves, other people and the whole of creationp.13 Theological Notes (CSCF)

The church:The early church was sufficiently concerned with service (diakonia) that 7 deacons were appointed to attend to it (Acts 6: 1- 6)p.26 Theological Notes (CSCF)

Service-Learning – what our Lutheran theology says…

Theology of the cross – the motivation for service…the motivation for service arises from theology of the cross as a response to the love and forgiveness of God in Christ…Christians are called to live a life of service to their neighbours (Eph 2: 8-10)… Service to God by serving othersp.43 Theological Notes (CSCF)

The Christian has a call to faith (vocation as believers) and the call to serve the neighbour (vocation to serve in the world).

For a Christian these are inseparably connected. Faith is directed towards God; good works are directed to the neighbour.Key Idea 2p.43 Theological Notes (CSCF)

Service learning – what our Lutheran theology says…

• Theologia curcis: theology of the way of the cross…Jesus made it clear that following him meant identifying with the poor and outcast… ‘Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these my children, you did it to me.’ (6 Challenges; 6 Mysteries)

Service learning – how the Bible challenges us…

Act justly and...love mercy and...walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

“He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, sight for the blind and freedom for the oppressed”. Luke 4:18 

Service learning – is it ‘just another thing’ for schools?

• No… it is core… it is part of who we are as a Christian organization

• It is a way of living and learning that shows and grows our heart

• The ultimate model of Jesus as Servant-King speaks louder than any human words or phrases

This PowerPoint was developed with the help of

Margaret Richmond – Empower Library Inc. 02 99498103

www.empower.org.au

She is more than willing offer help and support to your school regarding any aspect of service

learning.