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Service-Learning.

Service-Learning Australia Inc. (02) 49761136.

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 local stream.


Re-orient to include student direction and academic learning.

• Consult with the local community.• Vote to clean up part of the banks of Lake Macquarie. • 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.


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?”


Links to curriculum

• Maths – analysing survey results• C & C. – 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.


Types of 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.


Benefit/focus continuums.Andy Furco:

“Service-Learning: a Balanced Approach to Experiential Education”

There are a number of different types of service programs:

• Volunteering• Community service• Internship• Work experience• Service-learning.

What differentiates them is where each lies on two continuums:Benefit - between recipient and providerFocus - between service and learning.



BENEFIT CONTINUUM

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

FOCUS CONTINUUM

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

Service- Learning

Community Service

Internship

Volunteerism Work Experience


Benefit/focus continuums.Volunteerism: the primary focus is on service provided; the main benefit is to the service recipient : e.g. collecting money for victims of bush fires. Community service: primary focus is on service provided; the main benefit is to the service recipient, however service providers also receive benefits and learn from the experience: e.g. students serving food at a shelter for the homeless. Internship: primary focus is on learning; main benefit is to service providers, however the service recipient also benefits: e.g. undergraduate teacher spend time working in a school. Work Experience: the primary focus is on learning; the main benefit is to the service provider: e.g. a year 10 student does work experience in a local hairdressing salon.Service-learning: benefits equally the provider and the recipient of the service; focuses equally on the service and the learning.


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)


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.”• Projects are personally meaningful and so support social,

emotional and cognitive learning and development.• Authentic service-learning helps to develop home, school and

community partnerships.

Service-Learning is Quality Teaching and Values Education in action.

Research summaryEvidence for service-learning’s positive impact is building in

five major areas:

Personal/Social Development• Increase in personal and social responsibility, and in

communication 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.


Research summaryCivic Responsibility• Higher awareness of community needs; feeling they could

make a difference.• More likely to be active in community organizations. • Increased understanding of how government works.

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 (Primary School).

• Schools reported attendance increases each year for three years .


Research summaryCareer Exploration and Aspirations• Increased career and communication skills and increased

knowledge about career possibilities. • Increase in 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 .

(Billig 2002, 2005)


Researched-based practices that improve student outcomes.

Eight characteristics of effective service-learning practice.1. Meaningful service.2. Curriculum integration.3. Ongoing, intellectually challenging reflection activities.4. Student direction.5. Sufficient duration.6. Respect for diversity.7. Reciprocal partnerships.8. Both progress monitoring and process monitoring.


Elements of service-learning.

Investigation: Students identify their strengths and decide on the community they will serve.

Planning and Preparation: Students identify and assess needs, make a selection and design the project.

Action: Students apply leadership and collaborate with those being served; multiple learning styles used.

Demonstration and Celebration: Students demonstrate the outcomes and celebrate with the community.

Cognitively-Challenging Reflection: throughout each element.

Progress and Process Monitoring during each element. Service-Learning Australia Inc.

(02) 49761136.

Service-Learning:Starting the Journey.


What do we want to achieve through service-learning?

• What do we know about this group of students? What does the data tell us?

• Considering this, what do we want to achieve for our students overall, through service-learning?

Write specific objectives that can be measured.Service-Learning Australia Inc.

(02) 49761136.

What will be the starting point?

• A global issue identified in one or more subjects that the school wants students to investigate.

• Students’ interests .• An issue with which the school community is concerned. • Existing community engagement activities - Anzac Day.• Extending existing links with community organizations -

Aged Care Facility .• Existing events – the Annual Art Show.


Enrich the starting point with….• Academic outcomes• Other learning outcomes• Service outcomes• Sufficient duration and intensity• Community partnerships• Initial stimulus ideas to generate discussion• Student direction• Cognitively-challenging reflection• Progress and process monitoring• Respect for diversity• Demonstration and celebration• Evaluation.


TTT:A starting point for service-learning

that enhances student direction.


A Strengths-Based Approach – Talent, Treasure and Time.

If students commence service-learning by seeing their community as a collection of problems, they might feel helpless, become demoralized and cynical. For really effective service to occur, students need to:• know themselves, recognize their strengths and believe they

can make a difference: they identify their “talents”• see their community as a positive place: they identify

community “treasures”.

Students then decide how they can use their “talents, treasures and time for the common good” – TTT.


The TTT Process.Students:• write their TTT vision• identify talents and treasures• identify project• form teams• write goals and a timeline• identify support needed and how to get this support• monitor outcomes• demonstrate the impact of the project

and celebrate achievements• reflect.


Service-Learning helps to develop reflective, self-directed learners.

• Active investigators• Designers and creators• Quality producers• Effective communicators• Leaders and collaborators• Community contributors



Service-Learning can assist the BCE to achieve its overarching goal for learning:

“Empower learners of all agesto shape and enrich our changing world,

by living the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Service-Learning andTTT.

Quality teaching and values education in action.
