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20-24 May
2013
Learn
Serve
Live
Dr. Sancia Wai-San Wan
East Asia College, University of Macau
Objectives • To critically reflect on the implementation of a recent international service-learning trip to Laos organized by the
RC, in order to identify approaches to effective service-learning for RC students
Methodology • Action research: as a quest for knowledge about how to improve educational programming
• Data collected & analyzed: activity records, briefing and debriefing group discussions, videotapes, photos, students’ written reflections, as well as interviews with various stakeholders
Macau
Udon
Thani
Bangkok
Coordination with UNU-IIST since Dec 2012, and program information session in April 2013 during the recruitment period
Students’ preparation: pre-trip briefing and training (team building and designing activities to do with local villagers in Laos)
Classes on Chinese calligraphy, origami and paper-cutting art; plowing farmlands; learning handicrafts, e.g. weaving reed mats and containers
Debriefing and discussions; student projects (written reflection, video clips and photos)
Cultural diversity: religious , educational and cultural practices very different from their perceptions
Simple lifestyle can also lead to happiness: What they previously thought the local people would need might not be the same as what they found out what the local people actually need.
Preceding perception of economic underdevelopment being challenged
Learning > Service: more like experiential and experimental
Language barriers to direct communication with local villagers and school children
Insufficient time for preparation and interaction
Students not familiar with trip contents
Residential College (RC)
• as a means to integrate students’ in-class and out-of-class experiences by providing a community that fosters greater faculty and peer interaction, increased opportunities for coordinated learning activities, and an academically and socially supportive living environment’ (Inkelas & Weisman, 2003, p. 335)
Service-Learning
• a carefully monitored educational experience in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs, and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility (Bringle & Hatcher, 1999)
Service-learning as a pedagogy for continuous student learning with a long term vision
Regular commitments by and communication between teachers, students and onsite coordinators
• Professional training for teachers to play a better role of an advisor and facilitator
Student ownership: preparation, implementation and sharing
Student engagement through intensive interaction with local environment and people
Coordination with local field coordinators and interpreters
• Longer stay for better engagement with and greater impact on local community
Personal Growth
• Transferrable Skills
Civic Learning
• Community
• Global Citizenship
Academic Enhancement
• Disciplinary
• Interdisciplinary
UM RC system currently under reform,
in the hope to foster students’
general education as well as
community and peer education.
To m
atc
h t
he l
earn
ing g
oals
of
both
resi
denti
al
college &
serv
ice-l
earn
ing
EAC as a living and learning collegiate
community:
• 300 students from diverse backgrounds
• A wide range of intellectual, social,
moral, artistic and athletic activities
• To develop personal and social
responsibility, cultivate sound moral
judgment, and nurture the ability of
independent thinking
References: • Bringle, R. G. and Hatcher, J. A. (1999) Reflection in
Service Learning: Making Meaning of Experience. Educational Horizons, 77 (4), pp. 179-85.
• Inkelas, K. K. and Weisman, J. L. (2003) Different by Design: An Examination of Student Outcomes among Participants in Three Types of Living-Learning Programs. Journal of College Student Development, 44 (3), pp. 335-68.
3 teachers
16 students from different
majors & years of study
Email contact: [email protected]