Using Service Learning in the College Classroom Setting

Service learning as defined by Rowls & Swick (2000) is an opportunity for students to explore, study, acquire, and apply skills as well as examine problems and issues in a reflective way.  It is a pedagogical approach in which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs.

In addition, service learning is used to foster advocacy, research, critical analysis, and collaboration skills and dispositions relevant to being an effective teacher.

A service learning project is used in a Parent, School, and Community Relations (PS&C) course at Winston-Salem State University to involve learners in community service experiences that are meaningfully integrated with specific learning goals.

Setting up the course

According to Muscutt (2000), service learning has stages that need to be followed in order for it to be effective. These stages follow this general order:

• Assessment- Find an area where a service is needed.
• Preparation- Discuss goals and teach skills.
• Action- Provide the Service- direct, indirect, advocacy, and non-direct.
• Reflection- Allow students to think critically about their service learning experience
• Celebration- Provide recognition of Service.

Students enrolled in the PS&C course at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) must develop a school wide project that will benefit the students, parents, and school staff.  Once the service learning stages above have been discussed, students in the PS&C course are expected to follow the steps below for designing a Service Learning Project.

1. Identify learning objectives
2. Select a project that is
   1. Generated in response to an identified community need
   2. Assessment can include phone calls or a complex survey
   3. Review the following questions:
      1. Does the project provide opportunities for students to apply skills and knowledge from their course work?
      2. Does the project include opportunities for developing critical thinking, analytical, problem-solving, and reflection skills?
      3. Does the project satisfy a real need that is perceived as relevant and worthwhile by both students and the recipients?
      4. Does the project have a concrete and visible outcome that can be achieved with a realistic time frame?
      5. Have all participants responsible for the project agreed on the specific purpose, process, system of consistent communication, supervision, and expected outcomes of the project?
3. Develop a Partnership
   1. Service learning projects are planned, implemented and evaluated in a partnership with the community they are designed to serve.
      1. Partnerships should include representation by all stakeholders.
   2. Create a plan for working collaboratively. This collaborative relationship should be based on:
      1. Common goals and objectives documented in writing.
      2. Benefits for all parties
      3. Expectations regarding roles and responsibilities for all partners and a process for maintaining good communication
4. Prepare Site Supervisors
   1. Discuss the purpose of the project
   2. Discuss roles and responsibilities
5. Link the Project to the Curriculum through Reflection
   1. Think, analyze and interpret, and appreciate their significance.
   2. Reflect along the way and reflect on the results of their project and its effects on their personal growth and on the community.

The class is divided into groups and, later, committees to discuss possible activities.  Some examples of activities include:

• Parent Night
• Telephone tree for getting parents involved in school
• Plant a garden with students
• Survey parents about school issues and make a report to
• the school.
• Survey principals, teachers, and support personnel about
• school issues and make a report to the school. Select and
• develop one suggestion from school staff survey.
• Develop web site for parents to access resources
• Tutor school aged students
• Work with school aged students in a homeless shelter
• Volunteer at Housing Development

Service Learning at WSSU

Three examples of actual service projects from students at Winston-Salem State University are as follows.

Reading Project

Students conducted a service learning project with Preschool classes at First Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. Students designed fliers to send home to the parents inviting them to the event. Emphasis was placed on reading books to children in small groups and then completing an activity around the concept of the book. For instance, after reading about fire trucks, the students went outside and talked to fireman about their occupation. Students provided interactive activities with parents and food. Each parent received a booklet designed by the students about parental involvement and the importance of reading to children.

Hall-Woodward Elementary School Community Project

Students worked with elementary school students from a low income housing development that attended Hall-Woodward Elementary School.

Only 10% of parents who lived in the development worked, yet they were not actively involved at the school. Students were required to make a home visit inviting families to the Community Fair.

Parents were able to learn tips about getting involved in their child’s education, tips for helping with homework, benefits of parental involvement, resource materials from various agencies, and the opportunity to play with animals from the Asheboro Zoo. The school worked very closely with the university students along with the Center for Community Safety with their Weed and Seed Program.

Kicking up the Importance of Parent Involvement

Students sponsored a Family night at Cook Middle School to conduct a service-learning project with parents, school, and community. The event was entitled “Kicking up the Importance of Parent Involvement: A Service Learning Project Aimed at Helping Parent, School, and Community Relations.” The goal was to increase parental support and to help university students apply strategies learned from class to determine how to get parents involved. Students prepared fliers, made home visits and phone calls inviting parents to participate in the event. Door prizes were given to families ranging from turkeys to $50.00 gift certificates to $100 cash. A guest speaker was invited from the local system to talk to parents about being positive role models for their children.

References

Buchanan, A.M., Baldwin, S.C. & Rudisill, M.E. (2002). Service Learning as Scholarship in Teacher Education, Educational Researcher, 28-34.