Classroom Support
I. Developing a Service-Learning Course
As you begin to think about community service as a part of your course and as you talk with community partners, incorporate these components for development of a strong and effective course.
This set of statements is a product of an ongoing conversation and development of understanding of and appreciation for differences in cultures and practice.
What are the service activities students will perform? How do these service activities connect with the academic content of the course? How do they meet community partners’ priorities? With your community partner, develop a plan for service activity with strong connection to academic concepts taught in the course.
Include a clear and accurate description of the activity, goals, objectives and evaluation; time and effort expectations, cultural sensitivity; training for the tasks involved in the service; safety awareness; and introduction to the work of the community partner.
Develop high quality and high impact reflective activities and assignments to assist students in making the connection between course content and service and in applying academic content to service activity.
What types of feedback will you require from students and community partners to help you evaluate and improve your course?
II. Syllabus Development
Consider integrating the following into your SL course syllabus:
Consider the faculty/community partnership with your department and with your community partner (continuing partnership, type(s) of activity, once a year or every quarter, commitment from partner organization and from department).
- Definition of service-learning
- Explanation of why service-learning is an appropriate pedagogy for the course
- Description of how service activities are related to the course content, goals and objectives
- Details of community work students will do
- Identify community partners along with the need the project is addressing and how it is related to the course content
- Benefits of service-learning to students and community
How they are met in whole or in part by service project/initiatives
- Description of both written and oral reflection activities/assignments (journal, blog, essays, discussion, other) and how they will be integrated into the course (during class time or outside)
- Explanation of the role of reflection in generating, deepening and documenting learning as it relates to service learning
- Expectations and/or criteria for reflection activities
- Assessment of reflection activities
- Additional description of their service learning project/activities
- Information on how students will be matched with partner
- Time commitment/requirement
- Scheduling and transportation
- Expectations of behavior
- Presentation or product delivery to the community partner
- Public Dissemination: Opportunities for the public to see and benefit from student work
- Identifies assignments related to service learning and their contribution to the course grade
- Establishes that credit will be given for demonstrations of learning, not for completion of service
- Describes (or shows with a rubric) how student learning will be assessed
Addresses policies and procedures for missed service learning activities
In addition to the ideas above, you are encouraged to check out the collection from Campus Compact of syllabi covering a wide range of disciplines and issue areas.
III. Critical Reflection Practices
When you are designing reflection activities for yourself and your class, it can be helpful to keep in mind these four guiding principles:
Critical reflection is an ongoing process. Individuals should process before, during, and after any projects or service-learning experiences they have. Reflection should be a consistent process through a person’s education and is integral to a holistic approach to learning.
Critical reflection should ask students to connect their experiences with the content and theories they have learned in their academic courses. Reflection is not simply a descriptive debrief. It is a way of drawing connections among our experiences, perspectives and disciplinary theories. Essentially, critical reflection can address that commonly noted theory/practice divide.
Critically reflecting is not an easy process. It should challenge assumptions and push students to think deeply about themselves, the ways they relate to others, and the things they learn. This also means that faculty should be a part of this process through discussions, feedback and examples of deep reflection.
When building reflective practice, consider where this kind of work is most valuable. Think about how reflection will complement a service-learning experience, discussion or other class activity. Reflective practice should be designed so that it is intentionally drawing lines between course content and its application.
Please reach out to the Office of Community Engagement for more personalized support with developing a service learning course.
IV. Tools for Evaluation & Assessment
Evaluation and assessment of service learning is a collaborative process intended to demonstrate that course-community partnerships meet both course and community goals.
As an office we use various evaluation and assessment tools with students, faculty members, and community partners to work towards continual improvement in our work. All are involved in the evaluation process and one aspect we value is sharing data we collect back out to faculty and community partners.
During the final week of classes, we ask all SL student to take 5-7 minutes to complete the SL Final Evaluation. Responses are shared with faculty members 1-2 weeks after grades are due. Additionally, we share responses directly with community partners. The evaluation can be accessed online.
We ask community partners to complete a final evaluation at the end of the semester (early- to mid-December for fall, mid-April for spring) to reflect on our service learning (SL) students, course partnerships, and program to assist faculty and the Office of Community Engagement better assess how we are able to address our mutual campus and community goals. These final evaluations are sent to faculty and can be used to inform grades before they are due. The evaluation can be accessed online.
We also invite faculty members to provide feedback on their experience teaching a service learning course in order to improve to meet community and campus needs. The evaluation can be accessed online.