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Service Learning: Working with the Local Community
Establishing a Relationship
Establishing a relationship of trust between an instructor and community partner is a necessary and important dimension of service-learning. Instructors need to be prepared to invest time for collaborative planning of appropriate placements. Further, the concept of reciprocity is integral to effective and responsible service-learning. Reciprocity implies that the service provided in the context of a course is a needed service, determined by the community with whom students will be engaging.Planning & Identifying Community Interests
Successful service-learning requires purposeful planning by both the instructor and community partners. All partners prior to the course should reach mutual agreement on responsibilities and outcomes of the service placement. Planning involves discussion about goals and needs of all partners as well as appropriate tasks and activities for students on-site. Sensitivity to resources and constraints of the community organization is important to effective partnerships. Development of a partnership for a service-learning experience necessarily involves viewing the benefits and costs from the perspective of the participating organizations. While an influx of student volunteers is helpful to organizations, it also imposes the burden of additional training and supervision on the part of usually short-staffed agencies and schools. Agreement about orientation, training, and supervision should also be discussed.Sustaining Partnerships
Sustaining authentic and effective partnerships requires on-going involvement and monitoring on the part of teachers and community partners. Regular meetings with community site staff help assess the quality of the experience for both students and community as well as provide an opportunity to resolve problems as they arise. A sustainable partnership is one that matches up the academic strengths and goals of the university with the assets and interests of a particular community.Preparing Students
Thorough orientation of students to the community organizations is essential to a well-orchestrated service-learning course. Students may be introduced to people, issues, and communities with whom they are unfamiliar. Good intentions alone are not enough to ensure that students approach new environments with respect and courtesy for those with whom they may come into contact. Preparation should include an orientation to the site, volunteer expectations, and knowledge about the issues that students will encounter on-site.Developing Reflective Learning Experiences
Reflection is generally considered the means by which learning is connected to service. The learning in service-learning evolves, in part, through structured activities designed to facilitate thinking about the service experience. In short, reflection insures the connection between thinking and doing, service and learning. Eyler, Giles, and Schmiede (1996) concluded from their research on the use of reflection in service-learning that effective critical reflection is:Continuous: an on-going part of learning in the course that provides continuity through each event or experience; reflection occurs before, during, and after the experience
Connected: the link between service and the intellectual and academic interests of students, resulting in the synthesis of action and thought
Challenging: an intervention to engage students in issues in a broader, more critical way; reflection pushes students to think in new ways
Contextualized: appropriate for the setting and context of a particular service-learning course or program; reflection corresponds in a meaningful way to the topics and experiences that form material for reflection
One way to generate reflection is through student journals. For example, instructors ask students to reflect on fears and concerns about the service assignment; initial reactions to the site, work accomplished, people, and setting; ideas about the causes of the issues they observe at their community site; their source of knowledge about the issues; and connections between course concepts, skills learned, and service activity. Reflection involves more than simply recounting or describing experiences, but should help students connect their experiences to larger issues through critical analysis.
Assessing Student Learning & Evaluating Service-Learning
Assessing student learning gained through a service component of a course may occur through written assignments such as reflective journals, class discussions, and other traditional means of assessing performance. It is important to evaluate and grade the learning outcomes from service experiences rather than the service itself. Some instructors also include an evaluation of student performance on site completed by the community service site supervisor. It is important to include evaluation criteria and assessment methods on course syllabi.In evaluating the service-learning component of a course, it is important to consider goals for all partners in the service-learning activity: students, institution, and community. Instructors may have their own perspective on how well goals were accomplished but also ask for the feedback of students and community participants as well as suggestions for change.
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