Kimberly S. Whorton, RDH, MDH, Assistant Professor

 Abstract:  Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich learning experiences, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities. What better course than Community Dental Health to create a case study for this concept? Dental hygiene students were taught how to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate community programs. The students were taught these concepts using a variety of different teaching strategies in class. During the spring semester, the students must complete a practicum in which they assess, plan, implement and evaluate a community site of their choice. Two objectives were to for the students to learn practical application of their studies while becoming active in providing community service. This process helps build character and teaches responsibility to the community. To evaluate which teaching strategies were used, students were asked to complete a questionnaire, a mid-term assessment report, and a final assessment report concerning which teaching strategies chosen. The final assessment report required subjective information and reflective responses concerning what the students felt were effective. The reports were then assessed for particular themes regarding which teaching strategies were used. 

 How do students select, acquire and construct knowledge?  How do students integrate and maintaing knowledge?  How do students retrieve knowledge?  How do do students develop effective learning skills?

 Lecture  Discussion

 Pedagogy now demands new ways of engaging the learner, making it more of a partnership. New approaches shift learning from teacher-centered to learner-centered.  Develops communication skills and responsibility in the student allowing them to evaluate

 Service-Learning  Case Studies  See How it is  Collaboration/Inquiry Method  Think Again  Invented Dialogue

Case Studies  Focuses on issues involved in a situation, actions that should be taken and lessons that should be learned as well as avoiding situations in the future.

 Often a topic promotes understanding and sensitvity to people or situations that are unfamiliar to the students

Operation Standown

 Allows the students to reflect on experiences at off –site clinics

 What we owe our students:  Learning environments that engage, challenge and actively “hunt” down their blind spots  Display a life-long learning disposition  Remember that the only thing in life that remains constant is change

 Some things in education do not change but teaching and learning styles can be as varied as the different landscapes. What makes the difference in a good learning experience for both the student and the patient is the ability of the presenter to recognize its audience’s needs and be able to develop accordingly.

 The growth of any craft depends on the shared practice and honest dialogue among people who do it. We grow by trial and error, to be sure- but our willingness to try and fail as individuals is severely limited when we are not supported by a community that encourages such risks.  Palmer, 1988, p.144