Community Service-Learning: Design, Implementation and Evaluation Cheryl Rose, Canadian Association for Community Service-Learning

Steps: Partnerships and Design  Building partnership between university and community – conversations about environments, goals, resources, assets, needs and identifying potential  Course or Program Design – integrating into existing courses/programs and/or designing new offerings  Service Placement Design – in collaboration with community organizations to meet needs and build on strengths  Evaluation Design – for each of the partners in CSL initiatives: learning, development, service, teaching, partnerships

Community/Campus Partnerships Necessary to Successful Partnerships:  Established infrastructure to support a CSL program  Administrative buy-in and support at university  History of town/gown relationship  Trust and accountability  Clear goals and expectations Furco, 2004

Community/Campus Partnerships  Service placements must be designed in collaboration with community agencies  Points to relationships that call for significant investments of time and effort on both sides  University and community come together as equal partners, creating experiences that equally benefit all participants and fulfill core missions

Course Design PRINCIPLES  Academic credit is for learning, not for service  Do not compromise academic rigor  Set learning goals for students  Establish base criteria for service placements  Provide mechanisms to maximize learning from service (experiential education models)  Provide supports for students to learn “how to learn” from their service experiences  Move instructional role to one of facilitation and guidance  Maximize the community engagement orientation of the course Howard, 1993

Suggestions for Course Design  Relate the learning objectives of the service component to the overall course objectives  Identify the partnerships and projects that could facilitate the service-related objectives  Consider how the partnerships/projects would benefit the larger community  Identify best format for service component (e.g., mandatory, elective, short-term, long-term, extra credit)

Course Design - continued  Review traditional workload of course and make any required adjustments to integrate service component (learning that can be covered through the experience that are currently covered in some other manner)  Identify strategies to assist students to prepare for service placements in community (e.g., ethics in helping situations, experiential education models)  Incorporate strategies for intentional reflection on experience as related to course (e.g., journals, group discussions, whether face to face or electronic, presentations, papers)

Course Design - continued  Explore the integration of appropriate civic/social issues (e.g., professional responsibility, discipline specific contributions to public good, peace and justice issues, diversity/stereotypes, public policy)  From learning objectives, identify indicators and plan assessment strategies  Consider how your community partner could be of educational assistance, and how they might be compensated for the time and expertise they are able to contribute. Zlotkowski (handout)

Reflection Reflection activities act as a bridge between experience and learning. Intentional, purposefully planned reflection activities conducted before, during and after experience, can positively affect learning. Reflection can take various forms and accommodate different learning styles. Some common activities include: individual journal writing guided written activities (for example, goal setting exercises, skill assessment forms, team journals or logs) guided discussions between two people or in a group setting drawing activities photo journals

REFLECTION MAP Reflection Alone Reflection With Group Reflection With Supervisor/ Advisor Activities Before Experience Activities During Experience Activities After Experience Canada, Mark and Speck, Bruce W., Developing and Implementing Service-Learning Programs, New Directions for Higher Education, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2001

Service-Placement Design  Consider both traditional and new opportunities to involve support through service – be creative!  Staff or faculty member and organization staff work together to design an appropriate service placement  Organization staff to provide orientation, ongoing supervision, evaluation of benefits to community.  Consider opportunities that can be flexible to realities of student schedules and course timeframes

Placement design - continued  Consider organization’s realities. (e.g., time, space, supervisory capabilities, schedules, priorities)  Service placement should relate to the learning goals of the course – all should be informed of these goals.  Accept that not all potential partnerships are good fits – be open to exploring possibilities together and assessing whether or not, considering various factors, this would be a mutually beneficial partnership.

Evaluation  Meeting Community Needs (surveys, interviews, focus groups)  Student Learning (journals, written assignments, demonstrating theoretical and experiential integration)  Teaching Environment (course evaluations, faculty surveys, identifying research opportunities)  Citizen Leadership Development (pre and post surveys, leadership skills inventories, Social Change Model of Leadership Development)

Scenario You are integrating a CSL placement within a third year Children’s Literature course. It has been offered before with a long reading list, short paper, midterm exam and major essay as course requirements.  Will CSL “work” in this course? If so, will it be mandatory or optional?  Ideas for community partner and type of placement?  First steps in building a partnership?  Considerations for course design? placement design?  What to evaluate with respect to learning and service to community?

Questions? ?