Purdue ad hoc Task Force on Citizenship Education
Purdue Campus Compact
UNIVERSITIES AS CITIZENS – PURDUE UNIVERSITY
A newsletter about service learning and campus-community collaboration
Volume 4, Number 6
Committee for Service Engagement Submits Report
to Vice Provost for Engagement:
On May 15, 2002, the Committee for Service Engagement,
co-chaired by Marne Helgesen, Director of the Center for
Instructional Excellence, and Mike Piggott, Director of
Community Relations, submitted to Don Gentry, Vice
Provost for Engagement, the requested report and
recommendations on issues relating to institutionalization of
service engagement at Purdue University.
The submission of the report both marks the closing of one
era, marking the completion of the overriding objective of
the Purdue ad hoc Task Force on Citizenship Education, and
– far more importantly – the opening of a new era, replete
with possibilities for Purdue University to move to a new
level in the area of service engagement.
The report included an extensive set of recommendations,
based on Furco’s rubric for stages of institutionalization of
service learning. Three institutional benchmarks were used
for comparison, namely the University of California at
Berkeley, Colorado State University, and the University of
Wisconsin at Madison.
Committee members of the Committee for service
Engagement included, in addition to the co-chairs who led
the committee: Dennis Carson (Greater Lafayette
Community Development Corporation and Lafayette Urban
Enterprise Association) and Patti O’Callaghan (Lafayette
Urban Ministry, West Lafayette City Council); faculty
members Al Crispo (Organizational Leadership and
Supervision), Alan Garfinkel (Spanish and Education), Jon
Harbor (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Leah Jamieson
(Electrical and Computer Engineering), John Pomery
(Economics) and Kim Wilson (Landscape Architecture);
administrative and professional staff Melanie Clark
(Temporary Service Learning Coordinator, through 3/22/02),
T. Patrick George (Office of Student Services, Pharmacy),
Susan Hychka (Center for Career Opportunities), Drew
Koch (Lilly Endowment Retention Initiatives), Aadron
Rausch (4-H/Youth), Sara Solloway (Purdue Memorial
Union); and Task Force graduate assistant Matt Swartz.
Given the complexity of issues revolving around
institutionalization of forms of service engagement, and the
plethora of institutional examples around the country, the
committee is to be congratulated for completing such a
project, and the Vice Provost for Engagement is to be
commended for the foresight to present the committee, and
its co-chairs, with such a challenging task.
June 2002
Engagement Grants Program’s Successful Start:
At the final Engagement Forum for the 2001-2002
Academic Year, Vice Provost for Engagement Don Gentry
announced that his office had funded fifteen of the first
seventeen applications for engagement grants, including one
involving activities in Indianapolis. Ample funds still
remain for 2002. Information on the application process for
the grant, which involves an individual student or a student
group, under the oversight of a faculty or staff member or a
university unit, working in collaboration with a community
agency partner on a project to meet a community need, can
be obtained from the Office of the Engagement in Hovde
Hall. Contact can be made by phone (494-9095) or by email, to dkgentry@purdue.edu . Application forms are
available not only at Hovde Hall but also at the Greater
Lafayette Volunteer Bureau, 842 Main Street, Lafayette, and
at the Boiler Volunteer Network (Stewart Center G-4). (The
BVN is operating on abbreviated hours, Monday through
Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., during the summer.)
Miscellaneous Notes:
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Teach for America continues to expand the number
of students recruited from Purdue University,
accepting seven in 2002. Those selected were:
Elizabeth Hemminger; Angela Janik; Theresa Rey;
Jing Shiau; Derek Smith; Luke VandeWalle; and
Christina Wassel.
Several representatives of Purdue University (West
Lafayette) attended the April 5, 2002, “Serving
Through Scholarship: A Student Conference on
Service Learning,” at Ball State University.
Presentations by representatives of EPICS were
part of this very successful inaugural program.
Jimi Miller (Sociology & Anthropology Field
Placement Supervisor) and John Pomery (Task
Force chair) were among those attending a regional
ICC Meeting hosted by Purdue North Central on
Friday, April 12, 2002. This meeting highlighted a
several innovative service-learning courses at
PUNC, and evidenced the strong support of leading
administrators on the campus.
A number of Task Force members were at the
Midwest Consortium Colloquium on Service
Learning Research, with keynote speaker Janet
Eyler, in Indianapolis on April 26,2002. (See the
next two pages for more about this event.)
Agr 499A, “Urban Service Learning,” led by Dr.
Pamala Morris of the 4-H/Youth Department, is
recruiting additional students for Fall 2002.
Janet Eyler and Service Learning Research
Postformal thinking:
Janet Eyler, Associate Professor of the Practice of Education
at Vanderbilt University, and co-author of “Where’s the
Learning in Service-Learning?” (WLSL), was the keynote
speaker at a Midwest Consortium Colloquium on ServiceLearning Research at Indianapolis on April 26, 2002.
[“Where’s the Learning in Service Learning?”, Janet Eyler
and Dwight E. Giles, Jr., Foreword by Alexander W. Astin,
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1999.]
Several times at the workshop on Service Learning
Research, Professor Eyler mentioned the concept of
“postformal thinking” or “postformal reasoning.”
While postformal thinking is a relatively new concept, it has
the potential to change how one thinks about service
learning, citizenship education, and the nature of pedagogy
in higher education. A recent book in this area is Jan D.
Sinnott, “The Development of Logic in Adulthood:
Postformal Thought and Its Applications,” The Plenum
Series in Adult Development and Aging, Plenum Press, New
York and London, 1999. Sinnott observes that adults
typically fare poorly on tests designed to measure formal
reasoning skills, an empirical regularity that has in the past
been interpreted as suggesting that the thinking abilities of
adults starts to decay immediately they attain adulthood, and
decline throughout the adult lifespan.
Eyler was careful to emphasize the tentative nature of some
conclusions in this area, particularly those based solely on
self-reported information by students. Eyler also stressed
the value of a broad-based ongoing research program on the
impact of service learning on all stakeholders. However
Eyler was also able to draw on some more substantial
research. Her work with co-author Giles includes, for
example, extensive pre- and post-interviews with a large
number of participants in service-learning courses (plus a
control group), focusing on problem-solving and critical
thinking skills. It also involves other in-depth interviews
relating to experience with reflection activities.
While much more is to be learned, some important
conclusions to date, according to Eyler, include that: (a)
“extensive reflection was a positive predictor of transfer of
curriculum-related concepts to a new situation but that
regular and modest levels of reflection were not,” and that
“[t]he quantity and quality of reflection was most
consistently associated with academic learning outcomes:
deeper understanding and better application of subject matter
and increased knowledge of social agencies, increased
complexity of problem and solution analysis, and greater use
of subject matter knowledge in analyzing a problem.
Reflection was also a predictor of openness to new ideas,
issue identification skill, problem-solving and critical
thinking skill, and … perspective transformation outcomes
…” (WLSL, pages 172-173).
Also, (b) the quality of academic service-learning is a key
predictor of positive learning outcomes. The quality of
service-learning experience involves both the quality of
community placements and the manner in which service and
learning are well integrated through classroom focus and
reflection (WSLS, Chapter 3).
In introducing Eyler, Bob Bringle, Professor of Psychology
at IUPUI and another prominent figure in service learning,
challenged the audience to continue Indiana Campus
Compact’s role as a national leader among state campus
compacts by adopting a coordinated effort to promote
service-learning research throughout the state. Bringle noted
that recent developments in cognitive science seemed to
support John Dewey’s view of learning. Bringle also
claimed that service-learning advocates, by trying to identify
carefully the impacts of service-learning as a pedagogy,
appeared to be setting standards of self-assessment that
were, if anything, higher than those set by adherents of the
conventional lecture approach to teaching.
Sinnott offers an alternative interpretation, consistent with a
number of theories of personal development. Under this
alternative interpretation, adults are hypothesized to be
moving to a new, and arguably more refined, level of
reasoning. This new level hinges on awareness of the
complexity of situations, the potential for multiple
perspectives on issues and situations, and the possibility of
not only multiple solution paths but also multiple solutions.
Understandably, developing these skills can lead
simultaneously to reduced performance in cut-and-dried
reasoning contexts, where formal reasoning can operate
unaided. However it also opens up the possibility of much
deeper understanding of complex issues.
From the view of someone committed to the notion that only
formal reasoning is of relevance and value, what is called
“postformal thinking” would appear to be nothing more than
confused thinking that lacks logical coherence and focus –
and the whole idea of postformal thinking might seem an
oxymoron. Yet, for example, the theory of creativity in
educational psychology talks both of the importance of
problem-discovery (as distinct from problem-solving) and of
the dangers of “premature closure” associated with more
algorithmic thinking. And we might remember that in a talk
at Purdue University, the then-CEO of Eli Lilly, Randall
Tobias, talked about the ubiquity of “ambiguity” in day-today decisions facing CEOs of major corporations.
Possible Implications of Postformal Reasoning:
Suppose then, without totalizing postformal thinking as an
absolute truth, we entertain the possibility that there is some
merit to thinking in terms of adult learning as involving
something akin to Sinnott’s notion of postformal thinking.
What might this mean for higher education?
First, if individuals on the brink of adulthood are also on the
verge of developing a new, and higher, level of reasoning,
then it might be wise to ensure that they have some exposure
to courses and disciplines that go beyond formal reasoning.
(This might be particularly important for students in
disciplines that traditional have heavy emphasis on formal
reasoning alone.) If nothing else, such exposure might
enhance a student’s capability for effective lifelong learning.
Second, if increasingly the student population is anticipated
to move away from traditional students and to include more
and more non-traditional students already well into
adulthood, then intermingling formal and informal reasoning
pedagogies may reduce barriers confronting some of these
non-traditional students and expand the benefits they achieve
from a college education.
Third, if (as seems plausible) issues of diversity, ethics,
crosscultural understanding, effective leadership and
teamwork, and citizenship all hinge on being able to operate
both formally within given logical frameworks and also –
and especially – across various frameworks, then training in
these areas appear to need a pedagogy that incorporates
postformal thinking.
Fourth, there may be especial value in forms of experiential
learning that expose students to diverse populations and socalled “ill-structured problems,” while raising questions
about the nature of society, about the role of the individual
within society, and about the student’s own modes of
thinking. Reflection becomes an important tool in the
learning experience, and well-crafted links to the community
– that raise issues about citizenship and social responsibility
– become a central requirement.
Eyler and Giles put it this way: “If students can acquire
information equally well in the classroom or through fieldbased experience, what makes the considerable extra effort
of arranging and using service experience worthwhile
intellectually? The answer to this question involves a better
understanding of what it means to learn academic material.
… The notion that the acquisition of factual information is a
weak definition of academic learning is neither new nor a
unique insight of service-learning practitioners. In 1929
Alfred North Whitehead described the tendency of students
to acquire ‘inert knowledge’ – knowledge that was
memorized but went unused when the learner confronted
real-life problems. Like modern cognitive scientists, he
explored ways in which traditional educational processes
often led to this outcome. A tendency to compartmentalize
knowledge and the failure to apply material that has been
learned to where it would be relevant are among the failures
recognized by Whitehead and by modern advocates of
higher education reform. … [L]ike Dewey and Whitehead,
and other experiential learning theorists, [service-learning
practitioners] believe that if knowledge is to be accessible to
solve a new problem, it is best learned in a context where it
is used as a problem-solving tool. To understand academic
material is to be able to see its relevance to new situations;
without that capacity, the student’s knowledge is useless.”
(WLSL, pages 63-64.)
Reflection and Postformal Thinking:
The notion of postformal reasoning also resonates with the
belief, familiar in service learning, that practical problemsolving, and even more so problem-discovering, in
community contexts tends to defy reduction to simple,
algorithmic rules or applications of theory. As employers,
and often alumni, ask for Purdue graduates to exhibit
exposure to humanities, ability to think ethically, ability to
work in teams, awareness of diversity, and to think and
behave proactively and creatively yet responsibly, they seem
to be asking for something akin to an introduction to
postformal reasoning.
Reflection is typically emphasized as a key, even a defining,
component of service learning. Under algorithmic modes of
thinking, it is not clear what value reflection might have.
But, with the notion of postformal reasoning, one can see the
potential importance of personal “sense-making” of
experiences. Such personal “sense-making” is likely to
involve complex interpersonal and communal links. It is
also likely to entail application of classroom theories and
concepts without the benefit of convenient “ceteris paribus”
clauses that keep life simple in the traditional classroom.
As one student wrote in a final journal entry in a servicelearning course: “The weekly journal entries have been an
essential aspect of the course. … Without reflection, course
would be a mere service activity.” The same student went
on to write: “If I had to discuss with a Purdue administrator
the highlights of a service-based learning experience, there
are several key concepts that I would try to elucidate. I
would emphasize that a good service learning course must
be beneficial to all parties involved – the community partner
and the students. I think most Purdue administrators would
agree that community service is a worthwhile investment of
time and energy, but they may disagree on whether this
activity belongs in the classroom setting. In response to this
argument, I would explain how the service activities are an
ideal learning environment. Concepts such as equity,
justice, diversity, and community are difficult to teach in a
lecture-based environment. These are more readily learned
in an experiential environment, where the student is free to
learn on his own. Administrators might question the quality
of learning derived from an experiential activity, but I would
point to the reflection essays as being solid proof of a
student’s learning experience. Not only is service learning
an alternative learning activity, but I see it as essential.
There are certain concepts and incorrect assumptions about
life that must be challenged by experiential learning. Much
of engineering education tends to be factual and unrelated to
the societal issues that cannot be separated from the
engineering problems. In order to be effective citizens,
engineers must also be equipped to handle the ethical and
social ramifications of their work. The most valuable way to
learn about these effects is through experiential learning.”
(Thanks to Jim Gregory, graduate student in aeronautics
and astronautics, for permission to quote the above material
-- JGP.)
Thinking “More Broadly:”
In past decades, a number of significant concepts have been
developed that have broadened our understanding. “Intrinsic
motivation” and “social capital” are two that come to mind.
The notion of intrinsic motivation, developed in the 1960s
and 1970s, was never intended to deny a major role for
extrinsic motivators. However, being aware of the potential
role of intrinsic motivation alerts us to the dangers of
thinking of behavior solely as responses to those extrinsic
motivators. Similarly, the notion of social capital, adopted
by Robert Putnam from a concept of James Coleman, was
not designed to deny an important role for individual
initiative and accountability. But being equipped with the
concept of social capital provides a backdrop to highlight the
limitations of trying to reduce everything in the world to
individual decisions and interests, in a way that excludes any
role for community. Prominent astrophysicist George R.
Ellis, talking “On the Nature of Existence: Indications from
Science and Religion” at Purdue on April 10, 2002, made a
seemingly similar suggestion. Ellis noted that, while it is
natural for scientists to perceive what is “real” in terms of
molecules, atoms and subatomic particles, it makes little
sense to deny the “reality” of a solid, macro-level object like
a table even though we lack precise descriptions of such
macro-level objects in the language of theories of
fundamental particles. For Ellis, “reality” can, and should,
also come in the form of relationships among atoms and
molecules, as in the case of tables or other macro-level
objects. Similarly, social capital says that, while individuals
matter, relations between individuals may also be real and
important; that is, community and culture can matter too.
The concept of postformal reasoning does not deny the value
of formal reasoning, but it may suggest that an exclusive
emphasis on formal reasoning has the potential for blind
spots. Service learning appears to be an excellent vehicle for
raising issues of the place of intrinsic (and extrinsic)
motivation, social (and individual) capital, and postformal
(and formal) thinking. As such it may enhance students’
Task Force on Citizenship Education
1310 Krannert Building
Purdue University
W. Lafayette, IN 47907-1310
understanding of self, community, and ways of reasoning –
all the while meeting community needs and providing
“active knowledge” in the learners.
A Note of Thanks:
This is the final edition of the newsletter of the Purdue ad
hoc Task Force on Citizenship Education, as the Task Force
concludes its five years’ of existence on June 30, 2002.
Many thanks to all those who have contributed to the
activities and successes of the Task Force over the past five
years. The list of supporters and helpers is very, very long,
both on campus and in the community.
The Service Learning Advisory Board ended on a high note,
with a well-intended final meeting on April 24, 2002. State
Representatives Sue Scholer and Sheila Klinker were in
attendance, as was Vice Provost for Engagement Don
Gentry. The strong support of Advisory Board members and
other friends of the Task Force has been invaluable. (This
meeting was reported in a recent edition of “Inside Purdue.”)
Sustained support from Indiana Campus Compact over the
past five years, and recognition at the Service-Learning
Research Colloquium on April 26, 2002, is also appreciated.
As Furco’s rubric for institutionalization of service-learning
in higher education would suggest, the next steps for service
learning at Purdue University will depend significantly on
the response of the university’s central administration to the
report, submitted by the Committee for Service Engagement
to the Office of the Vice Provost for Engagement. Given the
vision of the leaders of Purdue University, the resources of
the campus, and the assets of the Greater Lafayette
community, there seems to be enormous potential to take
Purdue University, over time, to new levels of excellence
and effectiveness both in course-based service-learning and
in all forms of service engagement.