COMMUNITY LEARNING PROGRAMME
DIT
1
Anto Kerins
Third level education can significantly increase the quality of student learning, and the level of student
volunteering by using the new pedagogy of service-learning.
The DIT’s Community Learning Programme is an important European example of service-learning.
Service-Learning
Service-learning works by integrating classroom learning in any subject with suitable volunteering
activity. Here the subject material is delivered as normal in class. However, the classroom learning is
enhanced by being integrated with relevant volunteering.2 Service-learning is reasonably well developed
in North America but is for the most part non-existent in Europe.
Service-learning can be used as an additional method of teaching on any third level course. It allows
students to use their classroom knowledge and skills to help contribute to real community needs. It
therefore encourages responsibility and initiative in a real world context. There is no discipline – from
architecture to zoology – where service-learning cannot be used to strengthen a student’s learning.3 For
example, an accountancy student can help a charity with their accounts knowledge. Similarly, an
environmental student can help a local community group with their knowledge of planning laws or
pollution measurement.
DIT’s Community Learning Programme
The DIT’s Community Learning Programme (CLP) has been running since September 2001 in the School
of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Faculty of Tourism and Food.
Undergraduate CLP
The CLP is offered as a subject option on the School’s undergraduate degree programmes and has taken
on over 100 students between 2001 and 2004. At present it is used to teach certain management topics.
Students can take it as an option from second year onwards at three different levels – foundation,
intermediate and advanced.
Curriculum
The CLP is an element of the curriculum. At present it is an optional subject on the undergraduate degrees
in hospitality, tourism marketing, leisure, and event management. It is also an option on the full-time
bridging degree and on the masters in hospitality.
At undergraduate level the CLP option is available from term three onwards in both the ordinary and
honours degrees. The foundation level CLP contains theory on such topics as project and risk
management, networking, and negotiation. The intermediate level CLP can be taken by those who have
successfully completed the foundation. This contains theory on such topics as leadership, coaching,
business ethics and corporate responsibility. The advanced level CLP contains material such as crisis
management, organisational intervention and community in the workplace.
All CLP students are required to do a volunteering project either on their own or with a group. This
project must be linked to the course content.
Classroom
The modules are allotted 3 hours class contact per week. The class contains a mix of different delivery
methodologies. First, there is the standard lecturing and tutorial process of delivering and discussing the
course theory. Second, there is a workshop type process where student projects are discussed. Finally,
there is project mentoring. In all of this there is a process of continuous reflection and evaluation.
Projects
To date there have been a large variety of volunteering projects carried out by students. These were
carried out at different CLP levels and as either group or individual projects. Below are examples of some
of these projects.
1. Special Olympics: three students planned and organised a series of presentations to various student
groups in DIT on the Special Olympics. The purpose was to create awareness of and encourage
volunteer recruitment on the 2003 Special Olympics in Ireland.
2. Homelessness: four students planned and organised a student presentation on homelessness. They
also carried out fundraising for homeless people and helped out on a soup run on the streets of Dublin
over different nights. The project was linked to Simon Community.
3. Blindness: two students planned, organised and ran an evening dinner for visually impaired people in
the college restaurant with the support of the National Council of the Blind of Ireland.
4. Homework Support: nine students in different projects have assisted children from disadvantaged
backgrounds with their schooling. Here for example, four students worked with the children in the St
Vincent de Paul Society Homework Club and also helped recruit volunteers in this area.
5. Terminally Ill Children: three students helped plan and implement a charity lunch in Clontarf Castle
Hotel to provide funds for the Share a Dream Foundation. This charity supports the work being done
with terminally ill children.
6. Senior Citizens: this involved a number of separate projects including the following two examples:
a) Two students helped out in a nursing home at meal time and during recreation periods. In addition,
they helped out with the annual Christmas fund raising fair. This project was linked to the Little
Sisters of the Poor, Raheny, D 5.
b) Three students helped out in a nursing home by visiting during recreation times. In addition, they
introduced the residents to some of the interesting aspects of Chinese culture. This project was
linked to the Harcourt Home, D 2.
7. Third World Aids: two students planned and organised a fundraising event for Third World Aids
relief, and organised a student information presentation on the topic of Third World Aids.
8. Bosnia Relief: one student planned and organised a Bosnia Relief fundraising project with an Applied
Leaving Cert class in a local secondary school.
9. Depression Awareness: one student planned and organised an information seminar on depression for
students. This created awareness of depression and outlined the type of supports and services open to
those who suffer from it. This project was linked to Aware.
10. Model Infant School: two students supported the local Model Infant School in a fundraising exercise
for the Samaritans Purse International. This was for the Operation Christmas Child Project. This
project involved a number of fundraising activities with a class of infants including a Christmas
Carols event in the student common room of the college.
11. Children’s Christmas Activities: one student planned, prepared for, and ran a Christmas Nativity
Play, and a Carol Service event, with a first year group of infants in a local primary school.
12. Charity Parachute: three students organised a charity parachute jump in aid of Tallaght Children’s
Hospital.
Postgraduate CLP
The CLP is also offered as an option on the masters in hospitality programme at two levels. At level one
the student learns course material on consultancy, etc and produces a consultancy proposal to a voluntary
organisation. At level two they carry out a piece of consultancy work in the voluntary organisation.
Approximately 10 students have taken level one to date.
2
Third Level Relevance
The Community Learning Programme and its generic method service-learning can be applied to most, if
not all, third level subjects. It can be configured to support the teaching and learning in every subject area
from architecture to zoology. There are a significant number of publications on this topic. There are also a
considerable number of third level syllabi on a large variety of subjects available on the web.4
Voluntary Sector
The Community Learning Programme and its generic method service-learning can provide real support to
the voluntary sector. Community organisations involved in service-learning feel that student volunteers
help them reach more people, provide more services, and improve the quality of the service.5 Developing
such services requires a strong partnership between third level education, their local communities and
voluntary organisations.6
Benefits
Research indicates that service-learning programmes such as the CLP can have the following benefits: 7
 Improves student learning, academic ability and career preparation. 8
 Helps prepare students for lifelong learning. 9
 Improves life skills and interpersonal skills. 10
 Strengthens student retention and graduation rates. 11
 Students indicate greater satisfaction with service-learning courses than with others. 12
 Strengthens the involvement of third level institutes with their local community.
 Encourage student volunteering.13
Government Support
The government through the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs have announced a
€330,000 package to support Stage 1 of the CLP’s development as outlined below.
STAGE 1 (3 YEARS):
° Support and encourage the CLP’s development throughout the DIT
° Evaluate and assess the CLP through research
° Disseminate the findings through seminar, conference and/or publication
° Review stage 1 and submit a detailed proposal and resource requirements for stage 2.
STATEMENT:
Minister of State Noel Ahern TD, Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs states:
“In order to put the CLP on a sustainable footing, my Department will support the Programme as
a pilot project to be assessed as a possible model for Irish third level education...
Ultimately the objective is to encourage the expansion of the programme to a significant number
of other third level colleges over a period of years.”
(Minister Ahern, 2 March 2005).
3
References
Eyler, Janet and Dwight E. Giles, Jr., (1999) Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Gray, Maryann J., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Ronald Fricker, Sandra Geschwind, Charles A. Goldman, Tessa Kaganoff, Abby Robyn, Melora Sundt,
Lori Vogelgesang and Stephen P. Klein (1999) Combining Service and Learning in Higher Education: Evaluation of the Learn and Serve
America, Higher Education Programme, Santa Monica CA, Rand Education.
Gray, Maryann J., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Ronald D. Fricker, Jr. and Sandy A. Geschwind (2000) Assessing Service-Learning: Results from a
Survey of ‘Learn and Serve America, Higher Education, Santa Monica CA, Rand Education, Reprinted from Change Journal.
Gray, Maryann J., Elizabeth H. Ondaatje and Laura Zakaras (1999) Combining Service and Learning in Higher Education: Summary Report,
Santa Monica CA, Rand Education.
Jacoby, Barbara and Associates, (1996) Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Jacoby, Barbara and Associates, (2003) Building Partnerships for Service-Learning, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
National Committee on Volunteering, (2002) Tipping the Balance: Report and Recommendations to Government on Supporting and Developing
Volunteering in Ireland, Dublin, October.
Notes
1 School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Faculty of Tourism and Food, 4 March. 2005
2 See Jacoby (1996) – one of many useful texts on service-learning in higher education.
‘
’
3 See American Association of Higher Education Series, Service-Learning in the Disciplines . This series of publications shows how servicelearning operates over a whole range of different disciplines ranging from science to business, engineering to environmental studies, business to
hospitality and tourism, medicine and politics to psychology, languages and education See. http://www.aahe.org/service/series_new.htm for the
series and www.aahe.org for general information on the AAHE
4
.
On publications see note 2 above on the American Association of Higher education series on service-learning. Also see for example, the
Campus Compact web site at http://www.compact.org and in particular the syllabus element at http://db.compact.org/program-models/FMPro?db=programmodels_web.fp5&-format=pm-index-static-sl.html&-Find. Campus Compact is a US wide coalition of more than 900 university and
college presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education.
5 See Gray et al (1999, 99).
6 See Jacoby (2003: 6) who states that collaborative partnerships help ensure that all parties benefit.
7 The findings below are taken from some of the more significant pieces of research in the area.
8 See Gray et al (2000: 39) and Gray, Ondaatje and Zakaras (1999: v-vi).
9 See Eyler, and Giles, Jr., (1999, 188).
10 See Gray et al (2000: 34). It also helps students have a greater understanding of people with different backgrounds to their own.
11 See Eyler, and Giles, Jr., (1999, 53-54). Although their research did not directly address this issue they found some support for it in the margins
of their work. See also their reference to Tinto’s interactionist theory of retention.
12 See Gray, Ondaatje and Zakaras (1999: 7).
13
See Gray et al (1999, 99).
4