Office for Service-Learning
Presentation for University of Montevallo
Thursday May 26, 2011
Norma-May Isakow
Office for Service-Learning
510E Heritage Hall * 996-7080*
nmisakow@uab.edu
www.uab.edu/service-learning
What is Service-Learning?
A pedagogical model that intentionally
integrates community service,
academic learning, and civic learning
Relevant and
Meaningful
Service with the
Community
Purposeful
Civic
Learning
•
2
Enhanced
Academic
Learning
Service-Learning and Campus Culture
• President Carol Garrison’s Welcome
• “You will find many unique
opportunities at UAB. UAB is intently
focused on offering students a wide
array of learning opportunities both in
and out of the classroom . . . “
3
UAB 21: Our Vision for the 21st Century
• Goal I: Transforming
Undergraduate Learning
We will provide a student-centered,
collaborative learning experience to
prepare diverse students for
rewarding careers and lives that
benefit society and our regional and
global economy.
4
UAB: QEP Degrees of Excellence
• Ethics and Civic Responsibility (ECR)
• The role of a university is to prepare students
to function effectively and engage
responsibly in both the academic community
and post-graduation life. Excellence and
integrity should be academic, personal, and
professional goals for everyone. Effective
and responsible living depends upon the
ability of individuals to strive for excellence,
to make informed and ethical decisions, to
accept responsibility for one’s choices, and
to practice good citizenship as part of
multiple larger social units.
5
RECOGNITION & PUBLICITY
UAB has received the highest federal
recognition for its commitment to
service-learning and civic engagement
• 2008 Carnegie Community Engagement
Classification for the Advancement of
Teaching
• 2010 President’s Higher Education
Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary
service to America’s communities
• Presentations at Regional and National
Conferences on SL and Civic Engagement
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Understanding Academic Service Learning
Meaningful
Community
Service
Enhanced
Academic Learning
Purposeful Civic
Learning
Volunteering
Yes
No
No
Internship
No
Yes
No
Co-Curricular
Service-Learning
Yes
No
Yes
Academic Service
Learning
Yes
Yes
Yes
Adapted from 7Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, Service-Learning
Course Design Workbook, Companion Volume Summer 2001, Jeffrey Howard,
Editor MJCSL
Processes of Academic Service Learning
• Engagement in service activities with a selected
community partner in a mutually beneficial
relationship based on a spirit of collaboration.
• Reflection upon larger issues that affect
communities through readings and submission of
weekly structured reflections.
• Integration of community engagement and
academic learning through in class discussions
and experiential activities, critical thinking papers,
and a final presentation.
8
Benefits of Service Learning for Students
For Students
• Enriches student learning of course material and "brings
books to life and life to books".
• Engages students in active learning that demonstrates the
relevance and importance of academic work for their life
experience and career choices.
• Increases awareness of current societal issues as they relate
to academic areas of interest.
• Broadens perspectives of diversity issues and enhances
critical thinking skills.
• Improves interpersonal skills that are increasingly viewed as
important skills in achieving success in professional and
personal spheres.
• Develops civic responsibility through active community
involvement.
9
Benefits of Service Learning for Community
• Allows the energy and enthusiasm of
college students to contribute to meeting
needs educational, human, safety, and
environmental needs of local communities.
• Fosters an ethic of service and civic
participation in students who will be
tomorrow's volunteers and civic leaders.
• Creates potential for additional
partnerships and collaboration with the
campus
10
Benefits of Service Learning for Faculty
• Enriches and enlivens teaching and
learning.
• Creates new areas for research and
scholarship, and increases opportunities
for professional recognition and reward.
• Regarded as involving significant teaching
and learning about civic responsibility in
review of QEP initiatives
11
Service-Learning Resources
• www.uab.edu/service-learning
• Tips and tools for Faculty & Staff, Students,
Community Partners
• Sample service-learning syllabi for every
discipline
• Highlighted UAB Community Partners for
service learning
• Useful forms for structure Service-Learning
Experience
• Reflection and Assessment tools
• Upcoming Service-Learning Events
12
Service-Learning Course Designation
The Service Learning Course
Rubric is designed to help analyze
the extent to which a course satisfies
each of the required elements.
• Enhanced Academic Learning
• Purposeful Civic Learning
• Relevant and Meaningful Service with
the Community
• Integration Strategies
13
Service-Learning Course Rubric
Quality Indicator
Strong
(Element is in place and
operating at effective level)
Emerging
(Element is present but needs
improvement for effective
practice)
Minimal
(Element is missing)
Enhanced Academic
Learning
*Course intentionally relates service to
student academic learning
*Partners, specific service activities,
and duration of
service enhance academic learning
* Credit is awarded for student
demonstration of academic learning
*Service experience incidentally relates to
academic learning
*Partners, service activities and duration of
service do little to contribute to academic
learning
*Some credit is awarded for academic
learning but mainly credit is awarded for
service
*Service is not related to student academic learning in course
*Credit is awarded solely for doing service or for quality of service
Purposeful Civic Learning
*Course intentionally helps students
understand community needs, the
context of their service, and how they
can impact their community *Credit is
awarded for demonstration of the
above
*Course incidentally helps students
understand community needs, the context of
their service, and how they can impact their
community
*Credit is not awarded for demonstration of
the above
Course does not help students understand community needs, context of
their actions, and how they can impact their community
Relevant and Meaningful
service with/for the
community
Student service:
*Is well organized
* Correlates with course academic and
civic learning goals
*Responds to a community need as
identified by the community
Student service:
*Is fairly well organized
*Correlates somewhat with academic and
civic learning goals
*Somewhat responds to a need identified by
the community
Student service:
*Is not well organized
*Does not correlate with academic and civic learning goals
*Does not necessarily respond to a need identified by the community
Integration strategies
support learning from
service experiences and
enable its use towards
meeting course objectives
(i.e. learning activities that
encourage integration of
experiential and academic
learning)
Ongoing integration activities promote
critical reflection and analysis include
*classroom discussions
*individual structured reflections
(journals)
*presentations
*paper assignments
Integration activities exist but not on an
ongoing basis e.g. include only a final paper
or presentation
Students may be required to record their service activities but there are
no activities for integration experiential and academic learning
14
Designated Service-Learning Courses
•
•
•
•
•
Biology Field and Lab Science Education and Mentoring/SL BY 399
Business Management: Service Learning/SL MG 490
Capstone in Psychology/SL PY 490
Civic Engagement/SL SBS 303
Community and Service: Using Media for Social Change/SL DCS 350
Community-Based Practicum in Psychology/SL PY 397
Dollars and Sense: An Introduction to Business, Economics, and
Personal Finance/SL LCB 101
ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM-MAKING/SL DCS 401/HON 316/ARS 406 &
407
**EXPLORING BIRMINGHAM LCS 101-607 Freshman Seminar
Food Security National and Global Issues/SL SOC 490
Foreign Language Internship/Service Learning/SL FLL 333
Geriatric Services & Social Work/SL SW 205
Health Sciences Management Internship/SL AHS 481
Homelessness: Its Causes and Consequences/SL SOC 472
•
•
Impacting Community through Service Learning/SL LCSL 101-618
**Intermediate Writing and Poetry EH302
•
•
•
•
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Designated Service-Learning Courses
(contd.)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Leadership and Community/SL GCLH 301
New Urbanism and Smarth Growth/SL ANTH 371/DCS 266/UA 366
Nursing Honors Sequence/SL NUR 368 NUR 484 NUR 486
Pathfinders: The Path from Sophomore to Professional/SL UNIV 204-56
Perceptions of Poverty in America CAS 399 Special Topics/SL
Peer Education/SL HE 490
Physical Activity Programming for Individuals with Disabilities/SL PE 450
Practicum in Social Work/SL SW 490
Public Health Nursing Theory Practicum/SL NUR 395 and 396
Respiratory Therapy Directed Study in Respiratory Care III/SL RST 432
SCT Tech Honors: Internships/Community Projects/SL STH 396
Service-Learning/Sociological Practice/SL SOC 488
Social Work Values Lab/SL SW 222
Sports Management/SL MG 430
**Student Success in Nursing NUR 100
Untold Stories: Finding and Telling Stories You Haven't Been Told In History
Class/SL HY291 DCS 291
Using and Preserving Historic Places as Primary Sources: Studying the MultiCultural Heritage of the Southeastern Coast/SL HY 292/392/682
16
Impacting Community through Service LearningA Freshman Learning Community Seminar
Course Objective – Civic Responsibility
•
•
•
•
Develop a collaborative relationship with a
community partner
Develop an understanding and
appreciation of the issues and needs of the
populations served by our selected
community partners
Work with a community partner to identify
a specific need that can be addressed
through student involvement
Develop an awareness and understanding
of one’s multiple roles and responsibilities
as a citizen of a community
17
Impacting Community through Service LearningA Freshman Learning Community Seminar
Course Objective: Effective Communication
and Relationship Skills
• Explore foundational concepts of healthy
relationships, including empathy,
assertiveness, and personal responsibility
• Develop increased self-awareness and
understanding of personality and emotional
intelligence
• Develop awareness, knowledge and skills
for working with special and diverse
populations
• Demonstrate use of non-verbal and verbal
skills in a helping relationship
18
Impacting Community through Service LearningA Freshman Learning Community Seminar
Course Objective: First Year Experience
• Develop critical and analytical
thinking abilities and oral and
written expression
• Equip students with academic
survival skills
• Provide students with resources
and information to assist with
successful transition into the
college experience
19
Engagement
Students work with a
selected community
partner for 2 hours/week
for 8 weeks for a total of
16 hours for the
semester
20
Reflection and Integration
• Weekly Class
Discussions
• Weekly Structured
Reflections
• Final Poster
Presentations
21
Integrating Service-Learning Experience
• Community Partner Commitment
Form and Service-Learning
Agreement
• Weekly Structured Reflections
• Mid-Term Critical Thinking Paper
• Time Log
• Mid-Semester Joint Assessment
• Final Evaluation by Community
Partner
• Final Power Point Poster Slide
Presentation
22
UAB National Alumni Society
Service-Learning Poster Competition
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opportunity for students to highlight their service-learning
experiences
Panel of three judges select winners
Judges choose PPT slides to be printed as posters and exhibited at
the Service-Learning Awards
TIME LINE:
UAB Online Drop Box submissions of PowerPoint poster slides
opens Wednesday December 1, 2010
Deadline for submissions
Friday January 21, 2011
Service-Learning Awards Celebration
Thursday February 17, 2011 at 4:00 p.m.
First Prize - $300
Second Prize - $200
Third Prize - $100
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Malachi Ray, Fall 2010, Biomedical Engineering, Impacting Community through Service Learning taught by Norma-May Isakow
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Community Partner
The Exceptional
Foundation
Our mission is to meet the
social and recreational needs
of the mentally and/or
physically challenged
individuals in the greater
Birmingham Area.
1616 Oxmoor Rd
Birmingham, AL 35209
Personal Growth through
Service Learning
I have become more aware of all the
different types of disabilities, but also how
much more fun they usually have in a day
than I do. I may smile a few times a day, but
many of the members never stop smiling. I
have grown by seeing how much joy they
have in their lives, and I hope I can learn
from them on how to get it.
I plan on becoming an optometrist, which
means I would have many mentally and
physically disabled people as diseases,
such as Autism, are growing everyday .
Volunteering with many of these people
already will have increased my awareness
and given me a basis of communication.
Impacting the Community
The Exceptional Foundation was started in 1993 with only five
mentally challenged participants. Today that number has
grown to over three hundred and fifty members. My main role
in volunteering was to help provide social activities for the
mentally and physically disabled. This included playing many
sports, helping with art classes, and also keeping a healthy
environment for all members. I also had the goal to help the
members gain more self-confidence and learn basic skills,
such as better communication, to help them live a better life.
The community is impacted by The Exceptional Foundation
by dismissing all negative stereotypes of the mentally
challenged. Also, The Exceptional Foundation helps raise
awareness about how special and exceptional these people
are.
Academic Learning
Being Assertive- Sometimes competition
got the best of the participants, so it was
important to be assertive and talk to the
members before relations got too strained.
Stereotypes- The mentally disabled are
usually associated with many negative
stereotypes, but through my volunteering I
discovered them all to be untrue.
Personality Traits- Knowing the traits of
individuals ,such as introvert, extrovert,
etc., really helped me to establish rapport.
Empathy- Putting myself in the members
shoes really helped me in communicating
with them.
Social Capital- The Exceptional
Foundation is hinged on increasing the
mentally challenged ‘s Social Capital
Acknowledgements
Challenges and Rewards
Many of the mentally challenged communicate in various
ways, including many I did not understand.
However, through time and patience I learned how to
communicate with everyone, even if it meant a crash
course in sign language.
It was a challenge for me to go into an environment never
knowing what really to expect. However, there was a reward
in this by learning how to really be an individual. It gives
me so much joy to see so many people just being
themselves, and not caring what society says. They are
who they are, plain and simple.
The Exceptional Foundation for letting
me become closer to so many special
individuals and have fun every single
time I volunteered
Eugene Rogers for giving me the
opportunity to volunteer and always
being there when I needed something
Norma-May Isakow for always being
supportive and wanting every student
to grow through Service-Learning
Assignment of Grades
•
Service-Learning Assignment Total 390 Points
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Community Partner Commitment Form 10 points
Service-Learning Agreement 20 points
8 Weekly Structured Reflections 80 points (10 per reflection)
Mid-Term Critical Thinking Paper 75 points
Mid-Term Time Log check 5 points
Service Learning Attendance as reported in Final Time Log 80 points (10 per service-learning week)
Final Evaluation by Community Partner 20 points
Final Power Point Poster Slide Presentation 100 points
Attendance and Class Participation (this includes evidence of readings, participation in
discussions, etc.). If you miss a class, you must see the instructor about making up any
missed activities or in-class assignments. Failure to do so will result in deductions
from Participation Grade 50 Points
Dragon Quest Activity 50 points
Academic Advising Assignment Part I 20 points (5 of these points are for scheduling your
appointment by 8/24)
Academic Advising Assignment Part II 30 points
Healthy Lifestyles Seminar (earn points by attending class on 9/16) 10 points
Time Management (earn points by attending class in library 9/23) 10 points
Career Services (earn points by attending class 10/5) 10 points
Library Resource Instruction (earn points by attending in library 9/23) 10 points
Academic Integrity ((earn points by completing Online Module) 10 points
Financial Management (earn points by completing Online Module) 10 points
TOTAL: 600 POINTS
25
CAS 399: Special Topics
Perceptions of Poverty in America
• Course Objectives:
• Develop an understanding of a spectrum
of socio-economic issues relating to
poverty in the United States;
• Develop critical and analytical thinking
skills regarding federal and state policies
toward working families; and
• Explore strategies to address poverty in
the United States.
26
CAS 399: Community Partners
• Impact Alabama Save First Initiative to
provide essential tax preparation services
to members of our local community
• Alabama Possible Blueprints College
Access Program to create college-positive
culture in Woodlawn High School
• Another pre-approved initiative of the
student’s own choice
27
Reflection and Integration
• Weekly Class
Discussions
• Weekly Structured
Reflections
• Final Critical Thinking
Paper and Presentation
28
Assignment of Grades
• Attendance and participation in discussion
showing evidence that you’ve done the assigned
reading 20%
• Training, Testing (where applicable) and Service
with Community Partner Service Sites 30%
• Weekly Structured Reflections on Blackboard
33%
• Final Critical Thinking Paper and Presentation
17% (12% + 5%)
29
Conclusion: Linking Passion and Skills
• “Students come to college to learn, but
they also should find a sense of purpose
in life — a calling. [Service-Learning] is
one way to inspire students and instill in
them the skills they need to effectively
pursue their passion and effect real
change in the world. . . . In short,
[Service-Learning] moves people from
having ideas to having the skills to do
something about it.” David Siemers,
30
Students and Service Learning
• "Service learning has
completely revolutionized
my educational experience
at UAB. I have been given
the opportunity to gain
knowledge and
experience that directly
relates to my future career
goals while interacting with
amazing UAB faculty and
community members
whose wisdom and
guidance have greatly
advanced my academic
and personal
development.“
- Jonathan Woolley
31