Practices and Reflections on Pioneer Service Learning in Higher Education of China

2018 ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Bo Wu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Course Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
National Society ◽  
Teaching College

Service learning, as one form of experiential education derived from David Kolb's experiential learning model, integrates service with classroom instruction. It can be applied in primary, secondary and higher education setting. According to its broad definition from National Society of Experiential Education in the United States (1994): service learning is “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experiences”. Under the rapid urbanization and economic development in China, higher education is experiencing great challenges in terms of its mission and pedagogy. I share my pioneer teaching experiences of service learning among undergraduate students at a teaching college in Guangdong, China with insufficient institutional support and community partnership. With the details of my course design, practice, and reflections on students' learning, I conclude that students benefit from service learning in their personal growth, civic learning and academic enhancement.

Practices and Reflections on Pioneer Service Learning in Higher Education of China

2019 ◽  
pp. 391-411
Author(s):  
Bo Wu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Course Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
National Society ◽  
Teaching College

Service learning, as one form of experiential education derived from David Kolb's experiential learning model, integrates service with classroom instruction. It can be applied in primary, secondary and higher education setting. According to its broad definition from National Society of Experiential Education in the United States (1994): service learning is “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experiences”. Under the rapid urbanization and economic development in China, higher education is experiencing great challenges in terms of its mission and pedagogy. I share my pioneer teaching experiences of service learning among undergraduate students at a teaching college in Guangdong, China with insufficient institutional support and community partnership. With the details of my course design, practice, and reflections on students' learning, I conclude that students benefit from service learning in their personal growth, civic learning and academic enhancement.

Ethnographic Service Learning: An Approach for Transformational Learning

Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie A. Medeiros ◽  
Jennifer Guzmán
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
The United States ◽  
Field Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Service Learning Projects ◽  
Transformational Experiences ◽  
Learning Projects

Trends in higher education pedagogy increasingly point to the importance of transformational experiences as the capstone of liberal arts education. Practitioners of ethnography, the quintessential transformational experience of the social sciences, are well-positioned to take the lead in designing courses and term projects that afford undergraduate students opportunities to fundamentally reshape their understanding of the social world and their own involvement within it. Furthermore, in the United States, colleges and universities have become proponents of service learning as a critical component of a holistic educational experience. In this article, we describe how service learning can be incorporated into training students in ethnographic field methods as a means to transformational learning and to give them skills they can use beyond the classroom in a longer trajectory of civic participation. We discuss strategies, opportunities, and challenges associated with incorporating service learning into courses and programs training students in ethnographic field methods and propose five key components for successful ethnographic service learning projects. We share student insights about the transformational value of their experiences as well as introduce some ethical concerns that arise in ethnographic service-learning projects.

Teaching Interreligious Encounter

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Gustafson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Guest Speakers

This chapter offers instructors in higher education some basic tools and elements of course design for interreligious encounter in the undergraduate classroom. Aiming at practice over theory, it provides practical suggestions for fostering interreligious understanding from the first day of class through the end of the semester. These suggestions include the use of guest speakers, interdisciplinary case studies, in-class reflections, and interreligious community engagement (i.e., “service learning”), among others. Further, it provides a concise bibliography of basic introductory texts for both students and instructors in the areas of comparative theology, theologies of religions and religious pluralisms, and interreligious studies and dialogue.

Environmental service-learning approach in higher education – a descriptive case study on student-led life cycle assessments of university cafeteria meals

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Johannisson ◽  
Michael Hiete
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Course Evaluation ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Descriptive Case Study

Purpose This study aims to share experiences of an easy to adapt service-learning approach in a graduate course on life cycle assessment (LCA). Specifically, it reports on how students helped the university’s cafeteria to assess meals by conducting an LCA for 25 meals and identifying environmental hotspots. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive case study of a graduate course at Ulm University is presented. The course included lectures and problem-based exercises, both theoretical and software assisted. A course evaluation was conducted during the course and one year after completion to poll improvement potentials, as well as its impacts on students’ everyday life. Findings It was found that although it was the first LCA for all students, the resulting LCA information of 25 different meals were homogeneous, comparable to the scientific literature and beneficial to the cafeteria’s sustainable development strategy. The concept of service-learning had a higher impact on students’ motivation than a good grade and active-learning is explicitly requested by students. The course design sensitized students to the real-life problems of LCA and made their consumption patterns more elaborate and ecological. Furthermore, this digitization of higher education could be carried out with only minor changes in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation. Originality/value As the subject of service-learning in natural sciences is still expandable, this study presents an easy to adapt case study on how to integrate such an approach into university curricula dominated by traditional learning. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this case study presents the first published LCA university course explicitly describing and evaluating a service-learning approach. The topic touches the everyday lives of students, allows comparisons between different student groups, is easily scalable to different group sizes and credits, and supports learning both how to study in small groups and cooperation between groups to ensure comparability of LCA results.

Engaging Vital Older Adults in Intergenerational Service-Learning

2018 ◽  
pp. 266-287
Author(s):  
Reneé A. Zucchero
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Life Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Adult Volunteers

The population of older adults within the United States is growing rapidly, which calls for increased understanding of that population. However, ageism is pervasive and one of the most engrained forms of prejudice. Intergenerational service-learning may be one way to reduce negative stereotypes and ageism. The Co-Mentoring Project is an intergenerational service-learning project that matches undergraduate students and vital older adult volunteers. Students meet with their partners at least four times over the course of the semester to conduct a life review and gather information to begin the older adults' memoirs. This chapter provides a rationale for intergenerational service-learning and information about its theoretical underpinnings. The chapter also offers information about service-learning best practices, including structured reflection, and how the Project's methodology is consistent with them. The multi-modal assessment conducted for the Project and its outcomes are discussed. Finally, directions for future research are described.

Challenges Facing Contemporary Community Colleges

2019 ◽  
pp. 186-200
Author(s):  
Shah S. Ardalan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
The United States ◽  
Workforce Training ◽  
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Student Completion

For over a century, American community colleges have delivered on their mission of open access and now educate about half of all undergraduate students in the United States. Recognized as primary providers of higher education and workforce training, especially to non-traditional and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, community colleges serve as transformative engines of prosperity and democratization of education. Contemporary community colleges face many challenges. Mainly, while community colleges are persistently underfunded, their leaders are under ever-increasing demand to improve student completion.

scholarly journals Branches from the same tree: The case for integration in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (6) ◽  
pp. 1865-1869 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skorton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Albert Einstein ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Integration Of Disciplines ◽  
And Mathematics

The nature of work is changing rapidly in the digital age, increasing the demand for skills in specific disciplines. Across the United States and beyond, this evolution has led to an increased emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education at every level. Meanwhile, at US institutions of higher education, the proportion of undergraduate students who earn a degree in the humanities is declining. However, while the public discussion often pits the disciplines against one another, the sciences, arts, and humanities are—as Albert Einstein once wrote—“branches of the same tree” [(2006)The Einstein Reader]. They are mutually reinforcing. Therefore, the best way to prepare the next generation for the future of work, life, and citizenship is to provide broad, holistic educational experiences that integrate the STEM disciplines with the arts and humanities. A new study from the Board on Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine bolsters the case for such an approach, finding considerable evidence that the mutual integration of disciplines leads to improved educational and career outcomes for undergraduate and graduate students.

Improving Eco-literacy through Service Learning: A Natural History Service Project Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 222-227
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Collins ◽  
Lynn Donahue
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
College Level ◽  
Service Project ◽  
Holistic Understanding

Eco-literacy (knowledge of natural history, and direct observation of the natural world and the organisms it contains) is critical to a holistic understanding of biology. Many undergraduate biology students lack this knowledge and experience, often because of a lack of engagement with the environmental science curriculum. The effectiveness of service learning is well established, but few examples of service-learning projects in the context of natural history education have been published. We describe how we used best practices for the development of a field-based service-learning project in a college-level natural history course. The project was built around established learning goals and was conducted through a partnership with a local state park. Students worked in groups to conduct bird biodiversity surveys and prepared a printed bird-watching guide, which was presented to park staff. The project was linked to a series of assignments intended to maximize academic and personal growth, including a project plan, progress report, and reflection paper. Students reported increased engagement in the course curriculum and an increased sense of the relevance of the course content.

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