Mentoring Dispositions for Pre-Service and Early Career Special Educators Through Service Learning

Service learning projects were created and implemented by faculty in the special education unit at Molloy College for pre-service and early career special education teachers. The service learning projects provided an opportunity for faculty to mentor participants in the area of dispositions for teaching through a shared experience outside of the higher education classroom. The projects were conducted in/or with community schools serving the K-12 population and students with disabilities in inclusive settings. It was hypothesized that service learning opportunities would serve as a platform for participants to reflect and to evaluate their dispositions as they act and interact in environments which were multidimensional. The results indicated that this was the case and that participants gained insights into their dispositions when the statements of dispositions were related to an experience. Faculty concluded that a variety of service learning projects provided varied opportunities for participants to exercise beliefs and bring clarity to the term “dispositions for teaching.”

Partnering With LGBTQ+ Communities

What issues and considerations are involved in developing and facilitating service-learning projects with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities? This chapter presents results of examining the limited scholarship on service-learning projects conducted with these communities. The author proposes possible reasons for the lack of scholarship and offers suggestions for pre-, during-, and post-project considerations. These suggestions include identifying and surveying potential collaborators, preparing students for engaging with the communities, facilitating reflection during the project, and debriefing students afterward, along with analyzing results in order to improve future collaboration efforts.

The Impact of International Experiential Learning and the Community and University Partnership Supporting Global Citizenship in U.S. Schools

As global citizens, we have an increasing international interdependence that now impacts the way we solve problems and interact with one another. Intentionally planed travel abroad has the potential to transform lives by creating a greater global and personal awareness, where adolescents see themselves as not just members of their local community, but also a global community. In an attempt to prepare students for an international and interdependent world, one inner-city nonprofit agency partnered with a local university in South Texas to provide overseas experiential learning opportunities paired with service-learning projects. Through one innovative program, more than 600 students have traveled to more than 20 countries as a full-immersion experience, most of which were centered on service-learning opportunities. The students in this program had the opportunity to examine their prejudices, assumptions, and fears while learning about themselves and developing deeper relationships with members of their school and local community through global outreach.

Academic Service Learning for Underprivileged Communities in Pakistan: Enhancing Development beyond Economics

This study focuses on development of disadvantaged communities via an Academic Service Learning project, incorporated in the PhD coursework of a private university. School teachers from an underprivileged community in a charitable village school of Baluchistan were given training by the students after doing interviews for needs analysis and developing and implementing a workshop based on their needs. As part of the workshop evaluation process, teachers’ perspectives were examined after teachers had incorporated the workshop strategies in their classrooms. Findings were highly positive, because teachers demonstrated enhancement in learning and constructive gain in scholarship which they could transfer to students and to other teachers in the community. Data from students who had carried out the project, accentuated improved learning and a keen desire for voluntary participation in service learning projects for helping underprivileged communities. This study not only contributes to the body of literature in academic and community service learning in the Pakistani educational context, but elaborates on the value of factors beyond economics for advancement of deprived segments of society.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' EXPERIENCES OF COVID-19 AS AN ENABLER FOR THEIR SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS

The newspaper headlines in July 2020, reflected the context of COVID-19 and the challenges in the education sector in South Africa. Pre-service teachers completing a Biological Sciences for Educations Research and Service-Learning module conducted their Service-Learning in their home contexts, which under normal times, they would do so in the neighbouring university contexts. The research question: Why did the Biological Sciences pre-service teachers' experience COVID-19 as an enabler for their Service-Learning projects. An interpretive, qualitative case study was adopted to explore the pre-service teacher’s experiences of their projects undertaken. The data gathering methods included document analysis (pre-service teacher’s reflective diaries); observation of module reflective sessions and seminar presentations and visual methodology (pre-service teachers made videos). The data analysis using descriptive content analysis. The research rigour of credibility and dependability were worked with, and the research ethics were considered. The results indicated that during the learning about the project, the pre-service teachers had emotional experiences of fear, excitement and even confusion. During the planning for the project, they had concerns about Covid-19 restrictions and access to placement sites, what to do, who to work with and the nature of the projects planned. The action of the Service-Learning indicated the collaboration and teamwork, imagination and creativity, including the contextually relevant problem-solving actions that were undertaken. Pre-service teachers were in their own communities where they excelled and built relationships and valued their community members. Service-Learning should be completed in the pre-service teacher’s home contexts for greater relevance, value and connectedness with their community. Keywords: biological sciences, case study, COVID-19 pandemic, pre-service-teacher education, service-learning

Assessment Methods for Service-Learning Projects in Engineering in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Service-learning (SL) helps engineering students to be involved in community activities and to be motivated by their studies. Although several reviews and research studies have been published about SL, it is not widespread in sciences and engineering at the university level. The purpose of this research is to analyze the different community services or projects where SL is implemented by engineering students and faculty and to identify the procedures that were usually implemented to assess SL-based courses and activities. Assessment could be considered as the evaluation of a specific module and the engineering competencies, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the SL program, the assessment of the participation of the student in those programs, and the assessment of whether students have achieved certain outcomes or gained specific skills. We conducted a systematic review with a search in three scientific databases: Scopus, Science Direct, and ERIC educational database to analyze the assessment methods and what that assessment covers. From 14,107 publications related to SL, 120 documents were analyzed to inform the conclusions of this study. We found that SL is widely used in several universities as experiential education, and it is considered an academic activity. The most widely used assessment technique is a survey to evaluate the engagement and attitudes of students and, to a lesser extent, teamwork presentations.

Research Methods in Teacher Education: Meaningful Engagement Through Service-Learning

Competence in research methods is a major contribution to (future) teachers’ professionalism. In the pedagogical approach presented here, which we call the Teaching Clinic, we combine service-learning and design-based research to create meaningful learning engagements. We present two cases to illustrate the objectives, processes, and outcomes of the service-learning projects and reflect about both in terms of learning and service outcomes. This includes discussions of how this pedagogical approach led to motivation and engagement, how principles of transfer of training are obeyed, and what this means quite generally for school-university relationships.

Communicating Ethical Engagement Abroad: A Content Analysis of Service-Learning Study Abroad Third-Party Provider Websites

This article shares the results of a study that analyzed the website content of eight third-party providers that offer service-learning study abroad programs to college students. The study looked specifically at the information about service-learning projects and how host communities, community partners, and target populations are portrayed or represented within that content. Data are analyzed through the lens of two ethical guidelines for international service-learning defined by The Forum on Education Abroad: prioritization of human dignity and community autonomy; and recognizing the risk of paternalism, exploitation, and neocolonial behavior. The findings of this study serve to provide baseline data about the public information shared by international service-learning program providers about service projects and partners as well as insights into how organizations that produce web content about service-learning partnerships can design information that meets ethical standards related to upholding dignity, respecting autonomy, and challenging paternalism.

Building Community and Fostering Health and Well-Being through a Collaborative School Based Project

This article presents lessons learned from collaborative service-learning projects aimed at bridging the gap between theory and practice by providing students design experiences in authentic settings. Interior design students gained disciplinary and civic benefits while problem solving for a preK-5 elementary school calming room, dining room, and teacher sanctuary. The elementary school teachers and staff reported the redesigned calming room supported students’ emotional and self-regulation skills. Teachers and staff also reported the dining room and teacher sanctuary supported the school community well-being. The authors’ present findings and hope the article can serve as a model for educators interested in community building service-learning projects in school environments.