Service-Learning Evaluation

Service-learning is a teaching methodology used to aid in student understanding of the learning objectives of a given course. The spirit of service-learning could be described as learning by doing through an act of giving time and talent. We as educators want students to see the value of learning by doing and engage beyond the walls of a classroom.

While most educators find the service activity a natural fit to teaching and learning, evaluation of the learning is opaque. Developing evaluation rubrics for service-learning projects is not as challenging as one may perceive. The main emphasis we must maintain is to correlate the learning objectives in the course to the rubric directly. This means that students should be developing understanding and demonstrating the learning objectives in a given course throughout the service-learning project. If this continuum is not maintained, we as educators run the risk of requiring our students to volunteer, at best.

When the learning objectives of the course have been identified, one can now start to develop an evaluation rubric of the service-learning project. While there are many steps in developing a service-learning project, the purpose of this blog entry, specifically, is to identify the characteristics of an effective evaluation. Once one has identified the learning objectives, they must pinpoint the goals of the service-learning project. What are you expecting students to accomplish? What should students be able to demonstrate understanding of as a result of the service-learning project? What traits should students identify/demonstrate as a result of the project? You get the idea.

An effective evaluation is always clear to students up front. Prior to beginning a project, students rely upon knowing what they can expect to experience and how they will be evaluated. While educators should not be evaluating students on whether they “liked” or “disliked” a service-learning experience, we can evaluate students on the following:

Accurate: Are students able to present accurate and reliable EVIDENCE from their service-learning experience? Meaning, can students put theory into practice? Is this presented in the reflection or assignment?

Pertinent: Does the student actually answer the evaluation question clearly and directly? Or, are they giving an ambiguous statement that frees them from giving a direct response?

Objective: This is where the grey area is. We want students to be able to give us feedback, but not base their analysis with statements that are only laden with emotion. Students should be objective with their analysis of the experience. Meaning, students should faithfully represent their experience in relation to the course versus inserting their own opinions (emotionally based) as evidence.

Well organized and readable: Is the evaluation easy to understand? Is the assignment free of jargon? Is the reflection clear?

Logical: Does the student show RELATIONSHIP or CONNECTION with the learning objectives in the class to the service-learning experience? An important note for us as educators is to remember to meet the student at their critical thinking level. This means that we should be focusing on asking ourselves how the questions are posed to students. In order for students to present logical responses that are based in critical thinking, versus their feelings about the experience, they must clearly be presented questions with distinction and precise language.

Useful: Does the student provide useful information for the reader? Is this information based on observation and application? Would the information be helpful for improvement or demonstrate that the student identifies a need within the community the service-learning project took place?

Fundamentally, one wants to remember that the purpose of a service-learning experience is to allow students to learn by giving back to their community. The primary importance should not be placed in the evaluation metric but on developing an enriching experience for both students and community.

To review the presentation on service-learning evaluation in its entirety, please visit the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse Website: http://servicelearning.org/webinars/service-learning-evaluation

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Creative ways to bring out the techie in every instructor

There is no denying it: We live in a digital age. Technology is taking society, culture, and education by storm and there is no turning back. Only a few short years ago, we were in awe of the floppy disk and its ability to save information between computers. Now, floppy disks make great “techie” coasters for that cup of joe while you read this fantastic online blog.

While some may be intimidated with the digital change, others have learned to embrace it, for the better! Often, we try to find new innovate ways to engage students in our class. Service-learning is already an active approach to learning that is often widely embraced among students. Adult learners must be hands on and involved in learning. No longer are students expecting instructors to prepare a five-star lecture. Rather, students demand that instructors be hands-on in their teaching methodology. Technology and digital communication is interlocked in the social and professional fields; thus, learners have come to expect using this media in the classroom.

There are multiple, and creative ways, learners can reflect or even promote service-learning to the general community. I encourage you to “try on” one of the following technology tools in your classroom. Generally, students can even share this media with friends, family, and even employers making it a win-win on all sides.

Animoto

Animoto is a web application with a free basic accounts that create music video like slide shows. Students upload their own pictures and select free music for their slide show feature. Animoto is a great tool to allow students to reflect using a creative outlet. Animoto slide shows can be shared and are well accepted among students.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn  is a free social networking site that allows professionals to network with over 85 million members. The purpose of LinkedIn is to allow professionals to link, connect, and create with fellow professionals in your field. LinkedIn has features where members can create and promote events, in addition to uploading materials. Since we want our students to consider networking as an opportunity in service-learning, this free site is an excellent way for students to establish connections and learn more about organizations/businesses in their community.

Vimeo

Vimeo is a free video-sharing website that allows users to upload, share and view videos. What makes it different than youtube is that there are no commercial, gaming, or adult videos on the site. Since Vimeo is safe for the college classroom, it is a great tool to use with students as a means to share information or allow students to be creative. Imagine if students, even if at the most basic amateur level, created a video sharing their service-learning experience!

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site that allows users to connect with friends world-wide. Originally, facebook was deemed for college students only. Now, a user only has to be 13 to create an account. Facebook is a great tool for instructors to create a group page for their service-learning project. Students can upload photos, make comments, and connect with their peers. If creating a sense of community is the number one retention tool, Facebook, when used appropriately, is a great way to help students get connected with their community.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a website that offers basic free and pro web-based surveys. Often, instructors find themselves struggling to help students research and understand the community or community partner they will be working with as part of their service-learning project. An instructor can use SurveyMonkey to assess students’ previous experiences with a particular population or as an assignment, have students create their own surveys about perceptions (for example) and distribute them among their peers and family. By creating reflection that is prior, during, and following, students are able to have a better grasp and understanding of how their perceptions were or are formed.

There are countless technology tools that one could use to engage students in today’s technology driven classroom. The point is to make sure that YOU, the instructor, are comfortable using the tools and helping students utilize them to their full potential. Don’t be afraid to just try one new technology tool in your residential course. If the shoe doesn’t fit, you can always try on something else!

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Community versus Going Rogue

 

I recently came across an article suggesting that we as educators are hindering students ability to learn because we are answering too many of their questions in class. I remember the days of being a college student and asking practical questions on the expected margin width of a paper or when my final exams were scheduled. This information was almost always located on the syllabus or school website but when panic sets in, there was an unsettling urgency to find answers. My personal belief is that anyone who wanted to succeed in college felt this urgency at some point or another. Typically, students who feel the necessity to ask countless questions either are very curious learners or lack the confidence necessary to locate the information themselves.

This poses the question are we as educators enabling students by giving them immediate answers to every inquiry? “For the most part, college students enrolled in beginning chemistry courses do not, during laboratory-based experiences, learn to follow directions. Instead they learn to depend excessively upon oral directions presented by the instructor in response to their queries.” (p. 103).

While this does hold some truth that we as educators do not want to enable students to always receive an easy answer – learning atrophy takes place – I pose the question that if students are expected to learn in a new learning environment, are we as educators displacing trust by not answering their questions?

When I expect my students to be engaged in a service-learning activity, I challenge them using a manifold of reflection questions that employs critical thinking in their search for an answer. As their instructor, these reflection questions compel students to ask questions. If I do not connect the learning with service in this manner, students unequivocally bypass a powerful opportunity to discover the connection between their personal lives and the learning objective.

Hosting an assumption that we are hindering a learning lesson by not answering our students questions only creates an environment that lacks trust and rapport between teacher and student. This opens new issues of students disrupting the class or learning experience to ask other students questions or vent their frustrations to their peers. These actions may play into a domino effect and result in students stirring up irrational fears or uncertainty in their ability to be successful in college. If the number one retention tool for keeping a student in college from the time they enroll to graduation is a strong sense of community, would it not be an oxymoron to suggest that educators should let students figure it out themselves?

Reference: Hilosky, A., Sutman, F., and Schmuckler, J. (1998). Is laboratory-based instruction in beginning college-level chemistry worth the effort and expense? Journal of Chemical Education, 75

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Role of Reflection in Service-Learning

Reflection is an inestimable step of the learning and retention process for students engaging in service-learning projects. Often overlooked, reflection is a component that should be integrated, or weaved, into course curriculum alongside the service-learning component. Using reflection as a learning tool in addition to an evaluation method can give students an opportunity to apply and immediately use the content being presented in the course.

Many instructors, however, do not present reflection in a manner that is most beneficial for students. Reflection in the form of discussion is often asked as “How did you feel?” or “What are your thoughts?” While these questions are valid, they provoke little critical thinking in the student.  If an instructor does not challenge students to reflect on the self in discipline, directive, monitoring, and corrective thinking, the learner will only consider a breadth of knowledge versus thinking in depth and analysis. The Socratic dialogue affirms that one (leaner) will come to truth by logical questioning and unhindered doubt of another person or event (Tredway, 1995).

By allowing a student to question the world around them in a safe learning environment, we give freedom to present feedback that is more personable and germane. This, however, stretches us as an instructor because we open the door for negative feedback or disagreement to the content presented to the student’s ideologies. Yet, we have a duty to challenge students to come to well-reasoned conclusions.

Since reflection is an examination into one’s understanding of the world, we as instructors need to allow students opportunities to engage the world around them. When reflection is combined with meaningful learning, the ultimate goal is to allow students to make choices based in creative (critical) thinking in addition to increasing effectiveness through knowledge. In order to obtain this ultimate goal, reflection must be conducted prior, during, and following a service-learning experience. In addition, we must allow students to give us honest feedback about their understanding. Allowing students to give honest feedback is one of the most difficult but effective goals in our pedagogy. In order to fully understand the reflection stages, we need to grasp each step

Prior

In this preparatory stage, we are preparing the students for what they are about to experience or learn. This stage is a time for students to evaluate their current knowledge of what is already known and what to look forward to. In order for students to fully reflect on the experience, they need to understand where their ideologies rooted from.

Preparation: What do they already know? What does the student hope to learn?

During

As students are in the midst of the service-learning experience, now is the time to ask the questions surrounding what they are doing, what is expected/unexpected, what is being taken in, what is surprising. Later, students can look back and see how their assumptions or expectations were accurate or inaccurate based on their direct experiences.

During: What was expected/unexpected? What are they doing/applying to the course material?

Following

Often the most popular form of reflection, students should engage their thinking following a service-learning event so they understand the big picture or so what of the experience. In order to have in-depth reflection following an assignment, students must have engaged in the reflective process prior and during the event. By doing this, students have a track record or timeline of what happened.

Following: What is the big picture? What is the “so what” of the experience?

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Service-Learning in Higher Education

The face of higher education is changing. We are no longer a student body of 18-22 year-olds. Parents, returning students, and adult learners are a few of the new “college student “ faces. What regretfully has seen minimal changes, until recently, was the instructional, teaching method, or pedagogy in the classroom. While the student population was changing, the teaching methods stayed relatively the same for the past 100 years.

Students, or learners, have more opportunities than ever to seek their college degree. Online, residential, hybrid, day/evening, public, private, career college, community college, the choices are endless. Learners are making their voice heard loud and clear. Learners want a teacher who is engaged. Learners are using more and more technology than what some institutions can provide. Learners want to make a difference in their community. Learners see more value in applied learning than memorize and recall.  

Service-Learning is a commonly recognized teaching method, or pedagogy, that allows students to master understanding of course objectives while serving their community. In essence, service-learning is learning by doing through an act of giving time or talent. Learners have the ability to not only apply the skills they have coming into the course but learn the course objectives in a real-life setting! Service-learning combines academic study with practical experience and civic engagement to mutually benefit both student and community partner. In Minnesota, Minnesota Campus Compact recognizes service-learning as a pedagogy that can improve academic performance. In addition, learners who are engaged in their community (civic and college) have higher GPA scores and retention.

Service-learning has been used as an official phrase in higher education since 1967 (National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2010). We as educators need to be more aware of the need for applied learning and service-learning is a wonderful way to help students learn the objectives of a course and stay engaged with their community. Please review my training on service-learning in higher education: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2010-10-04.1638.M.91A6B0FB1D1CDCC0C1906302287BD7.vcr&sid=2008435

References:

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. (2010). Historical timelines. Retrieved from http://www.servicelearning.org/what_is_service-learning/history

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