Table of Contents
By Day 7
Respond on the posts of at least two colleagues by answering one or more of the following questions in regard to your colleagues’ posts:
- What ideas can you offer?
- What successful projects have you seen?
- What resources have you found that might help your colleagues?
Discussion: Situating Service Learning in the Curriculum
Furco and Billig (2002) stated, “The goals of community service-learning do not automatically coincide with those of the education system at large” (p. 14). When first introduced to service learning, many teachers’ initial response is to believe the curriculum is already too crowded and that “adding” anything else to the school year is not feasible. Viewing service learning as another add-on program rather than a curriculum enhancement is counter to the very foundations of the field. Use this Discussion to find clear connections to enhance pre-existing curriculum through service learning.
To prepare
- Read and view this week’s Learning Resources and review the Furco and Billig Chapters (1–2). Pay particular attention to the definitions and uses of service learning and the current state of the research in this area.
- Reflect on the natural connections that already exist within your curriculum (e.g., Common Core, state standards, standard course of study).
By Day 3
Post an explanation in which you do the following:
- Provide your insights on how service learning might connect to your mandated curriculum, including opportunities you see to integrate service learning into the curriculum and the community. These insights may be based on the problem-based project you have discussed previously or on another standard you find more instructive.
- Include details from this week’s ”Rainforest Project“ media as well as other Learning Resources to illustrate how you may find situations within your own curriculum to use service learning as a pedagogy.
- Explain why a particular standard or set of standards in your educational setting would be a good fit for service learning. What types of projects could you imagine being appropriate in your context (e.g., grade level, subject)?
- Include whether your school or district has service articulated in any of their published mission, vision, or goals statements in order to help with assertions on the need for service learning.
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Furco, A., & Billig, S. H. (Eds.) (2002). Service learning: The essence of the pedagogy. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Service Learning: the essence of pedagogy, 1st Ed. by Furco, A. and Billig, S. Copyright 2002 by Information Age Publishing. Reprinted by permission of Information Age Publishing via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Chapter 1, “Community Service and Service-Learning in America: The State of the Art” (pp. 3–22)
Chapter 2, “Is Service-Learning Really Better Than Community Service? A Study of High School Service Program Outcomes” (pp. 23–52)
Billig, S. (2000). Research on K–12 school-based service-learning: The evidence builds. Phi Delta Kappan, 81(9), 658–664.
Giles, D. E., Jr., & Eyler, J. (1994). The theoretical roots of service-learning in John Dewey: Toward a theory of service-learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 1(1), 77–85. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=slceslgen
Giles, D. E. Jr., & Eyler, J. (2013). The endless quest for scholarly respectability in service-learning research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 20(1), 53–64. Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mjcsl/3239521.0020.105/–endless-quest-for-scholarly-respectability-in-service?view=image
National Youth Leadership Council. (n.d.). Service learning. Retrieved from https://www.nylc.org/page/WhatisService-Learning
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016c). The rainforest project [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 6 minutes.
Accessible player –Downloads–Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload Transcript
Foundations of Service Learning
I have learned that the foundation of an organization will point the direction of how that organization will use service-learning. The Bureau of Indian Affairs – Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS), United States Indian Police Academy (USIPA) has the following mission statement, "To provide justice services and technical assistance to federally recognized Indian tribes and communities and to respect and protect sovereignty through the promotion of self-determination" (BOI-IA, 2021), which outlines what we are there to do. The location I will oversee starting in January, which is the USIPA Advance Training Center (USIPA-ATC) in North Dakota. I defined our principal philosophy as "We believe that through evolving one’s wisdom, we strengthen our traditions." Having this philosophy opens us up to critical thinking pedagogy like service-learning, student-centered learning, and problem-based learning.
How Does Service-Learning Play a Role at USIPA-ATC
The USIPA-ATC focuses on advanced training for Native Americans involved in the law enforcement profession. Service-learning plays a role in many USIPA-ATC programs because there is a focus on community involvement and creating that engagement. The main programs that involve service-learning are the Search and Rescue program, Investigation programs, and Missing and Murder Indigenous Person programs. All these programs cover working with the community and getting involved during some of the training. A couple of the programs run much like the "Rainforest Project," where students will receive different blocks of training in different areas that either involve the community or how to involve the community (Laureate Education, 2016). Without community involvement and building partnerships within the community, crimes will go unsolved.
The future of Service-Learning with USIPA-ATC
Within this course, I learned how to add service-learning more into some of the USIPA-ATC programs. We can improve our leadership programs by getting help from community leaders and groups. Plus, allow students to work with community search and rescue, where they are going through the same training and learning to work with tribal partners. The USIPA-ATC will be looking at working with Tribal Nations leaders to improve the training of the officers working within their area to ensure an understanding of the culture to form stronger working relations. The use of service-learning will help with providing clear learning objectives, ensuring student involvement, and providing an academic curriculum and reflection (Furco & Billig, 2002).
References
Furco, A., & Billig, S. H. (Eds.) (2002). Service learning: The essence of the pedagogy. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). The rainforest project [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs (DOI-IA). (2021, December 10). What we do. https://www.bia.gov/bia/ojs/what-we-do
Teachers must prepare students with higher-order, critical thinking skills of the 21st century that allow them to navigate a rapidly changing world. Service-learning is one approach to meeting students’ needs. Service learning reflects principles of best practice such as clear education goals linked to the curriculum, student engagement in meaningful tasks, and multiple methods of student reflection (Welch, 2010). Service learning is a practical way to meet numerous academic standards across contents if one is to take the time to develop a plan. In The Rainforest Project, we heard how teachers in Texas took the time to collaborate across contents to align the topics taught so that students were hearing about the same topic in more than one subject (Laureate Education, 2016). Students were so engaged and interested that over 80% of students volunteered their time towards fundraising efforts to save rainforests from deforestation (Laureate Education, 2016).
Several first grade academic standards are addressed through a service-learning project. For example, first grade speaking and listening standards require students to participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peer and adult partners in small and larger groups; first grade writing standards include participating in shared research and inquiry projects, writing, recalling, or gathering information to answer questions; and first grade reading informational text requires students to ask and answer questions about key details in a text (Colorado Department of Education, n.d.). A service learning project such as designing a new playground for the school, making welcome bags for students new to our school, holding a recycling contest at school, or designing and painting a mural for the playground would include all of the mentioned standards.
Interestingly my district’s three-year strategic plan names the classroom as the first priority, stating a commitment to meeting the academic and social-emotional needs of all students while providing equitable opportunities through curriculum that focuses on standards-based instruction (Harrison School District 2, n.d.). However, service is not directly mentioned as part of our mission or vision. A few years ago I had proposed a shift to more project-based learning for our students, and I received a lot of pushback from our principal. She believed project-based learning was not academic enough, and that our priority needed to be strictly academic. A few parents also brought concerns about the lack of hands-on, meaningful learning, but their voices were silenced.
References
Colorado Department of Education. (n.d.). 2020 Colorado Academic Standards Online. https://cde.state.co.us/apps/standards/6.3.0
Harrison School District 2 (HSD2). (n.d.). 2021-2024 Strategic Plan. Retrieved from HSD2 About us: https://www.hsd2.org/plan
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). The rainforest project [Video file]. Maryland: Author.
Welch, M. (2010). O.P.E.R.A.: A first letter mnemonic and rubric for conceptualising and implementing service learning. Issues in Educational Research, 20(1), 76-82.
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