Office of Service-Learning

Service Learning Workshop a Success

By Allia L. Carter and Deborah Slosberg, Assistant Directors, Curricular Programs and Faculty Development

On Friday, September 24, 2010 more than fifty faculty, staff, and colleagues from various Ohio higher educational institutions joined the Office of Service Learning for a workshop on Service-Learning as a High-Impact Pedagogy with Jeffrey Howard. Jeff Howard is the director of faculty development at DePaul University’s Steans Center for Community-Based Service-Learning and past associate director of the University of Michigan’s Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning. He is the founder and editor of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, a peer-reviewed publication that began with a Michigan Campus Compact venture grant, and has reached a paid circulation of about 2000, and co-editor (with Robert Rhoads, formerly of Michigan State University) of Academic Service-Learning: A Pedagogy of Action and Reflection, published by Jossey-Bass.

This workshop was designed to assist faculty and staff members with effective practices to implement service-learning into the University’s Learning Outcomes. The workshop took a process-oriented approach to developing courses which enhance critical and constructive thinking, effective communication, and personal and social responsibility for learners. Several key elements of the workshop included:

• Preparation—Matching course objectives to new courses and models for the Connecting the Undergraduate Experience (CUE) initiative in the curriculum and co-curriculum.

• Action—engaging in challenging service for the common good & foster commitment

• Reflection—providing opportunities for faculty to instruct students on how to talk, write, & think critically about service

• Evaluation—assessing achievement of service and learning goals & celebrating community partnership success