Case Study #3

Allison Schipma

Curriculum Development in Higher Education

Loyola University Chicago

Describe

“It’s easy to make a buck. It’s tougher to make a difference.” This quote from Tom

Brokaw, to me, is one that connects service-learning within higher education. There is a trend

within higher education where students tend to focus on the outcome. Students focus on the

outcome of their time in school by focusing on the degree they will get and how much money

they will earn after they graduate. This can be problematic when we ask ourselves, is that the

point of higher education? To me, the answer is no. The solution to this problem lies in service-

learning courses across various universities. Honnet & Poulsen in their publication, “Principles

of Good Practice for Combining Service and Learning” sum this idea up perfectly by saying,

“Service combined with learning, adds value to each and transforms both.” (Honnet & Poulsen,

1998, pg.1) Sure, it is important that students are successful after they graduate, but we must

focus on how they are learning from and connecting with the community if we want students to

make an impact.

For this assignment, I chose 5 course syllabi from various institutions. I made a special

effort to choose course syllabi that came from various disciplines so that I could 1) have a more

versatile understanding of how to connect service-learning in a variety of courses and 2) identify

common themes and trends within service learning throughout a variety of subject areas. The

syllabi that I chose connect service learning with subjects such as a Chemistry In Service of the

Community course from Notre Dame University, a Modern Dance course from the Univeristy of

Utah, a Religion: Community Outreach course from Gonzaga University, a Field Botany course

from the University of Maine- Farmington, and a Business Administration: Meeting and

Conference planning course from Ohio University. Through all of these various disciplines, there

were similarities and of course differences.

The first course that I chose was a “Chemistry In Service of the Community” course. This

course has a unique type of service-learning component where students are going out into the

community to assigned houses and testing for Lead poisoning levels. The learning outcomes for

this course really focus on the professional experience piece as well as social concern. The

students begin the course with getting a general understanding of the history of lead poisoning

and in what types of communities it is the biggest issue in. From there, students are assigned

groups and those groups travel to different houses within the community to begin the testing. A

course requirement is that students must keep a journal where they reflect after each house visit.

The second course that I chose was from the University of Utah. This course is a Modern

Dance course offered to Juniors and Seniors. Since I am interested in the arts, I was excited to

learn how to connect something as obscure as Modern Dance to service-learning. Within this

course, students will select a community partner from a list provided by the instructor and then

work with that community partner to establish a semester long project of creating a program for

the community partners organization, create a contract, and them implement the program.

Throughout this time, students will meet once a week for 90 minutes as well as keep a journal

with guiding reflection questions throughout the semester.

The third course that I chose is offered at Gonzaga University and falls under the

Religion discipline at their institution. The class is entitled, “Community Outreach” and includes

a minimum of 45 service hours throughout the semester. Students in this class are able to pick

their own individual service project and conduct two interviews with professionals within

whatever organization they choose. As with the other two courses; the students in this class must

keep a journal that will highlight their experiences throughout the course as well as what they

covered within the interviews.

The fourth course that was chosen for this assignment is offered at The University of

Maine- Farmington campus. This course focuses on field botany and has students out in the

environment analyzing different plants and species that correlate with their course readings for

that week. The service-learning component comes in the form of students within the class going

to a nearby elemtentary school. Once the students are there at the elementatry school they will be

helping 4th and 5th graders with their semester long project of building a nature trail that will later

be open to the public to use. I thought it was interesting that the syllabus specifically mentioned

that this project was being funded by a grant. As with the other courses, this course also

mandated that students keep a journal that reflects on all aspects of their time within the course.

Finally, the last course is entitled “Meeting and Conference Planning” at Ohio University.

I was interested to see how the course would connect a subject that seems so cut and dry with

service-learning and community outreach. The course has the students working with 5th graders

from surrounding schools and planning a Small Group Workshop for them. This course had a

unique set up that was different from the others because while the whole class was doing the

semester long service project, the group was split up into four separate teams. One team would

focus on the individual workshop and its creation as well as the facilitation of the workshop, one

team would focus on the professional development of the small group facilitators, the third group

would focus on the logistics of the entire project, and the last team would focus on the research

for the entire project as well. This course did not have an ongoing journal grade, but it did have a

mid-term paper that would focus on reflecting on the students experience thus far in the course.

Compare & Contrast

When looking through the various course syllabi there were three common trends, as well

as well as three distinct differences among them. While each course shared similarities such as a

reflection component, and several had students’ engaging with nearby middle schools, and most

were a semester long projects; only one school connected back to the mission of the institution, a

few programs students in the class had no choice what type of service they would engage with,

and some courses had no room for creativity or development.

One of the main similarities between the course syllabi that I noticed was the expectation

that a student would maintain a journal that was grounded in reflection. I was pleased to see that

all of the courses had some type of critical reflection built in. Clayton (2009) defines critical

reflection as “The active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of

knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it

tends" (Clayton, 2009, pg. 2-1) Critical reflection paired with service-learning is essential

because it promotes students personal growth and connecting what they are learning within the

classroom to what they are doing outside of it.

The second similarity that I noticed amongst the course syllabi was the type of project

that students would engage with. Three of the five course syllabi had the students partnering with

local middle schools and having their college students connecting with students who were in

fourth or fifth grade. Howard (1993) talked about minimizing student’s experiences as a

community learner and a classroom learner and to me that connects directly with this type of

service-learning project. The professors were challenging students to connect what they were

learning inside the classroom in a different type of classroom setting, therefore minimizing the

difference between experiences. I also liked this type of project because it is showing how

important it is to invest back in the community via education.

The third similarity that I noticed was structural. Each course was set up so that students

were engaging in this service project for an entire semester. One of Honnet & Poulsen’s ten

Principles of good practice for combining service and learning is “An effective program expects

genuine, active, and sustained organizational commitment” (Honnet & Poulsen, 1998, pg. 2) By

providing students with an opportunity to work with the community for at least a semester, I

believe that the professor is showing the importance of genuine, active, and sustained

organizational commitment to the students. One of my biggest complaints around service-

learning is that I feel like it has the tendency to become a large one day event at the end of the

semester. By providing this type of programming, all we are doing is showing students that it is

necessary to dedicate at least one day of service to the community. By making these projects a

semester long, it is showing how valuable service can be when you truly invest in the project.

When comparing the course syllabi, however, I did notice a few distinct differences. The

first one that caught my attention relates to chapter one of Barbara Jacoby’s book, “Service-

learning in Higher Education”. One of the pitfalls of service-learning projects that Jacoby talked

about was that “Most of the programs were not integrated into the central mission and goals of

the schools and agencies where they were based.” (Jacoby, 1996, pg. 13) When reviewing the

course syllabi, I found that only one university- Gonzaga University- even mentioned their

schools mission and vision statement. Furthermore, none of the course syllabi mentioned the

mission or vision of any of the organizations that they were going to be completing the project at.

This is concerning because if we are asking students to complete service for an organization or

institution, it is important for them to know why they are going there and how what they will be

doing connects with the community at large.

The second main aspect that was different amongst the course syllabi was the motivation

of the students who would be completing the service-learning project. One of the aspects that

Jacoby speaks about in her book is the importance of reciprocity between the service-learner and

the community in which they are serving. Jacoby states that reciprocity is important because is

creates “a sense of mutual responsibility and respect between individuals in the Service-Learning

exchange” (Jacoby, 1996, p. 8) I noticed that in some of the course syllabi, the service-learning

project was very structured and it seemed as though the students’ had no choice in what type of

service they were doing, rather it was all set up and just needed to be implemented. To me, this

structure would take away the creativity portion of service learning and communicate a message

to students that instead of working with community members to create a solutions, the solutions

are already set in place and need to be acted upon. Jacboy presents this as a problem and a pitfall

of service learning by saying that a pitfall of some service-learning activities “focused on “doing

for” and “helping others” rather than supporting others to meet their own needs.” (Jacoby, 1996,

pg. 13)

In conclusion, the courses that I had selected were very different- but all shared some

commonality of reflective learning. I think that Andrew Furco’s definition of service-learning is

one that will stick with me the most as I progress throughout my journey in higher education.

Furco states that true service-learning happens when “service and learning goals of equal weight

and each enhances the other for all participants.” (Furco, 1996, pg. 2) Before taking this

curriculum class, I had always thought of service learning as a project at the end of the semester

or something that I couldn’t balance with my academics. Through these course readings I see

that it is so much more than that. Service-learning isn’t just another type of learning, it is an

experience. An experience that requires a balance of connecting what students are learning inside

the classroom with their communities; as well as encouraging students to engage in critical

reflection to make meaning of their experience.

References

Ash, Clayton, & Moses. (2009). Learning through Crtical Reflection: A Tutorial for Service-

Learning Students. Raleigh, NC.

Furco, Andrew. "Service-Learning: A Balanced Approach to Experiential Education."

Expanding Boundaries: Service and Learning. Washington DC: Corporation for National

Service, 1996. 2-6.

Honnet, E.P. & Poulsen, S.J. (1998) Principles of Good Practice for Combining Service and

Learning, The Johnson Foundation

Howard, J. (1993).Community service learning in the curriculum. In J. Howard (Ed.), Praxis I: A

faculty casebook on community service learning. (pp. 3-12). Ann Arbor: OCSL Press.

Jacoby, B. & Associates. (1996). Service-learning in higher education: Concepts and Practices.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Notre Dame University

http://www.compact.org/syllabi/chemistry/chemistry-in-service-of-the-community/4010/

University of Utah

http://www.compact.org/syllabi/dance/service-learning-modern-dance/3802/

Gonzaga University

http://www.compact.org/syllabi/public-and-community-service-studies/community-outreach/

3926/

University of Maine- Farmington

http://www.compact.org/syllabi/biology/field-botany/3805/

Ohio University

http://www.compact.org/syllabi/business-management/meeting-and-conference-planning/3791/