The Positive Relationship Between Communication And Service Learning

It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).

Service Learning is an educational strategy set in place to enlighten students with instruction and experience, in addition to improve learning , teach responsibility, and support the community. Service learning is vital to the development of the student, given that it intertwines academic and personal development together. It is aimed to enhance a student’s learning in all aspects of life.

The benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,

Service Learning is learning through experience to gain sociological observation, concepts, and theories so I decide to do my service learning hours in one of the two high schools that is part of the Oceanside Unified School District. The name of the school is called El Camino High School. El Camino High School is a high school that is located at 400 Rancho Del Oro Drive in Oceanside, California. It has over 3,000 students currently attending. The school’s mascot is the “Wildcat” and their colors are gold and red. El Camino High School is a public school that is part of a system of free public education that is maintained at a public expense for the education of students who are part of that community or district. El Camino High School is a place is a public school where students are coming out of middle school and are

Assistant Professor of Education, Dan Butin, asserts in his essay " Service- Learning is Dangerous" that service-learning is dangerous because it forces the focus of education outside of the classroom and challenges pre-existing notions of what higher education entails and how it is structured. He suggests that it should be more than just a course, but should be the course itself. He also contends that service-learning is able to provoke the student to question who they are and what they believe. It is able to combine conventional education with life experience for a more rounded approach to educating.

In “The Power of One: Using Service Learning to Promote Community Engagement”, Crystal Shannon explores the influence of service learning on first year nursing students. Most registered nurses work within their community and develop close relationships with their patients. The service learning curriculum allows nursing students to develop skills and relationships within their community. Service learning creates a better awareness among students while promoting learning in the medical field. It’s a more realistic application of the course material.

Service-learning isn't just restricted to teaching leadership skills. Service-learning also gives students the opportunity to enrich the lives of others with what they've learned, or with what they already know, whether the students are aware of it or not. For example, as Kelly Millicent, a lecturer for Barry University expressed, “Students in an English writing class could provide free tutoring or proofreading sessions for new United States citizens with limited English language proficiency and then synthesize their experiences in a class journal” (83). With an influx of immigrants from countries around the world to Brevard County, linguistical assistance from proficient English speakers can be a great service-learning task at Eastern Florida State College. Perhaps a language exchange of sorts can happen. Such an exchange would fall under the reciprocity portion of service-learning, which is more often than not, a huge part of the service-learning experience. In a short video interview titled “The Importance of Service Learning”, with Charis, last name not given, a student at Gateway Technical College, she recalls her Service-Learning experience of teaching others how to grow and maintain vegetables:

The purpose of the service learning activity is to experience community service and feel more connected to the community, Edgewater. When I am able to reach out to my community members, specifically older adults, I believe I will be able to address their needs as well as contribute myself to provide them the essential services they want/need in their surroundings. Also, as a part of the course “Aging in America,” my goal is to be familiar with the different aspects of Aging in America such as demographics, aging and ageism, gerontology, and healthcare workforce. Upon completion of this service learning as well as this course, I want to be able to demonstrate the aging process, describe the theories of aging, and appreciate the multidisciplinary

My service learning experience opened my eyes to many new ideas and supported the information that I have been learning in class. For my service learning, I went to West Elementary school and worked in an all girls first grade classroom. West is located in a very urban neighborhood right outside of East Lansing. In the beginning of my service learning, I was in culture shock due to the size of the school, make up of the students/teachers, and the social economic status of the students. All of these components were drastically different from the school I came from. At first, I didn’t know what to think of the school or students, but I eventually realized that their goals and priorities were different from the elementary school I went to. The three main concepts that stuck out to me during my service learning experience include, the social construction of gender, special and gifted education, and funding.

In this paper, I discuss the experience I have gained from my service learning, along

According to Kathleen Flecky and Lynn Gitlow, service-learning is defined as, “learning that occurs in experiences, reflection, and civic engagement” (Flecky & Gitlow, 2011). In recent years more universities are implementing service learning into their curriculum. A key concept of service learning is civic responsibility. Civic responsibility can simply be defined as your responsibilities as a citizen. As will be shown later in this paper, service learning can have many benefits not only to a student, but also to the community members

First, counselor educators’ interested service learning should examine the needs of the program or course. In this study, service learning was used as an experiential learning component to complete the course objectives and CACREP requirements as listed in the syllabus. There were also other elements that might have made service learning essential to the multicultural class. One of the objectives is the focus on social justice. The majority of students enrolling in the counselor education program used in this study is predominantly White. Furthermore, Bloom and Peters (2012), cite that these students are sometimes unaware or have little or no experience working with diverse communities.

Service-learning has a massive potential as a teaching and learning strategy in college and universities. It gives students a wide range of experience, which often benefit others and the community, while also advancing the goals of curriculum-based learning. Service-learning is often mistaken with volunteering and communication services. Both activities are a form of service within a company and they are not necessary to have a connection with educational purposes, which is the main objective of all service learning projects. Volunteering is a form of working towards helping a specific social or educational duty in the community with no financial gain. Hence, it is similar to community service, because both terms and both groups take the time,

The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will

The term ‘‘service-learning’’ means a method (A) under which students or participants learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service that (i) is conducted in and meets the needs of a community; (ii) is coordinated with an elementary school, secondary school, institution of higher education, or community service program, and with the community; and (iii) helps foster civic responsibility; and (B) that (i) is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of the students, or the educational components of the community service program in which the