Ten Steps to Developing and Implementing a Service Learning Strategy

1. Service learning can be effectively used in every academic discipline. If you have doubts about whether service learning is appropriate for your class, you may want to consider how community service might be helpful in enriching learning in your area. For example, criminal justice students might learn in class about how community involvement affects the recidivism rates of criminal offenders, and then volunteer at a local youth facility to experience directly what they have learned in the course. Students in a geology class might study the effects of sediment deposits on animal habitats and then volunteer at a state park.

Some applications require a little more imagination than others, and often the best are not immediately obvious. Brainstorming about the application potential to your course will help you decide what will work and what will not. Think about how your course content connects with the community and what kinds of service opportunities might be available.

2. With service sites or activities in mind, you may want to consider your goals and motives in applying service learning. What are you trying to accomplish for your students, yourself, the college and the community? Reviewing your course outcomes will help determine those that can be linked to service. Before going further, listing two or three specific and measurable service learning goals may provide greater clarity at this point about your desired outcomes.

3. Your motives, goals and course outcomes, will next help you decide how you will incorporate community service into your course. Some options range from a one-time special project (Habitat for Humanity, Special Olympics, etc.) to an extensive service commitment to an agency. One option on the Chemeketa campus that faculty have used before for a service learning experience is the annual ÒInto the StreetsÓ event that occurs every spring term. This event takes Chemeketa staff and students out into the community for a day of volunteer service at locations throughout Marion County. In the past, some faculty members have chosen to offer credit to their students for volunteering at this event.  

 4. Some resources that identify community placements that offer activities relevant to your course are the Volunteer Opportunities Directory for the Salem-Keizer Area available in the Opportunity Center (9/104), and Pam Waring, Cooperative Work Experience Coordinator. Then you might compile a list and think about which site might provide the best opportunities for service to your students. It might also be a good idea to make phone calls to particular agencies that seem like good possibilities.

5.Once you have chosen how service will be incorporated into your course, it will be useful to review and alter your syllabus to reflect the change. To successfully integrate the service experience into your syllabus, you can do more than simply add-on to an already full syllabus. Instead, the syllabus should incorporate service learning throughout, thus enhancing the course with service learning without the appearance of frivolity. This does not require a change in your course curriculum. For examples of syllabi that incorporate service learning and for details on how to incorporate service learning into your existing course, please see the sample syllabi and the Service Learning Development Form in Appendix B, or the Principles of Good Practice for Service Learning Pedagogy and the Service Learning Planning Matrix in Appendix A.    

6.At the beginning of the term, it is a good idea to explain and promote your reasons for including service learning in the course. You may suggest the benefits to the student, the community and the college. Making your commitment very clear will help encourage the students to take advantage of the opportunity for both the personal and academic growth that service affords. It might help to provide specifics on the locations, hours, and length of commitment of each service option, as well as student handouts to describe service learning and opportunities available (see Appendix B for samples).

If you want to offer more extensive term-long projects, your students need to find placements in service early in the term. The Service Learning Checklist in Appendix B will assist you in planning a timeline for your Service Learning enhanced course. Also, if you are working with students under the age of eighteen, appropriate waiver of liability forms are provided in Appendix B. For further coverage in case of liability, see the Service Learning Record form and the Service Learning Hours form in Appendix B.  

7. Students can develop specific service learning outcomes for their service experiences. Guiding students in the development of these outcomes will allow you to show that they are clearly linked with the academic outcomes of your course. To help students connect their academic experience to the Service Learning aspect of the course, please see the Planning for your Service Learning Activities and Beyond the Grade forms in Appendix A. Students may need assistance in developing outcomes and may lack familiarity with your specific course learning outcomes and how to link them to a seemingly non-academic experience. You may find students developing affective outcomes such as Òimprove self-esteemÓ, Òfeel better about the communityÓ, or general outcomes like Òimprove the communityÓ, Òlearn more about hospice careÓ, Òlearn to build a houseÓ and Òlearn how to work with diverse populations.Ó

To improve fulfillment of your courses' academic goals, you may find it useful to help your students link their service experience to specific course outcomes. In a business course, for example, students working with Habitat For Humanity might learn about managerial communication or Òjust in timeÓ supply strategies. For a psychology course, the outcome might be to understand the dynamics of group formation or gender roles and function in a project. In some cases, you may wish to delay this step until after students have been oriented to their volunteer placements so that they have some idea of what kinds of service they will be doing. In other cases where you are familiar with the placement, you can have them do this prior to their service.

Some faculty may want to prescribe the learning and service outcomes for the entire class. Establishing these student-learning outcomes at the beginning is a critical step in assuring the effectiveness of the service in enriching student learning of course material. This step requires creativity and focus, but success here will lead to more effective learning.

8.At this point, teaching students how to harvest the service experience for knowledge will aid them in the reflection process afterwards. With their learning outcomes in mind, students can focus on these outcomes and related questions as they participate in the service setting. While the math student is working for a Habitat For Humanity project, he or she might think about the algebra or geometry used in developing architectural plans. The business student may listen to workers' communication patterns and draw conclusions about the managerial structure as he or she helps patients into the pool at the rehabilitation center.

Because many students lack experience and confidence in learning in nontraditional, non-classroom environments, it is appropriate to address these skills. However, you may find a paradox between preparing students for their service-learning experience and offering them too much preparation. While we do want our students prepared and oriented to service, we must be careful not to over prepare them for their service experience. We all enjoy the adventure of discovery and we can destroy that for our students by telling them exactly what to expect, turning their experience from an adventure into a comparison.

9.Now you can link the service experience to your academic course content through deliberate and guided reflection, which is part of combining service with learning. Learning does not automatically result from experience. Reflection helps students to reexamine their experience at a distance and discover what values, attitudes or changes it initiated. For example, you may utilize class time to review what students accomplished, the significance of their activities, and the impact of particular service on the future of the community among other things.

Reflection can be in the form of journals, essays, class presentations, analytic papers, artwork, drama, dialogue or any other expressive act. The key to effectiveness is structure and direction. The nature and type of reflection provides context to help the students in discussing their experiences. An unstructured personal journal or group discussion is a great way to elicit affective disclosure. More specific academic outcomes will result from structuring these exercises with specific curriculum related questions. See information on the reflection process in Appendix A for more information.

10.You may evaluate your service learning outcomes like any other academic product. Remember that grading students on their academic product and not on their hours of service lends fairness to all students. Some may feel uncertain evaluating or assessing the outcomes of experiences we did not completely structure or present. By designing flexible measures, however, you can use the same standard used in evaluating any other written or oral presentation: Did the student master the course material? This will assure the academic integrity of the service learning course option.