Service learning teams and short-term mission opportunities have incredible potential to help participants stretch their faith, to help others, and gain a bigger picture of what God is doing in the world. To be effective, and to serve others in ways that are helpful, preparation is essential. This book will help readers think through things such as: -Deciding whether or not to join a team (and addressing the problem of team members dropping out) -Thinking carefully about fundraising -Anticipating group conflict, and strategies for preventing and managing conflict -Preparing for cross-cultural encounters and cross-cultural reflection -Reentry and reflection The book is designed for groups (whether for those preparing many teams at once or for individual teams) and for individuals themselves. It includes careful Christian reflection and draws on cross-cultural experience and research. It can be used as a workbook to encourage deliberation about the most pressing issues likely to be faced in preparing for service learning and short-term mission opportunities with the goal of promoting lifelong change.

This project-based guide is a blueprint for service learning—from getting started to assessing the experience—and integrates the K–12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. It provides ideas for incorporating literacy into service learning and suggestions for creating a culture of service. An award-winning treasury of activities, ideas, annotated book recommendations, author interviews, and expert essays—all presented within a curricular context and organized by theme. Digital Content contains all of the planning and tracking forms from the book plus bonus service learning plans, and more.

Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: A Sourcebook focuses on historical, philosophical, social foundations, practices and models of service-learning and civic engagement. The title offers practical, jargon-free chapters applicable to any educational institution as well as community organizations that might consult the work. Key Features Practical, jargon-free chapters applicable to any educational institution as well as community organizations that might consult the work 58 signed chapters are organized into thematic parts, such as Concepts & Theoretical Approaches, Historical & Social Foundations, The Role of Service-Learning in Higher Education, The Role of the Community, Lessons Learned & Future Directions, etc. Thematic parts provide a practical sampling of syllabi, lesson plans, activities and resources, and online websites and databases supporting service-learning. Glossary (key terms commonly used in discussions and research on service-learning and civic engagement) Bibliography of sources consulted in production of the volume This Sourcebook is a scholarly source ideal for any educational institution and academic library as well as public libraries and community organizations that might consult the work on historical, philosophical social foundations, practices and models of service-learning and civic engagement.

A college student wants to lead a campaign to ban a young adult novel from his child’s elementary school as his service-learning project in a children’s literature course. Believing the book is offensive to religious sensibilities, he sees his campaign as a service to children and the community. Viewing such a ban as limiting freedom of speech and access to information, the student’s professor questions whether leading a ban qualifies as a service project. If the goal of service is to promote more vital democratic communities, what should the student do? What should the professor do? How do they untangle competing democratic values? How do they make a decision about action?This book addresses the teaching dilemmas, such as the above, that instructors and students encounter in service-learning courses.Recognizing that teaching, in general, and service-learning, in particular, are inherently political, this book faces up to the resulting predicaments that inevitably arise in the classroom. By framing them as a vital and productive part of the process of teaching and learning for political engagement, this book offers the reader new ways to think about and address seemingly intractable ideological issues.Faculty encounter many challenges when teaching service learning courses. These may arise from students’ resistance to the idea of serving; their lack of responsibility, wasting clients’ and community agencies’ time and money; the misalignment of community partner expectations with academic goals; or faculty uncertainty about when to guide students’ experiences and when direct intervention is necessary.In over twenty chapters of case studies, faculty scholars from disciplines as varied as computer science, engineering, English, history, and sociology take readers on their and their students’ intellectual journeys, sharing their messy, unpredictable and often inspiring accounts of democratic tensions and trials inherent in teaching service-learning. Using real incidents – and describing the resources and classroom activities they employ – they explore the democratic intersections of various political beliefs along with race/ethnicity, class, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and other lived differences and likenesses that students and faculty experience in their service-learning classroom and extended community. They share their struggles of how to communicate and interact across the divide of viewpoints and experiences within an egalitarian and inclusive environment all the while managing interpersonal tensions and conflicts among diverse people in complex, value-laden situations. The experienced contributors to this book offer pedagogical strategies for constructing service-learning courses, and non-prescriptive approaches to dilemmas for which there can be no definitive solutions.

While this book is based primarily on experiences of occupational therapy practice education in South Africa, it aims to have international appeal as key principles of practice and service learning are drawn from the differing scenarios covered. Based on qualitative research, some of the book’s chapters describe issues faced by students in complex practice situations and highlight educational strategies for promoting socially responsive professional development. They show how students engage with the personal and professional challenges of working in a multicultural society and how situated learning can enhance their resourcefulness in meeting the needs of individuals, groups and communities. The book is divided into three sections: The first, on the practice education agenda, establishes the academic rationale for various forms of practice learning within an occupational therapy curriculum. The second section examines the learning opportunities offered by different practice contexts and highlights mechanisms for developing the professional identity of students. The final section, on enhancing potential, reviews mechanisms that may be used for supporting students in the field, and ends with a look at the future of practice education and how it might develop in response to social and international drivers.

Teacher education programs serve traditional and non-traditional students and develop teachers to enter a range of teaching environments. Approaching teacher education through community involvement and learning objectives helps to effectively prepare teachers to serve local and community needs. The Handbook of Research on Service-Learning Initiatives in Teacher Education Programs provides emerging research on the methods and techniques for educators to strengthen their knowledge regarding the intersection of service learning and field placements. While highlighting topics, such as cultural competency, teacher development, and multicultural education, this book explores the benefits, challenges, and opportunities for employing community service as the driving framework for field experiences. This publication is a vital resource for practitioners, educators, faculty, and administrators seeking current research on the opportunity of field involvement to enhance teacher candidates’ experiences and provide a channel for meaningful learning.

"There is no better way to improve student attitudes and outcomes than to blend both meaningful community and global service with improved academic achievement. Sally Berman invites her readers to do just that." -Bob Koehs, Service Learning Coordinator Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency "This book is full of practical tips for the classroom teacher, including strategies for assessing student learning." -Jeanine Yard, Learn and Serve Program Officer Michigan Community Service Commission Provide authentic, lasting learning opportunities for students in their own community Service learning offers students the unique opportunity to learn both in the classroom and in the real world. This exciting teaching strategy, detailed in Berman′s second edition of Service Learning, motivates students to learn content information, processes, and skills while making authentic connections to their surrounding community. This valuable resource explains the benefits of service learning and provides a step-by-step guide for using the instructional model. It features nine service-learning projects that are broken down into basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each project features: Strategies for aligning service and curricular goals Tips for involving students in decision-making Guidelines for managing different phases of the project Activities that foster reflection and self-evaluation Tips for differentiating by tapping into multiple intelligences In this single resource, teachers will find everything they need to successfully implement service learning projects, helping students gain deeper understandings of content while positively impacting their communities.

Service learning brings together students, academics and the community whereby all become teaching resources, problem solvers and partners. In addition to enhancing academic and real-world learning, the overall purpose of service learning is to instil in students a sense of civic engagement and responsibility and work towards positive social change within society. Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education promotes service learning as a pedagogical approach that develops civic engagement within higher education. It both describes and assesses the most recent developments and contextual positioning of service learning in European higher education and considers if and how the pedagogy is responding to European Union policy and the strategy of higher education institutions and towards engagement with broader societal issues. With case studies from 12 universities across Europe, this book draws on existing practice, shares knowledge and develops best practice to provide conceptual and practical tools for teaching, researching and practising service learning. This book: exposes service learning as a key approach in terms of embedding a culture of political and civic literacy within higher education; considers service learning in Europe, an area of growing research in service learning practice; explores the issue of university social responsibility; presents chapters from leaders in the service learning movement at a national and international level. Practical and engaging, Embedding Service Learning in European Higher Education is a fascinating read for anyone working in service learning as well as those working at universities with an interest in social and civic engagement and institutional reform.

This book emerges from the discourse of the Third International Symposium on Service-Learning held at the University of Indianapolis in Athens, Greece, in November 2009 as part of the biennial collection of papers on service-learning. This fourth collection highlights service-learning (SL) theories and methods in higher education, presents selected case studies of local projects that exemplify the theories and methods in action, and points the way toward future possibilities for international partnerships. Part One demonstrates how practitioners have translated SL theory into model programs of best practices. Part Two examines nationally based SL experiences that enrich indigenous local communities, national communities, and teaching institutions. Part Three explores international SL (ISL) programs with their unique reciprocal national relationships, hybrid methodologies, and site-specific challenges. Part Four covers networking national SL settings to international venues while forecasting SL concepts that span academic disciplines and geographic distances. The selected papers in this collection were contributed by educators in twenty-three universities in four countries.

The book evaluates service-learning within the context of a liberal arts education from a variety of disciplines. Contributors have written chapters that have practical appeal to other teachers and students interested in developing their own service-learning courses and connecting those courses to broader issues of citizenship and democracy.