Service learning is a teaching method, which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local/global needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility, and commitment to the community. Here service learning is focused on applied sustainability.
Service learning can be taken from three points of view, which are present on Appropedia:[1]
- As a methodology within a class or learning module where students focus their work on the needs of the community.
- As a pedagogical movement based on student actions in their communities after natural disasters or economic crises.
- As student-led social interventions.
Service learning using Appropedia[edit | edit source]
Your class or your personal research project can be involved with creating new content on Appropedia, on topics, or describing projects you are carrying out. Then, rather than assignments sitting unused on a hard disk, they become part of a structured, useful set of knowledge for humanity, available to all online, distributed through OLPC's XO (a.k.a. the $100 Laptop), as well as through offline distribution. Knowing this motivates students and teachers alike.
Translating content is another form of service learning. A Clarion University student project involved a collaboration between the physics department, which routinely uses sustainable technologies to teach physics, and the department of modern languages and cultures, chaired by Dr. Eleanor ter Horst. Students wrote and translated in the languages they were studying, and were inspired by the experience.
Service learning using Appropedia helps to create an essential knowledge base for the world via learning experiences for individuals and classes.
The Appropedia Foundation and the Appropedia community work with universities via service learning courses, as well as service learning programs to create these opportunities. Appropedia internships also offer opportunities for service learning.
Service Learning Journals with a Sustainability Focus[edit | edit source]
The International Journal for Service Learning[edit | edit source]
I am the manuscript editor for the ISLE. The International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE) is a peer-reviewed electronic journal offered free, semi-annually, over the World Wide Web. The Journal welcomes manuscripts based on original work of students and researchers with a specific focus or implication for service learning in engineering, engineering entrepreneurship in service, or related service learning pedagogy.
With an increasing number of individuals and institutions of higher education becoming involved in service learning and entrepreneurship in service learning, the IJSLE is an invaluable resources for students, faculty, practicing engineers and local communities. With articles relating to the latest design and research pertinent to local communities, the faculty-reviewed articles in each issue provide the reader with timely information related to:
- Engineering Design Projects as Service
- Engineering Research Projects as Service
- Engineering-Related Entrepreneurial Projects as Service
- Pedagogy in Engineering-Related Service Learning
If you are contributing to Appropedia - you should seriously consider submitting a manuscript once your project has come together
The International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering[edit | edit source]
The International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering: Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (IJSLE) was created in 2006 and is a complement to Appropedia's project area. The IJSLE provides a faculty reviewed venue for submitted academic papers. While Appropedia seeks to be open for all to submit, regardless of language, style or depth, the IJSLE follows much tighter guidelines. In addition Appropedia, provides a venue for these projects to be updated at will.
Other Service Learning Journals[edit | edit source]
Peer reviewed service learning journals.
Academic Exchange Quarterly (AEQ)[edit | edit source]
- AEQ is an independent, peer-reviewed print and electronic journal that publishes 55 - 65 original refereed articles per issue, submitted by international authors representing multiple academic areas.
Community Works Journal (CWJ)[edit | edit source]
- CWJ is published online (free) and in print three times a year in support of teaching practices that build community. It showcases innovative educational strategies, practices, and curriculum that involve teachers and students in meaningful work within their communities.
Florida Journal of Service-Learning in Teacher Education (FASITE)[edit | edit source]
- FASITE is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to exploring the many aspects of service-learning programs and pedagogy in use in pre-K, elementary, secondary, alternative education, vocational education, and teacher education programs throughout Florida as well as across the country.
The Generator: Journal of Service-Learning and Service Leadership[edit | edit source]
- The Generator is a National Youth Leadership Association publication for practitioners from all service-learning sectors. Issues focus on a specific theme, and include articles from the field, program examples, research, resources and news. Published quarterly.
Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement[edit | edit source]
- Published three times per year, JHEOE is a peer-reviewed journal that welcomes submissions from a broad range of scholars, practitioners, and professionals. Tables of contents and abstracts of the articles are available online.
Journal for Civic Commitment[edit | edit source]
The Journal for Civic Commitment is a twice-yearly, online journal dedicated to service-learning and civic engagement.
Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (MJCSL)[edit | edit source]
- MJCSL A peer-reviewed journal consisting of articles written by faculty and service-learning educators on research, theory, pedagogy, and issues pertinent to the service-learning community.
Reflections on Community-Based Writing Instruction[edit | edit source]
- Reflections, a peer reviewed journal, provides a forum for scholarship on writing, service-learning, and community literacy.
Service learning wikis[edit | edit source]
The Encyclopedia of Academic Service Learning (EASL)[edit | edit source]
The Encyclopedia of Academic Service Learning (EASL) provides definitions, discussion and references for a wide range of components and applications of service learning applied to higher education.
Campus Compact[edit | edit source]
Campus Compact is a national (U.S.) coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents representing some 6 million students who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national higher education association dedicated solely to campus-based civic engagement, Campus Compact promotes public and community service that develops students’ citizenship skills, helps campuses forge effective community partnerships, and provides resources and training for faculty seeking to integrate civic and community-based learning into the curriculum.
Campus Compact’s membership includes public, private, two- and four-year institutions across the spectrum of higher education. These institutions put into practice the ideal of civic engagement by sharing knowledge and resources with their communities, creating local development initiatives, and supporting service and service-learning efforts in areas such as K-12 education, health care, the environment, hunger/homelessness, literacy, and senior services.
Campus Compact has just redesigned their searchable database of program models. You can search by category, issue, type of institution, etc. The link to the database is here
Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse[edit | edit source]
Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse has many examples of student surveys as well as other resources in our Sample Forms and Templates database - see here
See also[edit | edit source]
- Appropedia:Service learning - Details on Appropedia's service learning programs
- Journals
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Briede W, J. C., & Mora, M. L. (2016). Diseño y Co-Creación Mediante Aprendizaje y Servicio en Contexto Vulnerable: Análisis de Percepción de la Experiencia. Formación Universitaria, 9(1), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-50062016000100007