Service Learning: Industrial Embedded Systems Course

This case study will focus on the implementation of a community college service learning program with special emphasis placed upon four central factors. A major factor impacting the launch of this program was the presence of a proactive leadership. These leaders were well-versed in service learning methodology and philosophy, committed to securing campus-wide support, and acted as mentors/recruiters of promising service learning faculty members. Additionally, the leadership was actively engaged in the development of program infrastructure, which included the appointment of director, coordinator, and service learning council membership. Regarding professional development, it was imperative to provide opportunities to faculty who were involved with the service learning program in order to ensure curricular integrity, adherence to the service learning methodology, and commitment to the spirit of the service learning philosophy. Program evaluation was a crucial element in ascertaining both strengths and challenges that manifested within the program. The resulting outcomes of the program evaluation held the potential for adaptation that resulted in greater program quality. In addition to these four factors are service learning curriculum and pedagogy issues, the process of implementing the service learning program (which includes the four factors), and a specific service learning project exemplar.

Service Learning (SL) is a community-based learning approach which is intended to empower student skills and attitudes, foster civic responsibility and contribute to the benefit of the community. It is believed that SL programs can benefit institutions, especially towards social change in society. This study was conducted to explore the impact of SL on the universities and society in Johor. This study utilized a qualitative research design, where interviews were conducted to gather respondents’ feedback. A total number of 18 respondents were selected out of which eight were instructors from Higher Education Institution and ten were people from the community who had participated in a SL program. Content analysis was used to analyze the transcribed data collected through interviews. The findings show that SL played a significant role towards students’ skills development, especially in communication, leadership and other soft skills. Apart from enhancing students’ skills development, SL also helped to increase positive images of the universities and, at the same time, to show the universities’ role as an agent for social change. As for society, the benefits that people could gain from SL were related to technology transfer, expertise and socio-economic improvement.

This study aims to determine the effect of service learning (SL) on the trait emotional intelligence and adversity quotient of Chinese undergraduate students in Hong Kong. The SL programme lasted six months (at least 80 service hours). In a pre-test–post-test experimental design, students who participated in the SL during that time period were classified as the experimental group (n = 139; 69 male, 70 female), whereas students who never participated in SL were classified as the comparison group (n = 133; 66 male, 67 female). Both groups of participants were asked to finish the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) and the Adversity Response Profile® (ARP) before and after the SL programme. The results showed that there were no significant differences in WLEIS and ARP scores (at the pre-test) between the experimental and comparison groups. The results further revealed that students in the experimental group had better improvements in WLEIS and ARP than those in the comparison group after they completed SL. These findings provide valuable insights and implications for incorporating components of SL into interventions for youths to improve their ability to process emotions and overcome adversity.

Background. Service learning has gained recognition as a valuable pedagogical approach in higher education, aiming to bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world practice. In the context of educational institutions, the role of leadership, particularly transformational leadership, plays a significant role in shaping the effectiveness of such programs. Purpose. This research explores the influence of principal transformational leadership on teacher performance within the framework of service learning in higher education institutions. Method. The study aims to assess how transformational leadership behaviors of school principals impact the engagement and performance of teachers involved in service learning programs. Using a quantitative research design, this study surveyed 150 teachers across several higher education institutions that implement service learning programs. Data were collected through questionnaires that assessed principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ performance in service learning contexts. Results. The results indicate that transformational leadership has a positive and significant effect on teacher performance, particularly in areas related to motivation, professional development, and commitment to service learning objectives. Teachers reported higher levels of engagement and effectiveness when their principals exhibited transformational leadership behaviors, such as inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Conclusion. This study concludes that principals who embrace transformational leadership can significantly enhance teacher performance, thereby strengthening the impact of service learning programs.

This article explores the potential for music making activities such as jamming, song writing, and performance to act as a medium for intercultural connection and relationship building during service learning programs with Indigenous communities in Australia. To set the context, the paper begins with an overview of current international perspectives on service learning and then moves towards a theoretical and practical discussion of how these processes, politics, and learning outcomes arise when intercultural engagement is used in service learning programs. The paper then extends this discussion to consider the ways in which shared music making can bring a sense of intercultural “proximity” that has the potential to evoke deep learning experiences for all involved in the service learning activity. These learning experiences arise from three different “facings” in the process of making music together: facing others together; facing each other; facing ourselves. In order to flesh out how these theoretical ideas work in practice, the article draws on insights and data from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University’s award winning Winanjjikari Service Learning Program, which has been running in partnership with Barkly Regional Arts and Winanjjikari Music Centre in Tennant Creek since 2009. This program involves annual service learning trips where university music students travel to Central Australia to work alongside Aboriginal and non-Indigenous musicians and artists on a range of community-led projects. By looking at the ways in which shared music making brings participants in this program “face to face”, we explore how this proximity leads to powerful learning experiences that foster mutual appreciation, relationship building, and intercultural reconciliation.

An expanding body of scholarship and other writing is emerging across may disciplines that views service learning as an effective, and perhaps core element of the higher education mission. James Applegate and Sherwyn Morreale, writing as disciplinary association officers of the National Communication Association, suggest that faculty, students and communities will continue to witness the proliferation of service learning initiatives as university service missions are recast with a new vision for community outreach that matches the expertise and values of the university with the needs of local, state, national, and international communities.1 It has not been clear to date how much of an impact service learning pedagogies have had among those who teach journalism and mass communication. The journalism and mass communication literature in this area is, in comparison to other disciplines, small. The study described below attempts to address this imbalance. Service learning has been defined by several scholars whose theoretical positions vary. Most acknowledge that the essence of service learning is in its ability to connect student involvement to community outlets.2 One of the more inclusive definitions of service learning is offered by the American Association of Higher Education: Service learning means a method under which students learn and develop a thoughtfully organized service that: is conducted in and meets the needs of a community and is coordinated with an institution of higher education and with the community; helps foster civic responsibility; is integrated into and embraces the academic curriculum of the students enrolled; and includes structured time for the students to reflect on the service experience.3 Although service learning can be categorized within the more general paradigm of experiential learning, its major distinction lies in the philosophical basis from which it springs-integrating a sense of civic responsibility into the academic environment in order to impart character development as part of the academic mission.4 For the democratic process to work, society needs active citizens with a sense of responsibility and involvement in the communities in which they live, not passive consumers. In fact, service learning has been posited as a way for the academy to acknowledge its commitment or renew its civic responsibility to the community it finds itself in. Studies that have assessed service learning experiences conclude that the outcomes have been positive for most involved: students, faculty, community and institution.5 Students are more motivated in their classwork, work harder and learn more; and many of the benefits acquired from their service learning experience are long term.6 Faculty find that student learning is enhanced and that there is an interaction between theory and practice and thought to action.7 Community organizations have also found student contributions valuable. Campus/community relationships are constructive, and connections are made that did not exist before.9 Researchers have studied particular class experience regarding the incorporation of service learning alongside more traditional classroom methods.10 With regard to the journalism/mass communication discipline, Cohen and Kinsey incorporated service learning projects into the Mass Communication and Society course and found that the greatest strength of this approach was in assisting students in placing classroom material into a meaningful context.11 They also found that both students and teachers observed the service learning projects they participated in were an effective use of academic time. Focusing on service-learning designated courses, Corbett and Kendall found that students enrolled in these courses believed that the service learning experiences heighten their sense of citizenship and assisted them in understanding basic concepts and theories of course content.12 Other researchers have looked at university-wide curricula and have determined that service learning components are found predominantly in education and social science courses. …

© 2016 by the board of trustees of the university of ill inois As part of Fall Welcome Week, incoming freshmen at our Midwestern Jesuit university engage in a First-Year Summer Reading program. All new students read the same book and attend small group sessions to discuss their impressions. In the fall of 2013, I led one of these discussion sessions on Fr. Gregory Boyle’s 2011 memoir, Tattoos on the Heart, in which Boyle recounts his work with gang members in Los Angeles. During our discussion, a student pointed out a quote that she found interesting: Gregory writes that “Jesus was not ‘a man for others’; he was one with them” (188; emphasis mine). The student explained that this statement seemed to contrast with our university’s mission of preparing students to become “men and women for others.”1 As a group, we discussed the difference between the two prepositions, and I ended the session by encouraging the student to participate in the First-Year Summer Reading essay contest with a paper on exactly this topic. After leaving the discussion session, I kept thinking about the student’s observation. Our mission as a Jesuit university is admirable in many ways, pushing for academic rigor to educate the “whole person” and to serve those who are in need. Inspired by that incoming student, I started to think more about the for in our motto, which moves our campus community to invest an enormous amount of time and energy into service-learning projects every year. Where is the connection between feminism and service learning? In which ways can they profit from each other? How can we practice service learning at a religious institution that is often skeptical of feminism to bring the movement to our student body? How might this create a more effective form of service? For the purpose of this article, I define service learning as meaningful service in connection with learning, reflection, and civic responsibility toward the strengthening of communities and bringing about lasting social transformation. Jeff Claus and Curtis Ogden propose in their Introduction to Service Learning for Youth Empowerment and Social Change that “service learning can provide powerful opportunities for youth to reflect critically and constructively in their world and to develop skills for facilitating meaningful social change” (3). Ideally, service learning enhances students’ critical thinking skills, Feminist Service Learning: Teaching about Oppression to Work toward Social Change

This chapter reports on an ambitious action research and service-learning programme that aims to address urban food insecurity through food systems change in Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa. The iZindaba Zokudla project developed appropriate technology, graphic design and business management service-learning courses for food systems change in South Africa. The chapter reflects on the ability of urban farmers and entrepreneurs to take action after a service-learning intervention in Soweto, Johannesburg. The chapter focusses on how service learning, its methods, personal change and reflexivity in students, and partnership development influenced the ability of entrepreneurs to take action. It concludes with remarks on how to implement such service-learning programmes so that stakeholders can contribute to the arduous task of food systems change.

Aim The purposes of this study were to examine the effect of service learning on changes in college student attitudes toward disability and identify potential factors to improve the quality of service learning using meta-analysis. Method A total of 1984 potential studies were identified through 6 different databases and 14 studies met the necessary criteria for quantitative analysis. Effect sizes were estimated as Hedges’ g using random effects, and heterogeneity among effect sizes was assessed with Q and I2 statistics. Results The overall effect size was positive but small (δ = .41, SE = .05, 95% CI [.33, .50], p < 0.05). Additionally, the results confirmed that different programs have different levels of impact on the student attitudes toward disability (Q = 25.71, p < 0.05, I 2 = 45.54). Service-learning programs that were part of a course requirement, on-campus, included a lecture component, and emphasized teacher-centered goals had smaller impacts than programs that were voluntary, off-campus, did not include lecture, and emphasized the achievement of common goals. Conclusion The present analysis suggests that different service-learning programs have different effects, and factors like requirement status and type of involvement may lead to greater changes in attitudes toward disability. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Adapted physical activity service learning has positive, yet small, effects on college student attitudes toward disability. Service-learning practitioners should aim to increase autonomy within service learning by providing multiple choices and opportunities to college students, such as a variety of practicum types, locations, and disability populations to choose from. Service-learning practitioners should encourage the development of common goals between college students and people with disabilities and integrate shared activities that are familiar to both groups in order to promote optimal contact conditions and enhance attitude change. Programs that intend to change attitudes toward people with disabilities should incorporate strategies specifically designed to target attitude change.

Novel curricular strategies are required if institutions want all students to actively experience the benefits of global knowledge and civic engagement, as financial and practical commitments frequently make study abroad inaccessible to many students. In this paper, we outline an innovative service-learning course, where local action coupled with an international target, offered a parallel and novel learning strategy that capitalized on the strengths of experiential education, while providing a practical and more inclusive student engagement opportunity available to a larger subset of students. We also describe our teaching strategy, which emphasizes the social context of the classroom: discovery, self-exploration, and shared learning. Together, service learning and a critical pedagogy can better help students relate to the otherwise abstract processes of foreign aid. In 2013 and 2014, approximately 30 undergraduate students participated in a student-led outreach project soliciting bicycle donations to support human development efforts in Uganda and Ghana. In addition to making reasonable progress toward learning outcomes during the two-year pilot, we found that the everyday challenges our students encountered in their service-learning project were microcosms for some of the large-scale, global challenges that foreign aid delivery faces.

Throughout the world, the populations of many countries are rapidly becoming more diverse than ever. Population composition is changing, whether measured by ethnicity or race, age or generation, immigration status, or internal displacement. Higher education institutions have an important role in preparing university graduates to interact with diverse groups. This focus guided our study: What teaching and learning strategies might enhance intercultural competence (ICC) among undergraduate students at a university? ICC was considered to be understanding of one‘s own culture as well as the capacity to understand, interpret, and adapt to other cultures. Investigators wanted to collect a set of activities to foster growth in students‘ ICC through knowledge, experience, reflection, and coaching. This project examined 278 scholarly articles to explore the teaching and learning strategies that appear to have made the difference. Using keywords such as multiculturalism, intercultural competence, diversity, higher education, coaching, reflection, service learning, and cultural partners, investigators used academic databases to locate related materials. Research articles were analyzed to locate effective pedagogical practices. The study reported evidence from academic literature about intensive, intentional, and reflective cross-cultural educational experiences that could have a positive impact on the ICC of undergraduate students. Impactful teaching and learning experiences include elements of knowledge, experience, coaching, and reflection. The author suggested specific teaching and learning activities that combine all four elements and may be customized to enhance almost any academic or professional preparation program: cultural autobiography, diversity stories, cultural partnership, and service learning.

Learning packaging design requires knowledge of the design theory and practice of packaging making that can then be applied in the community. Our packaging design class was first implemented as a regular program for five years and has been a service-learning (S-L) program for 13 years. We observed that the quality of packaging design learning improved after implementing the S-L program. In order to identify an effective program, we examined packaging design learning by comparing classes that use a regular program to classes that implement the S-L program. We collected the data from students’ reflections and interviews with them. The study outcomes provide important discussions about S-L programs and how students enhance their learning by moving from passive through active learning to solve real design problems. Through the experiences of dealing with real clients and problems, students develop their sense of civic responsibility and citizenship. Moreover, students have contributed their packaging design to the welfare of urban and rural people in need. Regarding character development, students become more concerned with their attitudes. In addition to the positive outcomes from a S-L program, we also evaluate some challenges related to economic, cultural, and social aspects of S-L. The S-L program helps us to solve real problems in packaging design.

Building on previous research and the author’s own experience, this article concerns service learning design for heritage learners in languages for specific purposes. Heritage learner prior knowledge of and identification with the culture and language of study distinguishes them from L2 learners. As a result, the distinct learning needs of heritage learners pose a challenge to language educators attempting to integrate service learning, whether in languages for specific purposes or otherwise. Yet despite the need to rethink service learning in languages for specific purposes to meet the needs of this growing student population, few studies on the subject exist. Through a survey of the relevant extant literature, the author identifies the known benefits of service learning for heritage learners and considers the implications of heritage learner needs in the design of languages for specific purposes service learning projects. Best practices identified in the literature and through the author’s own experience are then used to develop a service learning framework specific to heritage learners in languages for specific purposes. Specifically, best practices observed in the literature include project and learning objectives that build on, strengthen, and expand five key areas: heritage learner previous knowledge of and identification with the culture and language; critical awareness of social and cultural issues relevant to heritage learner identity; cultural competence; heritage learner professional career goals; and heritage learner knowledge of specialized written and spoken language skills in formal and informal registers. The author concludes that an asset-based approach, evident in existing heritage learner service learning projects, is key to maximizing service learning benefits for heritage learners. Rethinking service learning in this way is significant in developing cultural and communicative competence among heritage learners in languages for specific purposes.

Service learning (SL) is a teaching and learning approach that couples service to a community partner with academic learning for students. Often the objectives of SL courses include academic or technical enhancement, civic engagement, and development of personal and interpersonal skills. A key component of SL is critical reflection, which is expected to help the students understand the significance of civic engagement as well as course contents. The civic engagement aspect of this educational approach aligns well with the service-oriented nature of the civil engineering profession. SL projects have been conducted in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Capstone Senior Design course at the University of Vermont since 2006. Students submit written semi-guided reflections on their experience at the conclusion of the course. The student reflections from 2011 through 2014 (n = 154 male and 61 female from a total of 50 different SL projects) were analyzed to assess if there is any difference in the attitude toward SL between male versus female students. The results of this analysis are presented here.

Service learning activities through the Real Work Lecture (KKN) program by STIE Tanjungpinang Development students aim to support the development of MSMEs and strengthen the relationship between the university and the local community. In this program, students made observations at Kaysorn Souvenir Shop, an MSME in Hatyai, Thailand, to understand the state of local Thai MSMEs. Based on the observations, Kaysorn Souvenir Shop uses marketing partnerships with tour guides to attract tourists and offer discount vouchers as an additional attraction. An organized product layout also makes it easier for visitors to find the items they are looking for. This service learning program provides benefits for students in understanding the concept of direct marketing and MSME management, as well as showing the importance of collaboration between educational institutions and the community.