1 / 31

Finding the Buried Treasure: Research Opportunities Using Service-Learning

Finding the Buried Treasure: Research Opportunities Using Service-Learning. Dr. April Heiselt Associate Professor and Director Center for the Advancement of Service-Learning Excellence (CASLE) Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology Center for Teaching and Learning Workshop

hanzila
Download Presentation

Finding the Buried Treasure: Research Opportunities Using Service-Learning

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Finding the Buried Treasure: Research Opportunities Using Service-Learning Dr. April Heiselt Associate Professor and Director Center for the Advancement of Service-Learning Excellence (CASLE) Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology Center for Teaching and Learning Workshop February 27, 2013

  2. Introductions • Dr. April Heiselt • Associate Professor & Student Affairs Program Coordinator • Director of the Center for the Advancement of Service-Learning Excellence (CASLE) • Courses taught with service-learning pedagogy: • Introduction to Assessment, Administration of Student Personnel Services, Student Affairs in Higher Education, Literature of Student Affairs, Internship in Student Affairs, Day One Leadership Community

  3. Brief Program Overview • CASLE Description • What is service-learning? • Research and service-learning • Peer-reviewed journals • Preflection Experience • Grant Opportunities • Examples of service-learning research • Question and Answer Period

  4. Center for the Advancement of Service-Learning Excellence • Learn, Serve, Become. • Learn. – The Light Bulb • Students are able to learn more, with more depth, and critical thinking than in a typical classroom setting • Serve. – The Hand • Students give their time to help, assist, provide knowledge, and to in essence “give a hand” to an entity who needs it. • Become. – The Infinite Arrow • Students will take this knowledge with them throughout their experience at MSU and into the future as independent, critical thinkers, who (ideally) will want to become civically engaged, active citizens.

  5. References/Adaptations • Learn and Serve America http://www.learnandserve.org • Service-Learning Research Primer http://www.servicelearning.org/service-learning-research-primer/service-learning-research-primer • National Service Learning Clearinghouse (Research) http://www.servicelearning.org • National Service Learning Partnership http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ABT_index

  6. Service-learning is NOT • One-time volunteering experience • One sided (only the student or community benefits) • Logging community service hours in order to graduate • Service assigned as a form of punishment • An “add-on” to other assignments

  7. What is Service-Learning? Service-learning is a pedagogy . . . A method of teaching and learning linking meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to… • Meet the needs of a community organization • Enrich the learning experience and enhance student understanding of course material • To teach civic responsibility and critical thinking • Strengthen communities

  8. What types of research could I conduct? • Each discipline is unique; but, there are common possibilities… • Study of the service-learning pedagogy in a specific field or discipline • Impact studies – on students, the community partner

  9. Adapted from: Bringle & Hatcher, 2000

  10. Research and Service-Learning • What types of research are “counted” here at Mississippi State University? • Peer-reviewed Journal Articles – 100’s of opportunities • Note: There are other opportunities for publication (non-peer reviewed articles), but these are not typically used for tenure and promotion • Research Presentations • Obtaining of grant funds to support research

  11. Peer-Reviewed Writing • “There is no peer-reviewed journal in my field that would print this type of research.” • Illustration of efforts that bring about new concepts in your field. • Highlight the impact your research is having on other fields • The stimulation of knowledge can build your reputation as a researcher

  12. Peer-Reviewed S-L Journals • Service-Learning Research – theoretical • Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning www.umich.edu/~mjcsl/ Article Examples: • Service-Learning and Critical Emotion Studies: On the Perils of Empathy and the Politics of Compassion • Revitalizing South Memphis through an Interdisciplinary Community-University Development Partnership • International Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Research

  13. Peer-Reviewed S-L Journals • Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship www.jces.ua.edu Article Examples: • Fostering a Listening Community Through Testimony: Learning with Orphans of the Genocide in Rwanda • Including Latino Communities in the Learning Process: Curricular and Pedagogical Reforms in Undergraduate Spanish Programs • Publishing Opportunities Resource List • Published by The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/SR_Homana.pdf

  14. Journals for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning • Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning www.iupui.edu/~josotl • Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education www.indstate.edu/jcehe • Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/

  15. Common Problems in S-L Research • Small sample sizes • Drawing conclusions about all service-learning students by interviewing eight seniors about one class • Correlation ≠ Causation • Correlating hours of service at a site to attitudes about diversity, and then concluding, "serving more hours at a homeless shelter caused students to have more open attitudes about diversity." Without additional evidence, a more appropriate inference would be something like, "students who served more hours at a homeless shelter had higher scores on the diversity scale." • Self-selection bias (non-random assignment)

  16. Common Problems in S-L Research • Social desirability bias When the behaviors and attitudes that the researcher wants to measure are "socially desirable" (i.e. social responsibility), students are inclined to make themselves look good when they give responses. • “Creaming the crop” Overgeneralization of results to draw conclusions about another group of students (i.e. all students in college vs. students in a particular first-year course).

  17. What type of research could you conduct?

  18. Preflection • Used to enhance the overall reflection process • In preflection students are asked to: • Imagine what the experience will be like and express any feelings they anticipate their involvement • Comments are reviewed after the service has been completed • Looking back on these thoughts/feelings provides for some comparative analysis and brings about focused discussion and deepening insights

  19. Service-Learning and Research Preflection Experience • What were your thoughts about coming to this workshop on service-learning research? • What did you think you might learn? • What ideas did you have (publication, presentation, grant idea) that you thought you could create based on this discussion today?

  20. Keep these thoughts in mind as we continue…

  21. Presentation Venues • Depending on your discipline… the sky is the limit! • International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement Conference • National Association for Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) • Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Administrators Conference • American Library Association National Conference (ALA) • First-Year Experience and Students in Transition Conference

  22. Grant Opportunities • Federal • Regional • Local • Foundation

  23. Grant Opportunities • Federal Grants • National Institutes of Health • National Endowment for the Arts • US Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/fund/grants-apply.html • Federal Grant Opportunities www.grants.gov

  24. Federal Grant Example • Department of Health and Human Services *Support for Economic Development Projects to Help Low-Income Individuals • The Job Opportunity for Low Income Individuals Projects program provides support for new business ventures, business expansion, and self-employment and micro-enterprise projects designed to address the economic needs of low-income individuals and families. The application deadline is March 29, 2013.

  25. Regional Grant Example • Delta Rural Health Network Development Grant • Website: http://1.usa.gov/Viv4rP • Information: Funds organizations located in the eight Delta states to address unmet local health care needs and prevalent health disparities in rural Delta communities.

  26. Grant Opportunities • Foundations • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Education) http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants/ • Ebay Foundation Community Grants (Technology) http://pages.ebay.com/community/aboutebay/foundation/ • Ben and Jerry’s Foundation (Environment) http://www.benjerry.com/foundation/index.html • Community Foundation Locator http://www.communityfoundationlocator.org/search/inex.cfm

  27. Grant Example • Local Grants – MSU has campus grants too! • Cross-college Research Grants http://www.research.msstate.edu/funds/ • Starting small with matching funds is a great indicator of success • Teaching grant – Schillig Special Teaching Grant

  28. Examples of Service-Learning Research (involving a class) • ARC 4990: Habitat Prototype, Professor Gregory • MSU IRB Approval • Purpose of the project is to gather information on the perceptions of service-learning by architecture students to better understand the impact of service-learning on architecture education.

  29. Thinking back to your initial research idea…what thoughts do you have now?

  30. References • Ash, S. L., Clayton, P. H., & Atkinson, M. P. (2005). Integrating reflection and assessment to capture and improve student learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 11(2), 49-60. • Astin, A. W., & Sax, L. J. (1998). How undergraduates are affected by service participation. Journal of College Student Development, 39, 251-263. • Bringle, R. G. (2003). Enhancing theory-based research on service-learning. In S. H. Billig & J. Eyler (Eds.), Deconstructing service-learning: Research exploring context, participation, and impacts (pp. 3-21). Greenwich, CN: Information Age Publishing. • Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2, 112-122. • Bringle, R. G., & Hatcher, J. A. (2000, Fall). Meaningful measurement of theory-based service learning outcomes: Making the case with quantitative research. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 68-75. • Eyler, J. (2002). Stretching to meet the challenge: Improving the quality of research to improve the quality of service-learning. In S. H. Billig & A. Furco (Eds.), Service-learning: Through a multidisciplinary lens. Advances in service-learning research series (pp. 3- 14). Greenwich, CT: Information Age. • Eyler, J. & Giles, D.(1999). Where's the learning in service-learning? San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass Publishers • Furco, A., & Billig, S. (2002). Service-learning: The essence of the pedagogy. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

More Related