This research recounts a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project aimed at facilitating students' empathic development while also offering ways to identify and assess students' written expressions of empathy. I ground this work in an exploration of the many processes labelled as empathy and the reasons for including empathy as a course…

During semester-long courses in inclusive methods and beginning reading instruction, pre-service teacher candidates participate in weekly tutoring sessions with elementary students in grades K-5. We outline principles identified for effective service-learning and describe how to embed them to integrate community service. We discuss…

Learning approaches that support students' awareness of real-world issues and provide opportunities for taking action will lead to true transformation of education.

For many educators, the inspiration to teach comes from a desire to make a positive difference in students' lives. As they seek to guide students toward their big goals through trying times, teachers need resources that strengthen social and emotional skills. Facing this very challenge, Allison Silverman, a teacher at Port Chester Middle School in…

Trends toward short-term academic service-learning abroad necessitate programs designed to maximize effectiveness and measurement of outcomes. The current study sought to strategically foster and measure increases in global mindedness during an immersive community-based global learning program abroad. University students studying either Computer…

Universities engage students in traditional service-learning projects that often yield "good feelings", even a savior mentality, but typically leave the root causes of social justice issues unexamined and untouched. In contrast to traditional service-learning, critical service-learning bridges this gap with an explicit focus on justice…

Character education (CE) in schools has been reported to support a safe school environment in which adults and students can embrace core ethical values such as respect, fairness, and responsibility, for example (Pala, 2011). It has the power to not only "cultivate minds [but] nurture hearts" as well (Pala, 2011, p. 26). The creation of a…

This study describes the efficacy of modifications made to a higher education Latina/o public speaking course to enhance student growth and understanding. The changes included the addition of a service-learning component and the incorporation of culturally relevant pedagogy. Selected research, particularly related to college students, on…

Colleges of education must instantiate their candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions for accreditation. Professors often have candidates reflect on field experience as a way to enhance their learning. This study examines reflections of 43 candidates over a 2-year period. Candidates engaged in an after-school enrichment program as…

This article outlines the design of a new service-learning component central to a graduate course on teaching elementary and middle school writing. The service-learning involves course participants acting as mentors to middle school students as they write personal histories of local African American, Cape Verdean, and Puerto Rican senior citizens.…