In modern and well-structured universities, ethics centers are playing a key role in hosting, organizing, and managing activities to enrich and guide students' ethical thinking and analysis. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the goals, activities, and administration of ethics centers, as well as their role in promoting ethical thinking…

In an education environment focused on high-stakes testing in reading and math, service learning may seem like an unnecessary frill. But well-planned service learning projects can enhance student engagement in school and give students opportunities to use academic skills and knowledge to make a difference in their communities. This article gives…

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) defines service learning as the combination of classroom instruction with community service, focusing on critical, reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local, community-identified needs while…

This paper poses the question of whether it is possible to teach writing (or work with teachers teaching writing) so that public perceptions of students, and of writing, change. The paper elaborates on the question--Is it possible to: (1) use writing as a way to eradicate deficit-based notions of students and their abilities; and (2) use writing…

Developing a community service project for middle school students can be a daunting task. The sheer number of contacts necessary for the project to be successful can be overwhelming. This manual will provide materials and guidance to simplify this process and ensure its success. Included in this workbook are sample letters, worksheets, lesson…

Service learning involves learning a variety of skills through the act of service. It is a powerful teaching strategy that can enrich student learning, enhance teaching, and revitalize communities. This increasingly popular strategy offers a framework in which students can recall and apply more of what they learn than in traditional content-based…

Describes the current interest and activity in community service and the undergraduate educational experience. Argues that recognition by faculty, administrators, and agency officials is necessary to ensure that community service projects successfully combine service with learning. Offers recommendations for implementing a program that cultivates…

In this booklet, a group of middle school teachers offer suggestions on how other teachers can similarly enhance their own school's service learning program by initiating and sustaining a service learning task force. The teachers begin by explaining why they developed a service learning task force and list some of the benefits of having a service…

This essay addresses how to cope with several potential barriers to implementing effective service-learning projects. The discussion builds on experiences of developing and refining service-learning in upper-division communication courses. Difficulties arise in three areas: the institutional and physical setting, student attitudes, and community…

Introduces the range of goals that service learning promises to achieve, noting specific principles that can help meet those goals. Information is based on a six-year study of experiential education combining academic and field research. A conceptual framework for organizing the planning, development, and evaluation of service and experiential…

The Learn and Serve Grant Program was designed to support schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) that engage children and adolescents in service activities linked to the school curriculum that address real community needs. An evaluation covered 93 Pennsylvania schools and CBOs that received funding to design and implement programs.…

Service learning links community service and volunteerism with academic learning. It is a collaborative effort that brings schools, community-based organizations, parents, and other community members together in a common enterprise of individual and community growth. Service learning is based on a number of existing links between schools and…

This report provides peer-reviewed, scholarly research supported in whole or in part by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement through its educational research and development programs. It includes 13 previously published articles from selected refereed journals identifying the best research on community service learning. Section 1,…

This paper begins by describing the changing needs in the education of today's information technology (IT) professional. It presents a theoretical framework for using an experiential learning approach in the context of professional education in IT and information management and describes an instructional model that augments the principles of…

A guide for college and university educators who manage service-learning programs, or programs that support student involvement in the community, is presented. A systematic approach to planning and managing service-learning programs is presented, management functions for supporting a service-learning system are identified, and ideas on…