Community-service programs that lack administrative or community support are destined to fail. The success of mandatory programs depends on careful preparations, stakeholder buy-in, academic merits, program quality, staff support, safeguards for students, accurate recordkeeping, and recognition of long-term educational benefits. (MLH)

Uses the example of service learning to examine connections between and definitions of public and private as they are deployed in writing, literacy studies, and the field of English. Argues that, done effectively, service learning fits well into an English Studies that is reconsidering its own boundaries and internal relationships. (RS)

As a pedagogy for citizenship, academic service learning offers students the opportunity to experience and reflect on how citizens organize to bring their communities and their country closer to democracy. The three-course Democracy Project at Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania) illustrates how this approach can be developed within a college…

Suggests that service learning, as an innovative practice in college teaching, challenges faculty in complex ways and proposes a matrix to help conceptualize different focus areas in service learning (student, expertise, sponsor, or common good) and instructional concerns (values development, pedagogical strategies, academic culture, and community…

States that service learning educates students to volunteer their expertise for the benefit of society. Suggests that teachers of business and technical writing can apply this pedagogy by assigning students to write for nonprofits. Describes service learning's origins; proposes a rationale for it; explains sequential projects and teaching methods…

Students in an undergraduate sport management writing course experienced a service learning component via outreach with local sport organizations. Class instructors supported students and evaluated student logs, class presentations, student memorandums, product review, and interviews with agency personnel and students. Results indicated that…

Describes the author's psychology class, in which she required students to do service work with a resident in a nursing home. Reports that students met for a minimum of eight hours with the resident and wrote both a history of the person and a reflection on the project. States that half of the students decided to continue volunteering after the…

In a West Texas community that is 70% Hispanic, school-based community services build solidarity and contribute to well-being. The school provides social services, a community clinic, and service learning opportunities for students. This model is successful because it is self-initiated and self-organized. (Contains 43 references.) (SK)

Twelve theme articles discuss service learning and reflection in agricultural education, student perspective on service learning, Future Farmers of America, character education, intergenerational projects, agricultural communications, and service learning as advocacy. (SK)

Describes a hypothetical elementary school that is centered on social studies and social action, focusing on three practices at such a school: democratic education, education for social justice, and community service learning. Challenges to social action in U.S. schools include teachers' time limitations, curriculum standards, and emphasis on…

Describes a service learning program aimed at improving balance and mobility in a group of older adults from an independent living center while giving college students (mainly exercise and sport science majors) an opportunity to interact with this population. The program has resulted in improved balance and mobility for the older adults and…

The difference between charity and change provides an important conceptual distinction for those analyzing service-learning curricula and learning objectives. In the moral domain, service-learning activities tend toward giving or caring; in the political domain, such activities can embrace either civic duty or social reconstruction; in the…

Discusses findings of a study of service-learning programs in middle schools in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri, particularly noting reasons the programs could be improved to show a greater impact on students. Considers the effects of such programs on students' academic achievement and social development. (JPB)

Investigates student and community satisfaction with programs designed and implemented by students for groups of pediatric clients who were identified as at risk or in need of psychological services. Reports that students and the community expressed high levels of satisfaction and that confidence in student ability increased by the end of the…

Describes experiences of the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service, Inc. (CCHERS), in Boston, Massachusetts as a catalyst for engaging universities in collaboration for the social and economic development of an urban community. The partnership involved two private universities, an academic medical center, the city public…