ServiceLearning to Enhance Academic Achievement

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Service-Learning to Enhance Academic Achievement

• Shelley H. Billig, Ph.D.
• RMC Research Corporation

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Overview

• Why Service-Learning Should Enhance Academic
  Achievement
• Evidence
• How to Maximize Academic Achievement with
  Service-Learning
• Examples

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How Service-Learning Works

• Service-learning is a form of experiential
  education where learning occurs through a cycle
  of planning, action, and reflection. Working
  with others, students acquire knowledge and
  skills and apply what they learn in community
  settings as they try to meet community needs.
  They experience consequences, both literal and
  emotional.

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Relationship to Learning (Eyler and Giles, 1999)

• Service-learning experiences
• are typically positive, meaningful, and real
• involve cooperative rather than competitive
  processes, thus promoting skills associated with
  teamwork and interdependency
• address complex problems in complex settings
  rather than simplified problems in isolation

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Service-learning experiences (continued)

• offer opportunities to engage in problem solving
  by requiring students to gain knowledge in
  specific contexts rather than drawing upon
  generalized or abstract knowledge
• promote deeper learning because results are
  immediate and are not contrived (no right
  answers in the back of the book)
• are more likely to be personally meaningful and
  to generate emotional consequences

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How People Learn (National Research Council, 1999)

• Understanding is much more than knowing facts.
• People build new knowledge and understanding on
  what they already know and believe (scaffolding).

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• Learning is mediated by the social environment in
  which learners interact with others.
• Effective learning requires that students take
  control of their own learning.
• The ability to apply knowledge to novel
  situations, that is, transfer of learning, is
  affected by the degree to which students learn
  with understanding.

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Learning and Memory

• Learning is the act of making (and strengthening)
  connections between thousands of neurons.
• Memory is the ability to reconstruct or
  reactivate the previously-made connections.

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Memory is a ProcessPat Wolfe. (2001).
Rehearsal
Sight
Sound
Elaboration Organization
Sensory Memory
Long-Term Memory
Working Memory
Smell
Initial Processing
Retrieval
Taste
Touch
Forgotten
Forgotten
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Other Supporting Theories

• Multiple Intelligences
• Constructivism
• Developmental Theories (youth need
  relationships!)
• Experiential Learning Theories
• (show meinvolve me)

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Evidence

• Service-learning has been found to make an impact
  on state tests in
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia service-learning
  programs)-reading/language arts and science
• Michigan (all Learn and Serve programs)
  writing, social studies, historical perspective,
  earth science, inquiry and decision making
• New Hampshire (environmental programs) language
  arts, math, science, and social studies and
• Vermont (environmental programs) reading.

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Evidence

• Students have made gains on problem solving
  essays in Hawaii, Colorado, and Pennsylvania
• Students have shown increases in attendance rates
  and decreases in dropout rates in many states
  and
• Students have shown increases in affective,
  behavioral, and cognitive engagement in Hawaii,
  Colorado, Michigan, Florida, Oregon, and
  Pennsylvania.

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Enhancing Outcomes

• Research shows that four Essential Elements were
  connected with higher academic outcomes
• Link to standards
• Direct contact with those being served
• Reflection that contains higher order thinking
  skills and uses multiple strategies (writing,
  visualization, systems thinking, perspective
  taking)
• Youth voice in planning, implementation, and
  assessment.

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How to Maximize Academic Achievement with
Service-Learning

• In addition, using the learning theories
• Use instructional strategies with the greatest
  effect sizes and
• Create a nurturing learning environment.

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Research-based StrategiesEffect Sizes and
AchievementMarzano, et al. (2001).
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Creating a Climate for Learning
Safe
High Challenge
Low Threat
Nurturing
Inclusive
Encourages Risk-taking
Multi-sensory
Stimulating
Collaborative
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Summary

• SL capitalizes on what we know about how students
  learn best.
• Quality SL makes a difference in student learning
  and test scores.
• Outcomes can be maximized when four elements of
  service-learning are incorporated into practice.