Herman Melville: “We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.”

Benefits for the Faculty Number of Service-Learning hours What is Reflection? Application for Service-Learning Course Faculty Handbook Liability Issues Database Form

Faculty

Faculty members who choose to incorporate a service-learning component into their class curriculum act as facilitators in an alternative learning process. Learning may be assessed through class discussion, professionalism at the service agency, oral presentations, and structured reflection journals or papers that connect the service-learning project with the discipline.

Benefits for the Faculty:

v Engages more students

v Reinvigorates teaching

v Improves relationships with students

v Offers professional development

v Creates research and publishing opportunities

v Makes a difference in the community

Number of Service-Learning hours:

Faculty members may determine their own number of hours for each course. Some faculty design one-time service-learning experiences that last a few hours, while other faculty members ask their students to complete 30 or more hours over the semester. The average number of hours is approximately 15 per term. There is no right or wrong number. Research does show, however, that the benefits increase based on the number of hours and the quality of the reflection activities.

No matter what number of hours you decide upon, remember that credit is given for academic learning not the number of service hours completed.

What is Reflection?

Reflection means the process of thinking about what we do and processing it to draw meaning from our experiences. Reflection is an intentional endeavor to discover specific connections between something we do and the consequences which result.

Reflection exercises connect service to educational theory and larger social issues, foster critical thinking and active citizenship, and help in the evaluation of students' progress.

v Reflection can be informal... drawing connections between service and theory during lectures or everyday group discussion.

v Reflection can be formal... including the use of journals, group reflection activities, or electronically-posted questions.

Links to examples of Reflection Activities:

http://www.cca.edu/about/press/view/2005/100families

Application for Service-Learning Course Offering

Faculty Handbook

Palm Beach State College Memorandum of Understanding

For more information on complied research and resources:

http://www.compact.org/resources-for-faculty/

If you would like to learn more about service learning, please email Professor Heidi Ladika-Cipolla at cipollah@palmbeachstate.edu.