Service Learning and Its Importance on Teaching Secondary Students Civic Responsibility and Community Awareness by Michael Lee Grassel A MASTER S PROJECT For ED 7999 2 Introduction The goals of public education have changed dramatically over the past 30 or so years What once was a system designed to educate students to become better citizens through increased knowledge of civics politics humanities and the rest of the social studies curriculum has instead evolved into a No Child Left Behind NCLB headed monster whose primary mission now seems to be only to raise scores on standardized tests The bottom line intensions of NCLB are unquestionably noble and genuine and it would be difficult for even the strongest opponent to argue otherwise Still the stresses of raising test scores have put an increased emphasis on math and science and have taken away much of the social studies focus on educating our students to become good honest solid citizens Instead public education is becoming more and more focused on raising test scores producing technical savvy students who are the key to a solid workforce and preparing those students for higher education That is appropriate to a point but disregarding the original ideals of our founding fathers who wanted to primarily educate people to become more informed and engaged citizens is dangerous For our democracy to remain strong and stay the cornerstone of our country we must produce citizens who understand civic and political responsibility and want to be engaged in these processes Service Learning is a relatively new teaching method that links classroom academic studies to solving real world community problems and is designed to have a positive impact on student academic achievement civic engagement and personal and social development Research shows this increasingly popular teaching method can indeed lead to better citizenship among those who have had a meaningful experience through participating in a community based service program or service learning project 3 The following pages provide many thoughts and research findings that will offer testimony and evidence to support the value of a quality service learning program in today s secondary public education The information has been grouped together so that the reader gains a great deal of knowledge in the basic fundamental concepts of service learning the academic advantages of student participation and the effect service learning has on public education s ability to help foster a greater sense of citizenship among students thus creating a more knowledgeable and engaged citizen 4 Annotated Bibliography Fundamental Concepts of Service Learning Wren D J 2004 Reaching out reaching in Principal Leadership 5 1 28 33 Wren begins by defining service learning as a way for students to demonstrate their knowledge skills critical thinking and judgment in real world situations to fill needs within their communities He credits Bandura Mischel and others for the original servicelearning concepts that required a student s reciprocity with their personality behavior thought process and environment He outlines four steps to a quality service learning program which are preparation activities reflection and celebration A successful service learning experience leaves students with increased abilities to handle stressful and unusual situations due to an increased sense of confidence Billig S H 2002 Support for k 12 service learning practice A Brief Review of the Research Educational Horizons 80 4 184 89 Billig begins this article by explaining how rapidly service learning is growing as a teaching strategy across the United States He states according to the Nation Center for Education Statistics that over one third of all U S schools are practicing some form of service learning methodology He then proceeds to give a very good definition of servicelearning and outlines the most common types of service activities complete with statistics Why teachers use service learning is also examined and another set of statistics are thrown in to give a clear picture as to what teachers are hoping their students get out of these exercises He then takes the reader through the benefits students have received through 5 service learning including increased personal social development improved academic achievement and a keener sense of career awareness Shackelford R Griffis K 2006 Communication project uses service learning to support our troops Tech Directions 66 1 16 21 Shackelford and Griffis state that a teacher s job is to provide effective learning experiences so that student s needs are met while still teaching required content This they say is often through a community based service learning exercise These exercises are centered on real world situations and provide a valuable service to someone in need They use an example in which secondary students performed technology related tasks to create greeting cards that could be mass produced and sent to U S troops overseas so that those service members could use them to write home The military servicemen and women enjoyed having that support and the students gained insight to the war and to the people who were volunteering their very lives to support and defend their country Smith M C 2008 Does service learning promote adult development Theoretical perspectives and directions for research New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 118 5 15 Smith contends that service learning is one of the most popular and effective innovations in teaching methodology to come along in the last twenty years The ability to connect schooling with community service has been a big reason for the success in fostering civic responsibility among students In this article Smith looks at service learning in three ways when studying the affects on adult development of the students They are cognitive growth moral development and psychosocial development He states that there are 6 numerous research findings that support the theory that service learning can indeed improve adult development in all three areas McDonald J Kromer T 2005 Service learning a way to connect science to the community Science Scope 28 7 46 48 McDonald and Kromer state that learning occurs best when student s education is linked to social responsibility Using a teaching and learning method that combines community service academics personal growth and civic responsibility is the key They suggest all students have the capability to