Service learning is a form of experiential learning designed to engage students, faculty, and community partners in a mutually beneficial experience. Specifically, it "is a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflects on the service activity…

Community service projects that are part of a religious studies program in a Catholic secondary girl's school in Canada are described. The experiential social education projects are intended to foster and nurture responsibility in students and to help them develop participatory skills. (RM)

Presents 10 ideas for service learning projects designed for elementary schools. Includes having students do local history projects complete with interviews and artifacts, learn about community volunteering, interact with the elderly, care for the environment, recycle materials, and hold canned food drives. (MJP)

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…

Presents six service learning lesson plans from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Each lesson plan represents a step in a larger service project. The plans include "Defining and Assessing Your Community"; "Choosing and Researching a Problem"; "Examining Policy"; "Exploring Options"; and "Taking…

Examines factors contributing to youth violence and suggests ways that service learning can mitigate their influence. Community-based programs can fill the void of unstructured, unsupervised time tempting many youth. Peer education and cross-age teaching can help create positive attitudes towards cooperation and responsible behavior. (MJP)

This curriculum guide discusses civic responsibility, how it is tied to service learning, how faculty can integrate concepts and exercises in a practical way, and how faculty can assess the development of civic responsibility in their students. Civic responsibility is defined here as active participation in the public life of a community, in an…

Profiles Active Citizenship Today (ACT), a social studies service learning program for middle and high school students. In ACT, students explore their community, identify problems, examine public policy, explore their options, and take action. Includes unit excerpts from the ACT teacher's handbook. (MJP)

Presents four brief essays expressing the importance of combining service learning and citizenship education. Authors Benjamin Barber, Joan Schine, Harry C. Boyte, and James C. Kielsmeier stress the advantages of learning democratic concepts and principles, as well as understanding civic government, through student participation. (MJP)

Provides 11 guideposts for teachers and students planning constructive community action projects. These include avoid overanalysis at the beginning, write your original idea down before you modify it, ignore negativity, do your homework, build a core group, and recruit community allies. (MJP)

Describes a middle school curriculum that integrates service learning and civic responsibility skills into the core academic program. The "CityYouth" curriculum consists of 32 multidisciplinary lessons divided into four units of eight lessons each. Examines how schools have incorporated the units into community activities. (MJP)

Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

Reviews psychological and educational research on prejudice and intergroup relations to produce suggestions and guidelines for improving the combined educational goals of service learning and multicultural education. Recommends starting early, emphasizing critical thinking, connecting activities to appropriate stages of cognitive development, and…

Provides a brief history of character education and categorizes current efforts. Recommends combining civic participation programs with character education in an attempt to provide consistency, depth, and support. Notes that civic participation programs teach a recognized set of values, use interactive teaching strategies, and promote critical…

Describes six community-based service-learning projects that are available to students as an alternative learning environment. Presents goals of service learning, including academic development, civic responsibility, personal development, social responsibility, career development, and ethical development. Discusses research indicating that…