The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is one of four centers in the United States that work to improve opportunities and quality of life in rural communities. With funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the land-grant universities in its 12-state region, the NCRCRD engages Extension…

With support from the U.S. Department of Education and advice from an external panel of experts, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) published a book that described disability support practices and programs designed to help community college students with disabilities reach their fullest potential. The book was an outgrowth of a…

In a world increasingly globalised, it is crucial that preservice teachers are equipped with a range of pedagogical knowledges, understandings and practices related to diversity and difference. This paper reports on the implementation and learning outcomes of a teacher preparation initiative in an Australian university called Refugee Action…

Background: Chemistry students often complain that they are unmotivated because they see no applications of chemical principles in "real life." It was thus decided to put into use the knowledge gained during the course on water quality and analysis. Learning the principles of quantitative chemical analysis requires innovative, hands-on…

What is service-learning and how can students and community benefit from it? With the pressure of covering all of the content, passing tests, meeting standards and making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), how is it realistically feasible to make learning more meaningful so that students are able to take it and utilize it in real life? There is no…

Tennessee State University has a rich history of public service and civic engagement--thus the motto "Think, Work, Serve." Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University has grown dramatically from a small college to two campuses. We actively engage in adhering to the cornerstone of the land-grant universities: teaching, research, and outreach. Our…

Each year in the United States, millions of students experience suspension from public schools (Mendez & Knoff, 2003). Community service programs provide one means to address the school suspension problem. These initiatives are characterized by volunteer service placements within community nonprofit organizations for skill and personal…

Service-learning can be academically effective even when the distances between students and client organizations prevent face-to-face interchanges and site visits. Working with the State of Michigan and Michigan Townships Association, Michigan students from five universities learned about local government while helping Michigan townships develop…

This article describes a four-week service learning abroad program. Students from a U.S. university assist and teach in elementary school English classes for one month in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany while living with their German partner teachers. The program description and students' feedback illustrate that this program provides students with the…

This article describes a case example of a pedagogical approach that successfully integrates teaching technical skills, knowledge, and civic engagement. Students embarked on a semester-long project to assess the complexities of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, develop a response to address the concerns of community constituents, and…

This article describes a particular endeavor, the Bridge Builders Academic Mentoring Program (BAMP), a partnership between a school of education in a Catholic university in the Northwest and a community-based rites of passage program for adolescent African American males. The partnership exemplifies tenets of Catholic social teaching, in that it…

This article describes a project integrating mobile learning games into the author's course at Appalachian State University, in collaboration with a community partner and for the community as a whole. The process of constructing educational mobile games can be as beneficial as the act of playing. Therefore, the author's beliefs about integrating…

The 2010 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the professional development school relationship between Towson University with its dual certification major and the Howard County Public School System for its outstanding collaborative accomplishments, naming the Towson-Waterloo-Ilchester-Bellows Spring PDS as a recipient of…

A triangulation mixed-methods design was used to measure differences in service-learning outcomes for 32 students enrolled in criminal justice courses during the academic years 2003 (n = 16) and 2005 (n = 16). Results show that service-learners increase their political awareness and course value but experience a decrease in problem-solving skills…

Academic service-learning is based on the value of university-community partnerships. But what about campus partnerships? Who on campus best understands and most effectively administers academic service-learning programs? Locating service-learning programs solely in academic affairs or student affairs departments certainly simplifies the process.…