Section I:
Getting
Started
Introduction
Developing
Campus
Support
Section II:
Integrating
Service-
Learning
Introduction
1: Overview of
Service-Learning
2: Overview of
Instructional Design
3: Reflection
4: Assessing
Student Learning
5: Capacity-building
6: Civic Learning
Section II: Chapter 5: Capacity-building for Service-Learning
Chapter 5: Capacity-building for Service-Learning
For many students a Jumpstart course is their first opportunity to learn how to learn and how to serve through service-learning. Recalling that this can be an unfamiliar and challenging process for many students, it is important to begin with a good sense of who the students are, so as to tailor your capacity-building for the particular needs of these particular students.
The students in a Jumpstart course often have the following characteristics:
- Typically first or second year
- Some already have an interest in early childhood education and/or human services, but the majority are actually undeclared in their majors
- Predominately female (83%) - which actually means that a relatively high percentage of males are involved compared to education programs in general and particularly early childhood education programs
- Average age is 18-23 (but this can look very different at community colleges, with their non-traditional student population)
Some undergraduates in Jumpstart service-learning courses are more accustomed to working with the target population – young children and the school and family networks that surround them – than others. Their level of familiarity may vary by discipline as well as by family-related and other experiences the students may have had.
Similarly, you may be preparing to teach your first undergraduate course, or, even if you are more experienced as an instructor, your first Jumpstart course.
And for community partners as well, the experience may be unfamiliar in important ways. As is the case with many early childhood education centers serving low-income communities, the program partners that Jumpstart works with are usually under-resourced and operating over-capacity, making the learning curve associated with their involvement in a new pedagogy especially challenging. These organizations may have placed student teachers or worked with traditional volunteers in the past, but the idea of service-learning and of the desired interactions between partners and service-learners is probably going to be new. Classroom teachers also have a wide variety of backgrounds, and some may well be new to the field or new to service-learning per se.
In any case, your students -- and you, yourself, as well as your community partners -- are likely to benefit from some intentional efforts on your part to help build individual and collective capacity to undertake Jumpstart service-learning. Such efforts may require trade-offs in how you structure class time and assignments, but they can also be integrated with other activities in your course. When you do find it necessary to spend time helping your students learn how to learn and how to serve through service-learning, remember that building their capacity in these ways is critical to engaging them fully in the learning process; taking shortcuts or otherwise skimping on investing such time up-front may mean that some students never quite “get it,” never see the connections between their service and the rest of the course, never feel confident in themselves as service-learners. If it starts to feel like time “off task” it can be useful to remind ourselves of why we are teaching with service-learning to begin with – at least in part, in order to help our students become more empowered as learners and as citizens. Ultimately, it is through building their capacity for service-learning that students are most likely to develop the skills, abilities, and perspectives at the heart of self-directed, lifelong learning and responsible citizenship.
Topics in this chapter include:
- Learning to teach, learn, and serve in counter-normative ways – discusses the ways that service-learning challenges students and faculty alike because of its unfamiliar nature and considers how instructors can respond to these challenges
- Specific student needs for capacity-building – shares examples of the arenas in which students may be most in need of capacity-building
- Overview of select capacity-building mechanisms— offers several examples of activities designed to build students’ capacities for service-learning
- The role of student leaders and community partners in building capacity – examines possibilities for students and partners to help facilitate capacity-building
- Capacity-building for Jumpstart service-learning – considers the particular ways that interacting with young children and serving as team leaders may require capacity-building
- Reflection Prompts for the Reader -- provides several prompts that will help the reader reflect on the content of this section
This chapter also includes two tools: examples of capacity-building activities that you might find helpful to use or modify in your course.