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May 5, 2008
Metacognition and Monitoring: Understanding and Improving Students' Skills for Learning
PFF Brown Bag: The Glorious Road to Publishing with All its Ruts and Holes
May 8, 2008
Preparing Future Faculty Semester Capstone
May 12, 2008
2008 Communities of Practice Retreat
May 21, 2008
A Talk with Carol Tavris-- Author of Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
A Talk with Carol Tavris-- Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Progress and Pitfalls on the Path to Gender Equality
For more information or to register for these events, please click the appropriate link or contact the centers directly:
Center for Research and Learning
278-0644
Center for Service and Learning
278-3485
Center for Teaching and Learning
274-1300
Programs and Events Offered by Friends of the Consortium
May 3, 2008
IUPUI Work/Life Walking Challenge Kick-Off Event
May 5, 2008
Summer Lunch Time Yoga registration deadline
Consortium for Learning
and Scholarship
755 West Michigan Street
University Library, 1140
Indianapolis, IN 46202
http://cls.iupui.edu
Questions or comments?
Executive Editor
Mary F. Price
(price6@iupui.edu)
278-6481
Managing Editor
Monnica Lewis (mollewis@iupui.edu)
278-6090
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CLS Spotlight: Center for Service and Learning
As a civic-minded community, Indianapolis has a national reputation for building partnerships that improve the quality of life of its residents. IUPUI shares this commitment to civic engagement as a fundamental component of its campus mission. Since 1993, the Center for Service and Learning (CSL) has worked to involve IUPUI students, faculty, and staff in service activities that mutually benefit the campus and central Indiana communities. Our vision is to make service a distinctive aspect of the educational culture on campus.
The CSL is comprised of four offices, including (a) the Office of Service Learning, (b) the Office of Community Service, (c) the Office of Neighborhood Partnerships, and (d) the Office of Community Work Study. Its work is defined by six program goals:
(a) Support the development of service learning classes;
(b) Increase campus participation in community service activities;
(c) Strengthen campus-community partnerships;
(d) Develop and support community-based work-study programs;
(e) Advance the scholarship of service and civic engagement and,
(f) Promote service learning, professional service, and civic engagement in higher education locally, nationally, and internationally.
The Consortium for Learning and Scholarship
CSL fits well into the mission of the Consortium for Learning and Scholarship to expand the quantity and quality of experiential education opportunities; to draw upon the urban setting as an educational resource; and to develop an inclusive campus environment. All aspects of CSL’s work are consistent with these goals, but service learning provides the most dominant example of alignment. Service learning takes students and faculty into communities to integrate classroom learning with community service experiences. Unlike many other forms of practice-based learning (e.g., cooperative education, extension service placements, field-education, internships, practicum), service learning is linked to a course and has the intentional goal of developing civic skills and dispositions in students. Unlike many forms of experiential learning which focus on pre-professional training, one of the defining attributes of service learning is that, along with academic learning, it also aspires to students’ civic growth. Thus, in addition to “serving to learn”, service learning intentionally focuses on “learning to serve.”
Although developing good citizens is not a new role for higher education, and there are numerous pedagogical approaches for civic learning (e.g., classroom instruction on civics, moderated discussions of current events, student governance and community activities, simulations), the emergence of service learning has heightened attention to the nuances of the civic domain and social responsibility as a set of intentional educational objectives to be addressed seriously in higher education. Unlike other community service programs (e.g., work-study, volunteer, community outreach), service learning represents academic work in which the community service activities are used as a “text” that is interpreted, analyzed, and related to the content of a course in a way that permits a formal evaluation of the academic learning. Thus, in service learning, academic credit is not given for engaging in community service; rather, academic credit is based on the academic learning that occurs as a result of the community service. Finally, service learning is seen as a pedagogy that makes diversity issues particularly salient to students by placing students in community environments in which they interact with persons who are different from themselves in terms of racial, economic, religious, or other background characteristics.
The RISE Initiative
The RISE initiative will increase student participation in “powerful pedagogies”: Research by undergraduates that is independent and mentored; International study abroad; Service learning coursework; and Experiential learning (e.g., internships, field-based education). As proposed, RISE will require IUPUI students to complete at least two of these experiences prior to graduation. The rationale for making these types of educational experiences integral to an IUPUI student’s curriculum is based on the evidence that these pedagogies take advantage of our urban setting, are consistent with the mission of IUPUI, and engage students in learning activities that produce deeper understanding. This latter point is supported by the degree to which these pedagogies align well with converging evidence from multiple disciplinary perspectives on the qualities of good learning environments. Depth of understanding is known to be enhanced through learning processes that contain the following elements: active learning; frequent feedback from others (e.g., faculty, service learning coordinators, students, service providers) that is provided in non-threatening ways; collaboration with others; cognitive apprenticeship (i.e., a mentor with whom students can discuss and learn generalization of principles, transfer of knowledge between theory and practice, how to analyze perplexing circumstances); and practical application in which students are involved in tasks that have real consequences but have a safety net for high stakes mistakes.
CSL has devoted the first year of its work as an IUPUI Signature Center to international service learning. Combining service learning and study abroad improves both learning experiences and expands civic education to include a global perspective. Effective international service learning, like service learning generally and, in fact, any teaching and learning strategy, is the product of intentional design.
Conclusion
IUPUI supports the civic engagement of faculty through its recruitment and hiring programs, retention, faculty development activities, promotion, and hiring policies, and specific faculty awards. Given the importance at IUPUI of faculty work focused on civic engagement, a well-organized and implemented approach to faculty development for civic engagement is essential. CSL faculty development activities to support service learning and civic engagement are broad, being both formal (e.g., workshops, seminars, institutes) and informal (e.g., consultation with individual faculty). They target special issues, such as promotion and tenure, new faculty, departmental initiatives, as well as general lectures and recognition events. The CSL is well-positioned to support faculty development associated with the Consortium and RISE.
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