To put in the hours, to learn, to address a community need — and to reflect.
Defining service learning at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is the task of a committee that is setting up campuswide criteria for such courses.
“One of the major components of any service learning is this concept of reflection,” said Jennie Popp, an agricultural economics and agribusiness professor and committee co-chairman. “Students are supposed to reflect on that experience: how it helps them grow personally and academically, and what they were able to deliver to the community in terms of fulfilling a need.”
Ensuring that service learning classes have “structured reflection” is one of 10 proposed criteria developed by the committee. If the university approves a standard definition, the goal is to mark service learning classes as such in future course catalogs, Popp said.
“Students will be able to clearly identify courses that are service learning,” said Popp. Approval could be wrapped up this academic year with new designations in next year’s course catalog.
Service learning — in contrast to student volunteer efforts — takes place in class-specific settings that offer academic credit in addition to experience helping others.
Long-standing efforts at UA include trips to Belize for up to four weeks, with students implementing community-minded projects involving academic disciplines such as anthropology, engineering and social work. Another well-established example of service learning is known as Razorback Writers, which has UA students — many of them future teachers — working with middle school and junior high students on literacy projects.
“Service learning is not a new concept,” said Popp, who has traveled to Belize as part of the UA service learning class.
But one task for the committee, formed in May, was to count how many such opportunities exist at UA.
“The college deans have identified more than 100 courses that include service learning components,” Popp said.
The university recently established a website, servicelearning.uark.edu, listing the proposed criteria that would be applied to all service learning classes. Popp said “structured reflection” might mean writing about an experience, but it would be up to departments in different disciplines how to best incorporate that requirement.
Another idea listed is to have each course set a specified minimum hour requirement for service. Also among the proposed criteria is making sure a community need is addressed “through formal collaborations with program-identified appropriate partners.”
Any service learning class would also be required to receive formal administrative approval through a faculty evaluation process, demonstrating a “clear and articulated connection between service activity and course content.”
Popp described the experiences of students she’s taught in Belize, where students analyzed farm production in the Central American country.
“The students that have participated in the service learning course say over and over that they learn more through that one experience than they do through lots of classroom courses combined,” Popp said.
Angela Oxford, director of UA’s Center for Community Engagement, is the other co-chairman for the 14-member committee, which is also helping set goals for the UA’s Service Learning Initiative, an effort involving the university’s office of the provost, Honors College and Division of Student Affairs. Most committee members are part of UA’s faculty, with diverse academic disciplines represented.
“Next what will be happening is eliciting the support of other faculty members to start creating classes and creating opportunities for students,” Oxford said.
Oxford regularly works with students on volunteer projects — which are “completely different” than service learning endeavors, she said — and said she’s working to help create a more standardized process to help community agencies develop ideas for service learning projects.
For nonprofit organizations and agencies, “it’s an opportunity to bring research and assessment into their programs,” Oxford said.
Popp said the committee is reaching out to colleges within the university about the proposed definitions and criteria for service learning.
“We wouldn’t want to place an expectation that service learning opportunities would exist in every department, but our committee wants to facilitate that if a department chooses to do so,” Popp said.
Oxford praised existing service learning efforts on campus.
“We have faculty members doing remarkable service learning, and this is just developing an additional layer of institutional support,” Oxford said.