Examining Service-Learning Literature in Physical Education Teacher Education: Recommendations for Practice and Research

Service-learning is a teaching strategy designed to provide learners opportunities to transfer theory to practice in an authentic environment while concurrently meeting genuine needs in the community. The reciprocal nature of service-learning differentiates this pedagogy from other learning venues including field experiences, internships, and student teaching. Recently the interest surrounding, as well as the utilization of service-learning, has grown in numerous academic disciplines including physical education teacher education (PETE). PETE research investigating the impact of service-learning in regards to student and community outcomes is also emerging. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the current PETE service-learning literature. Components of the review include examination of theoretical frameworks, exploration of the impact of service-learning on PETE students and community participants, and recommendations for practice and future research.     

A neglected dimension in service-learning pedagogy: developing projects from the perspective of rural community stakeholders

This article argues that a commonly neglected dimension in service-learning pedagogy is the consideration of community perspectives in developing these service- learning projects. Areas considered in this study were: (1) Community members’ needs and problems, (2) Community members’ perceived roles and participation, and (3) Community members’ suggested activities and projects. This article focused on the community members of Jaime Hilario Integrated School (JHIS), a Lasallian co-educational primary school located in Sitio Look, Bagac, Bataan, Philippines. Interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) were the qualitative research methods used to identify possible service-learning projects that can be implemented by various educational institutions. Five implications were drawn from the gathered data. The first implication is that it is important for educational institutions to ensure that service-learning projects meet the needs of the community. Secondly, various sectors in the community have unique needs to be addressed. Thirdly, aside from the common economic, education, and social services problems, rural poor communities also need trainings on values formation and personal development. Besides the above, it is necessary that community members be involved in the initial planning and development of service-learning projects and not merely participate during the actual implementation. And lastly, given the poor understanding of community members on their roles and participation, clear explanation of the goals of service-learning projects is perceived as a way of strengthening the relationship between service-providers and recipients.     

美国高校工程教育的新发展———多学科与国际化服务学习简

多学科合作和国际体验是美国高校工程教育应对知识经济与全球化挑战的有效策略,而这一点在近年出现的工程教育服务学习中得到了充分体现。工程教育服务学习采用了多学科团队合作的形式,为学生还原了真实世界工程设计的实际需要和实施方式;国际化的多学科工程服务学习项目更为学生提供了跨文化的工程实践体验,对美国高校培养具有全球视野的工程师起到非常重要的作用。     

INCORPORATING FIELD SITES INTO SERVICE-LEARNING AS COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS

This article, which describes the service-learning program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, advocates incorporating the needs and perspectives of field sites selected for involvement in service-learning projects. Information is gathered through interviews with field site supervisors. Service-learning requires the active participation of both members of the college or university (e.g., students, faculty members, and administrators) and community partners in a collaborative process. When successful, this collaboration focuses on both mutual interests and common goals. Involving all partners throughout the process is crucial for successful collaboration. This article offers suggestions for the development of strong service-learning collaborations with community organizations. These suggestions fall into three broad categories: (a) level of site involvement throughout the project, (b) conceptualization of the project, and (c) managerial aspects of the collaboration.     

Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic Services

In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes.     

Implementing Quality Service-Learning Programs in Community Colleges

This cross-case comparative study at Western Community College and the University of the Coast explored through a constructive lens the characteristics that lead to sustainable, high quality service-learning programs and how they are implemented at institutions of higher education. The researchers determined that both Western Community College and the University of the Coast (a) have diverse collaborative partnerships that promote excellent communication between all of the entities, (b) offer a wide variety of service-learning courses to connect curricular and cocurricular experiences, (c) have a stable funding base, (d) provide the necessary resources, (e) have continuity in staffing, and (f) incorporate feedback and assessment into their respective service-learning programs. The findings from this study, based on one-on-one interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, serve as a model on how to create quality and sustainable service-learning programs that combine academic scholarship, off-campus learning discoveries, reflection, civic engagement, and meaningful community service. The research may be applicable for educators at community colleges at various stages in developing service-learning programs, or who are transforming faltering programs, trying to make them sustainable.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

GiveMe Shelter: a people-centred design process for promoting independent inquiry-led learning in engineering

It has become increasingly common for tasks traditionally carried out by engineers to be undertaken by technicians and technologist with access to sophisticated computers and software that can often perform complex calculations that were previously the responsibility of engineers. Not surprisingly, this development raises serious questions about the future role of engineers and the education needed to address these changes in technology as well as emerging priorities from societal to environmental challenges. In response to these challenges, a new design module was created for undergraduate engineering students to design and build temporary shelters for a wide variety of end users from refugees, to the homeless and children. Even though the module provided guidance on principles of design thinking and methods for observing users needs through field studies, the students found it difficult to respond to needs of specific end users but instead focused more on purely technical issues.     

论美国高校服务学习的起源与发展

美国高校服务学习的起源与发展是一个重要但学术界很少涉猎的研究领域.研究这段历史及其相关社会政治背景对我们进一步理解服务学习的理论基础、社会影响和教育内涵都具有重要作用.美国高校服务学习的历史可分为孕育、成型、补充课程、课程整合四个阶段.     

Priorities for primary education? From subjects to life-skills and children's social and emotional development

To what needs and purposes should the primary curriculum be chiefly directed in the coming decades? In a first step towards revising the primary curriculum, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) invited responses to an open online call to ‘have your say’ on priorities for primary education. Respondents were asked to share their views in 100 words or less. Six priorities for primary education were identified across the 960 responses. These focused on developing children's life-skills; communication skills; well-being; literacy and numeracy skills; motivation and engagement; and their sense of identity and belonging. Across the priorities, there is recognition that skills learned in the primary years are related to one another and the extent to which children develop these is likely to have wide-ranging effects on their future experience as learners. Findings call for a revision of traditional, content-based curriculum subjects towards a better alignment with the needs of today's primary school children beginning with a more explicit focus on life-skills, and children's social and emotional development. Finally, we note the common ground across early childhood, primary and post-primary sectors and highlight the potential to align our values and vision for children and young people's education from the earliest years through adulthood.     

Collaborating on global priorities: science education for everyone—any time and everywhere

Building on the key ideas from Dana Zeidler’s paper I expand the conversation from the standpoint that the challenges facing humanity and the capacity of Earth to support life suggest that changes in human lifestyles are a priority. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to educate all humans about some of the science-related grand challenges, such as global warming and wellness. The key is to enact programs that have relevance to all citizens, irrespective of: age, location, language proficiency, economic resources, religion, gender, sexual preference, and level of prior education. Since significant changes are needed in human lifestyles the current emphasis on preK-12 science education needs to be expanded to cover all humans and the places in which education occurs should be everywhere. I explore the use of a multilogical framework to conceptualize science and thereby transform science education in ways that better relate to priorities of wellness and harmony in the ecosystems that sustain life on Earth. I illustrate the potential of multilogicality in a context of complementary medicine, using three frameworks: Jin Shin Jyutsu, an ancient system of medicine; a diet to reduce inflammation; and iridology. Use of a multilogical framework to conceptualize science provides opportunities for science education to focus on education for literate citizenry (birth–death) and responsible action, connect to the massive challenges of the present, and select content that has high relevance to sustainability, wellness, and well-being at local, national, and global levels.     

Strengthening early childhood and school sector continuities in producing the lifelong learner in Aotearoa New Zealand

Recent education policy analysis has revealed the standardisation of education systems and an intensified focus on learners and learning to meet the requirements of the global economy and neo-liberalism. In this paper we analyse the way that early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand has become increasingly entangled with school sector priorities and international discourses of lifelong learning as it has encountered these requirements. We trace the shift from an explict rejecting and countering of school sector pedagogy to the promoting of increasing continuity with school sector priorities. We draw attention to dynamic, contrasting and competing interests and entities that have shaped the construction of learning and learners and curriculum and assessment priorities. We argue the need to attend to the complex mix of constitutive forces at work in the formulation and enactment of early childhood sector priorities, in particular to these crucial entanglements with school sector priorities, international discourses of lifelong learning and neo-liberal economic rationalities.     

Educational Support for Saudi Students with Learning Disabilities in Higher Education

Disability laws in Saudi Arabia mandate that higher education institutions provide support for special needs learners in order to ensure educational opportunities equivalent to opportunities for their nondisabled peers. These institutions experience challenges, however, in providing the necessary support to undergraduate and postgraduate students with learning disabilities (LDs). We conducted an exploratory study to assess educational support requirements and affordances for undergraduate and postgraduate students with LDs attending institutions of higher education in Saudi Arabia. We completed semistructured interviews with 22 special needs learners diagnosed with a LD (16 undergraduate and six postgraduate). The findings suggest that additional support services are needed for undergraduate and postgraduate students with LDs attending Saudi institutions of higher education.     

An examination of knowledge prioritisation in secondary physical education teacher education courses

A number of terms have been used to describe knowledge needed for teaching, one of which is subject knowledge. How knowledge for teaching is conceptualised in teacher education prioritises some knowledge bases over other knowledge bases. Further, knowledge prioritised by student teachers is influenced by socialisation prior to and during an initial teacher education course and priorities for student teachers as they develop as teachers. Previous research in physical education teacher education points to the pre-eminence of content knowledge above other knowledge bases. The purpose of this study was to look at what knowledge is prioritised by student teachers, school-based mentors and university tutors working on three secondary physical education initial teacher education courses in England. Results showed that content knowledge was seen as having greater importance for student teachers and mentors, but university tutors generally conceptualised subject knowledge more broadly, suggesting that it should be seen as covering a number of knowledge bases needed for teaching. These results are discussed in relation to socialisation processes in education and phases of development. Although there is a clear physical education focus to this work, it is possible that student teachers learning to teach other subjects may also focus excessively on subject content knowledge above other knowledge bases.     

Practical Beauty and the Legacy of Pragmatism: Generating Theory for Community-Engaged Scholarship

In this paper I consider how Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics can complement the pragmatic theory that has informed the field of service-learning, and with its emphasis on community and respect for others, can offer an orientation to further the work of service-learning and community engagement in a mutually satisfying way for scholars, practitioners, and community partners. In keeping with Gadamer’s contention that mythological thinking has its rightful place alongside analytical thinking, I provide an interpretation of the myth of Hermes for emancipatory education practice, and then invite readers to consider some implications of philosophical hermeneutics through traditional philosophical exposition. I posit there is much to be gained by framing community engagement as a civic art or practical beauty with a distinct epistemological foundation that values conversation, participation, and openended, collective processes to work for the common good. This orientation would require us to reconsider the purposes and reorient the values of this field of educational practice.     

Re-Educating Humankind: Globalizing the Curriculum and Teaching International Ethics for the New Century

Nations, cultures, languages - all are converging in this globalizing world of the early Twenty-First Century, giving individuals both a feeling of powerlessness and a sense of infinite possibilities. A new ethics of globalization is needed. The best way to create such an ethics is through education. The author proposes several means by which students at all levels of education can achieve global awareness on a personalized basis, in particular, through two university-level courses. These would be required, respectively, of entering university freshmen and of exiting graduating seniors, to be taught simultaneously in networks of higher education institutions all over the world. These courses would focus on global awareness and on the local solution of globally relevant problems. Much of the feasibility of the simultaneous global delivery of such courses would depend on the deft use of the Internet and, in general, of the information and communication technologies.     

A University-Based Literacy Service-Learning Program for Youthful Offenders on Probation: A Preliminary Study of the Program’s Development,Implementation and Feasibility

This article reports on the development, implementation and feasibility of a mid-Atlantic university-community service-learning literacy program for youth on probation. Undergraduate teacher candidates served as literacy instructors for the youth. We focus on benefits and administrative challenges of developing and implementing a preliminary service-learning program for probated youth living in the community. We analyzed focus group data collected from special education undergraduate instructors, interview data collected from probated youth and their case managers, pre-post literacy assessments administered to the youth, the youths’ court files and data maintained by the community-based agency. We conclude that our model of a university-community literacy partnership has the potential to raise reading performance of youth, motivation, and promote prosocial behaviors. Addressing the educational needs of youth on probation, however, is complex and multifaceted. We find that success requires consistent communication among all stakeholders, adequate funding for leadership, organization and curricula, and ongoing assessment and evaluation.     

美国研究型大学服务性学习的基本模式

在20世纪80年代兴起的高等教育改革运动中，美国高等学校把培养创新人才确立为大学教育的培养目标。为了实现这一培养目标，美国大学十分重视服务性学习在培养创新人才的过程中的意义和作用，并采取多种模式，开展服务性学习活动，如一次性和短期服务性学习、连续的课外服务性学习、课程中的服务性学习、集中的服务性学习等。     

服务学习课程的设计：基于设计思维的实践框架

通过梳理服务学习课程设计理论和实践的相关文献，分析了我国高校服务学习课程设计的现状。根据现有文献和作者在高校服务学习课程设计中的实践经验，提出了基于设计思维的服务学习课程设计实践框架。从多元主体团队、课程目标、课程设计的过程与步骤、课程设计的技术与工具、课程的价值与产出五个维度论述其在实践中的应用，并在此框架下介绍了一门服务学习课程设计的实践案例。此外，还讨论了服务学习课程设计存在的一些挑战，尤其在评价标准、时间管理、情境限制、伦理风险等方面，须通过整合教学实践和学术研究进一步优化。     

共同富裕背景下中等收入群体高等教育焦虑的典型特点与对策研究

中等收入群体既是我国经济社会发展的重要参与者、支撑者和贡献者,又是高等教育普及化和高质量高等教育的推动者,且该群体的扩大能够为我国跨越“中等收入陷阱”提供必要条件。然而近年来,他们逐步陷入了某种群体性焦虑,其中高等教育焦虑是其重要的一方面。面对新时代人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾,中等收入群体在高等教育需要方面表现出的焦虑情绪具有广泛性、深刻性、持续性和扩散性四大特点。中等收入人群的增加有利于更好地缩小贫富差距,是实现共同富裕的重要途径,我们要理性认识到中等收入群体的高等教育焦虑是现代化进程中的伴生现象,是中等收入群体发展的典型特征,缓解中等收入群体的高等教育焦虑需要加强供给侧结构性改革。因此,我们要遵循“守住公平底线,坚持共同发展;关注群体需求,扩大优质资源;多种手段并举,开拓教育消费渠道;聚焦发展水平,全面提升质量”的总体思路,分别从扩大高等教育供给、促进高等教育高质量发展、推动中等收入群体家庭成员共同发展、保障中等收入家庭心理安全以及持续提升高等教育培养能力等角度采取相关措施,以有效缓解中等收入群体高等教育焦虑,更好地推动国家经济社会发展以及共同富裕的早日实现。