WELCOME FACULTY & INSTRUCTORS
Have you considered adding a community based learning (sometimes called service learning) component to your course? Theory-to-practice opportunities for students "promote greater cognitive compexity, make learning more relevant to today's socetial issues, and foster civic skills and inclinations necessary for society's future leaders" (CSHE, 2006).
→Does adding community based learning take more time? Yes, it can.
→Do you have to do it all on your own? NO!! Civic Leadership is here to help!
Whether you have a vague idea of a project that might support your course goals, a fully developed project and community partner ready to go, or just need support managing students throughout the semester in an ongoing community based learning partnership, please contact Vernette Doty (vdoty@ucmerced.edu) to discuss your course, project, ideas and needs. There are a variety of ways in which Civic Leadership can support your community based learning course.
Please check out the resources below:
Principles for pedagogy
Sample learning outcomes
components of CBL syllabus
How does COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING (CBL) Benefit Students?
Overall, students in the "service-learning" (CBL) sections earned grades that were 4.8% higher than those of the "non-service-learning" (CBL) students
(3.28 vs. 3.13 on a 4-point scale,F = 1.9972, p = .1588) (Strage, 2004).
For many years, proponents of community based learning pedagogy have suggested that students recognize numerous benefits. Only fairly recently have these benefits been documented. Strage (2004) and a host of other researchers have been gathering evidence concerning the benefits of community based learning and have found this pedagogy to enhance the achievement of the curricular goals of the courses in which it is embedded.
In a community based learning course, students:
♦ Challenge personal and social assumptions, values and beliefs
♦ Develop deliberative, collaborative, and leadership skills
♦ Consider the civic, moral and ethical implications of the application of knowledge in professional and civic life
♦ Connect academic content with hands-on experience by exploring related community opportunities
♦ Increase sense of self-efficacy and develop analytical skills
