Community engagement pedagogies, often called “service learning,” are ones that combine learning goals and community service in ways that can enhance both student growth and the common good. The National Service Learning Clearinghouse, defines service learning as a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Through a Campus Environmental Stewardship grant I engaged an introductory plant ecology course in a semester-long service learning project. I incorporated community engagement into my course by way of a project that has both learning and community action goals. The project, to develop a community green space and meditation garden, asked students to apply course content to a community-based activity. This project was designed via collaboration between the class and local community partners. This gave students an experiential opportunity to learn in real world contexts and develop skills of community engagement, while affording community partners opportunities to address a community need. Service learning is one of the most significant teaching methodologies and when done well, teaching through community engagement benefits students, faculty, communities, and the institution of higher education.
Results/Conclusions
Preliminary results showed that students, faculty, community, and the college had many positive outcomes from the semester-long service learning project. Students improved their ability to apply classroom material to “real world” dynamics, developed greater interpersonal development, particularly the ability to work well with others, and build leadership and communication skills, reduced stereotypes and gained greater inter-cultural understanding, and also developed stronger relationships with faculty. As a faculty member I gained an increased satisfaction with the quality of student learning in addition to a stronger commitment to civic engagement. The community gained a valuable human resource needed to achieve a community goal and an enhanced community-university relationship. In addition, the college enriched its relationship with the surrounding community. Today's students live in a time of unprecedented change. They will be facing complex issues in their communities and entering a highly competitive global workforce that demands a diverse skill set. Recognizing that these capacious challenges cannot be solved through one discipline alone, collaborative efforts to integrate service-learning into the curriculum has been shown to have many positive outcomes for students, faculty, communities, and the institution of higher education.