Survey: Investigating student interest in curricular service-learning

This past October we conducted a survey investigating student interest in seeing more service-learning on campus.  The student survey was written to complement the faculty survey we conducted over the summer semester. 

Students were given the following definition of service-learning and were asked to indicate their interest in seeing more service-learning, and whether or not they felt this type of experiential learning was important:

Service-learning is when students volunteer, or work on a project for a local or international not-for profit community agency, for course credit.  Service-learning often includes a reflection component including journal entries, blogs or group discussions.

Examples of courses that include service-learning activities are: 

 
- Volunteering with a local or international community agency for course credit
- Working on a project with a local or international community agency
- Working on a group research project with a local or international agency
- A capstone project that includes working with a community agency

The second part of the survey asked students if they had participated in service-learning in the past and to indicate the course and the learning outcomes they felt they attained through the experience.  Although 38 students indicated they had participated in service-learning, many student comments led us to believe that they may have viewed their internships and co-ops as service-learning activities.  There were some students who were very clear on the definition as they had come from previous institutions with strong service-learning programs.  As a result, there may be some variability in the learning outcomes indicated by students. 

Please see the info-graphic below for more results from our survey!

Assessing Reflection: Assignment Rubrics

Various tools exist for the assessment of reflection activities such as journals, group presentations and written assignments.  Differences in tools reflect what it is that is being assessed, for example there are rubrics for assessing the level of reflection (how deeply a student thinks about their experience), the type of reflection (reflecting on their experience versus a course concept), and for the stage at which a student is reflecting (developmentally how far along the reflection continuum the student sits). 

Alternatively, some faculty choose to assess reflection assignments based on the learning outcome they are focused on developing, such as: critical thinking, intercultural communication, and / or civic engagement.  

To make choosing an assessment tool easy, several rubrics have been designed based on theory and research.  You can find links to these tools below as well as a list of some research articles that inform these rubrics. 

For Everything Rubrics:

Centre for Teaching and Learning, Humber College 

Rubrics specific to reflection assignments:

http://www.compact.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/downloads/SL_Reflect_Form2.pdf

https://assessment.trinity.duke.edu/documents/SLAssessmentRubric.pdf

https://vp.studentlife.uiowa.edu/assets/Using-Reflection-for-Assessment.pdf

http://www.tnstate.edu/servicelearning/documents/reflectionrubric-1.pdf

https://www.lourdes.edu/Portals/0/Files/Academics/EduHumanServ/Education/Reflective_Practice_Rubric.pdf

https://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/00E160C6-9557-41ED-A675-EB7CEB02049E/58019/Rubric.pdf

http://course1.winona.edu/shatfield/air/reflectionrubric-1.pdf

http://uncw.edu/eteal/resources/documents/CriticalReflectionScoringRubric.pdf

DEAL Model of reflection (based on Ash and Clayton, 2009):

Part I: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51a00182e4b00ebfe3c66f62/t/522645cbe4b05edb50d791a6/1378239947935/DEAL+Model+for+Critical+Reflection.pdf

Part II: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/51a00182e4b00ebfe3c66f62/t/522646cee4b032f22536a824/1378240206745/DEAL+Model+CT+and+Bloom+rubric+excerpts.pdf

Other rubrics (from the American Association of Colleges and Universities: 

Civic Engagement: http://www.aacu.org/civic-engagement-value-rubric

Intercultural-knowledge: http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/intercultural-knowledge

Critical Thinking Value: http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/critical-thinking

Scholarly Articles on Assessing Reflection:

Many of the articles below offer grading rubrics based on their research and adaptations of these rubrics can be found in many of the sample rubrics above.

Structuring reflection assignments:

Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2004). The articulated learning: An approach to guided reflection and assessment. Innovative Higher Education, 29(2), 137-154

Correia, M. G., & Bleicher, R. E. (2008). Making connections to teach reflection. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 41-49.

Molee, L. M., Henry, M. E., Sessa, V. I., & McKinney-Prupis, E. R. (2010). Assessing learning in service-learning courses through critical reflection. Journal of Experiential Education, 33(3), 239-257.

Criteria for assessing reflection:

Williams, R. M., & Sundelin, G. (2000). Assessing the reliability of grading reflective journal writing. Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 14(2), 23-26

Assessing the quality / Level of reflection:

Marchel, C. A. (2004). Evaluating reflection and sociocultural awareness in service learning classes. Teaching of Psychology, 31(2), 120-123.

Kember, D., Jones, A., Loke, A., McKay, J., Sinclair, K., Tse, H., . . . Yeung, E. (1999). Determining the level of reflective thinking from students' written journals using a coding scheme based on the work of Mezirow. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 18(1), 18-30.

Assessing depth of learning and critical thinking:

Molee, L. M., Henry, M. E., Sessa, V. I., & McKinney-Prupis, E. R. (2010). Assessing learning in service-learning courses through critical reflection. Journal of Experiential Education, 33(3), 239-257.