Understandings
_Question/Goal of
Research
With increased standardized test pressures coming down from state and federal officials, my students are lacking real world experiences and are absorbing their standard-based education from textbooks, worksheets, and test preparation materials. They aren’t able to articulate why they are learning a concept and are unable to explain how they can use it today, tomorrow, or further into the future. Their schooling experiences are void of real world connections and applications. With this in mind, I decided to focus my research on the implementation of community-service learning in elementary school. More specifically, how do students experience community-service learning in second grade?
Defining Community Service Learning (What is and is not CSL?)
Community service learning is not a new concept or idea being applied to today’s educational curriculum. Thoughts of community service learning can be traced back to late 19th – and early 20th century (Skinner & Chapman, 1999). “Though first suggested over a century ago, the incorporation of service-learning into the curriculum did not begin in earnest until the early 1970s, and it has only been in the last decade that extensive reform efforts have emerged” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p. 2). For the purposes of my research study, I will be referring to community service learning as an “experience” that connects educational curriculum with assisting/serving the community.
Currently in my teaching environment, learning is an isolated event that has little connection to the world beyond the classroom doors. It is not to say that my students are not learning information that is applicable to the “real world” but that they are not often aware of the purpose of their learning nor able to apply it in an actual situation. Referencing this isolated style of teaching, John Dewey states:
Learning here [in the context of an environment void of experience] means acquisition of what already is incorporated in books and in the heads of the elders. Moreover, that which is taught is thought of an essentially static. It is taught as a finished product, with little regard either to the ways in which it was originally built up or to changes that will surely occur in the future. (1938, p. 5).
In defining community service learning, it is important to make a distinction between community service (also known as volunteerism) and community service learning. Jeffery Howard (1993) elaborates on this important distinction stating that the difference lies in the deliberateness of student learning. There needs to be an intentional effort made to apply the community service experience to student learning. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “service learning takes community service one step further by incorporating the service experiences of students directly into their school work” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p. 2). Howard (1998) warns that community service learning should not be disguised as a stand-alone course that provides little connection between the community activity and the curriculum in the course. Novella Zett Keith also elaborates on the difference between community service learning and volunteerism in Doing Service Projects in Urban Settings. Community service learning should be viewed as “service with” rather than “service to” and that it should be based on reciprocity (Keith, 1997). According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas (1999), yet another difference between the two different approaches is that service learning usually involves not only action, but reflection as well. Through reflection, students are able to connect the community service learning experience to learning in the classroom.
Why Community Service Learning is important
Community service learning can be valuable for several academic, social, and emotional reasons. Long ago, John Dewey (1916), an advocate of service-learning, believed that students would learn more effectively and become better citizens if they engaged in service to the community and had this service incorporated into their academic curriculum. Academically, community service learning can enhance a student’s ability to understand related content and combine community experiences with classroom learning. Howard states:
Adding a service component, in fact, may enhance the rigor of a course because, in addition to having to master the academic material, students must also learn how to learn from community experience and merge that learning with academic learning, and these are challenging intellectual activities that are commensurate with rigorous academic standards. (1993, p. 102)
Specifically, students have demonstrated improvement in areas such as moral reasoning, problem-solving, and empathic understanding (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Community service learning also provides opportunities for developing real world skills and real world knowledge, a difficult content area to teach in the classroom (Howard, 1993).
Community service learning has also assisted students in developing positive attitudes towards school in general, especially for students labeled “at-risk”. According to Clary, Snyder, and Stukas, “In an evaluation of Florida Learn & Serve programs, at-risk students involved in service showed the greatest improvements in attendance, grade-point average, and discipline referrals” (1999, p. 6). Community service learning is especially important in improving the academic successes of students in urban settings, such as where I teach. According to Novella Zett Keith (1997), educators have been searching for a way to improve student success in urban settings and community service learning appears to be an answer. Educators are realizing the importance of connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom walls. In order for students to remain connected to the curriculum being taught inside the class, they must see the value of their learning beyond the school. According to Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn (1992), “…students are more likely to become engaged when academic work intellectually involves them in a process of meaningful inquiry extending beyond the classroom” (As cited in Shernoff & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009).
Socially, community service learning has shown to be an important component of the learning curriculum. It can enhance students’ understanding of and attitudes towards diverse groups in society. According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas:
Students who engaged in service learning with elderly people, while taking a course on aging, were able to develop more positive attitudes towards the serviced population than students who were in a similar course that did not have a community service-learning component. (1999, p. 4-5)
Students are also more likely to increase their social and personal responsibility and altruistic motivation. As stated by Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, “Studies also show that students who engage in service learning indicate that they are likely to continue serving in the future and believe it an important thing to do” (1999, p. 7).
Community service learning can also assist students in developing better relationships with their teachers. As noted by Keith, “Service learning may contribute to improving school culture through its beneficial effect on teacher-student relationships” (1997, p. 134). Community service learning is considered to be a valuable social tool because it encourages a sense of action in students, where students are able to decide how to solve problems rather than being told how to solve problems. Keith states, “The teacher, rather than simply being the provider of information and the evaluator of competence, is the creator of environments where students learn by doing, working with others, and reflecting on their experiences” (1997, p. 138). This is the type of teaching environment I’m striving to create within my classroom. I want my students to become self-motivated in their own learning experiences and be able to lead their peers in self-directive and reflection conversations. Once the playing field is leveled and power is no longer the dominating factor in educating, my students will be able to better relate to me, making their learning more feasible.
Emotionally, many people agree that service learning can impact students’ emotional development in areas such as personal efficacy, self-esteem, and confidence. According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, “It has been found, for example, that cross-age tutoring increased participants’ self-esteem. Similarly, in another study nearly 60% of youth in service programs agreed that the program showed them that it feel good to help others” (1999, p. 3). Volunteer activity can also provide students with a distraction from personal problems and an opportunity to work out their problems in a community service situation. Additionally, service-learning activities can shield students from stress in their lives. Engaging students in community service can furthermore reduce feelings of alienation and isolation as well as reduce disciplinary problems and increase student attendance rates (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Although this research was conducted with primarily high school and college students, I believe the academic, social, and emotional benefits discussed will be applicable and transferable to my second grade students.
How to implement Community Service Learning
When implementing community service learning, there are many important factors that need to be taken into account. According to James Howard, there are three ways to implement community service learning in high school and college curriculum: to have students “self-direct” their own learning and keep a reflective journal, for a campus community service program to provide the structure (i.e. guidebook, seminars, student placement), or to have the community service learning intentionally integrated into the academic course. Speaking of the last option, Howard suggests, “When used this way, community service learning may be conceptualized as a pedagogical model that connects meaningful community service experiences with academic course learning” (1993, p. 101). Although all components are important, community service learning must be connected to the learning currently taking place in the classroom in order for students to experience the greatest benefit. If community service learning is presented as a separate element (apart from the curriculum), students may have difficulty understanding the purpose and value of the experience.
Many times, teachers add community service learning to the curriculum as an extra assignment, rarely connecting it to the learning that is taking place in the classroom. Like project-based learning, many teachers assume that the mere presence of the project equates to student learning. It’s important for me to remember that community service learning, like project-based learning, needs to be thoughtfully created and strategically structured. It needs to be meaningful and embedded in current instruction. It should not be a separate activity that is rarely visited. To optimize student learning, community service learning needs to have deliberately planned learning goals. Howard (1993) reminds us that not all students will learn the same way and not all our projects will have the same outcome. Sometimes even our grandest projects/lesson plans will have failures. He states, “In community service learning courses, the variability in community service placements necessarily leads to less certainty and homogeneity in student learning outcomes” (Howard, 1993, p. 104). I must be prepared for uncertain and varied student learning outcomes.
Howard suggests principles to keep in mind in designing an effective community service-learning program. One I connected with was to minimize the distinction between students’ community learning role and the classroom-learning role. In my classroom, students are usually led and guided through various lessons and tasks. In community service learning, students are expected to be leaders, especially in regards to their own learning. It’s important to show students how to be self-motivated learners by allowing them lead their own learning in the classroom. According to Howard, “For students to have to alternate between the learning-follower role in the classroom and the learning-leader role in the community not only places yet another learning challenge on students but is inconsistent with good pedagogical principles” (1993, p. 103).
Students need ample time to participate in the experience, be able to experience an activity that is thoughtfully matched to current classroom instruction and learning goals, and provide opportunities for all participants to reflect. According to Howard:
The duration of the service must be sufficient to enable the fulfillment of learning goals; a one-time two-hour shift at a hospital will do little for the learning in a course on institutional health care…filling records in a warehouse may be of service to a school district, but it would offer little to stimulate learning in a course on elementary school education. (1993, p.103)
Clary, Snyder, and Stukas (1999) also note that it will be difficult for students to apply classroom learning to their community service learning experience if the service placement does not match the curriculum. They state, “Research suggests that service learning promotes student understanding, but the nature of the understanding depends on the relationship between course content and experience, and the chance to reflect upon the relationship” (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999, p. 6). In creating an effective community service-learning program, four important characteristics must be considered: student choice in structuring service activities, matching of learning goals to service activities, activities that help develop the relationships of all participants, and opportunities for reflection (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Novella Zett Keith (1997) also offers several suggestions in implementing an effective community service-learning program. She agrees with the incorporation of not only student input, but also the input of parents and community members in designing service learning opportunities.
Community Service Learning in Elementary School
According to Carl Fertman, “All students – elementary, middle, and high school, as well as special education – benefit from service learning” (1994, p. 7). Community service learning has become an integral part of middle school, high school, and college campuses. It isn’t often that we hear of community service learning at the elementary level. Elementary school students can surely gain the same benefits of participating in community service learning-projects as students in middle school, high school, and college. According to the Michigan Learn and Serve Study, students in Grades 2-5 who participated in community service learning reported significant gains in paying attention, completing homework on time, and sharing what they learned with others. They also noted higher levels of behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement in school than students who had not participated in community service learning projects (RMC Research, 2005).
Several educational theories support community service learning in elementary schools. John Dewey’s philosophy is that children acquire knowledge through experiences, “namely that children are overflowing with impulses and that they want to interact with the environment and people around them because these interactions create experience, and experience is what creates people” (Kinsley, 1997, p. 145). In my classroom, my students are very eager and curious about the communities around them. The more I can help create these experiences, the more I can assist my students in discovering who they are. Community service learning in elementary school can help students come into contact with several different groups of people and varying viewpoints, which can assist in the developing of moral reasoning. According to Jean Piaget:
As children interact with more people and come into contact with a wider range of viewpoints, they begin to discard the idea that there is a single, absolute standard of right or wrong and to develop their own sense of justice based on fairness or equal treatment for all. (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2006, p. 349)
Community service learning is also conducive to cooperative partner and group work. This is important because according to Vygotsky’s social interaction model of language development, “Students working in pairs wrote stories with more solutions to problems, more explanations and goals, and fewer errors in syntax and word use than did children working alone,” (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2006, p. 359).
One of the key benefits of community service learning in elementary schools is that adults are able to serve as excellent models for young people. According to Fertman in Service Learning For All Students, “Service learning can help young people grow from the natural dependence of childhood into mature personal interdependence and engagement in community” (1994, p. 28). Community service learning has also been shown to increase parent involvement, providing more examples of adult models. Fertman states, “Service learning often gives parents the opportunity to get to know teachers and school administrators better, laying the foundation for a better working relationship in monitoring the progress of students” (1994, p.29). Since parent involvement, or the lack thereof, is an issue at my elementary school, community service learning serves as a great addition to not only my classroom environment, but to my school environment as a whole.
Community service learning in elementary school assists students not only socially and emotionally, but academically as well. Several studies have also showed that elementary students who participated in community service learning projects demonstrated higher test scores. In Michigan, “5th grade service-learning students outperformed their non-participating counterparts on the overall science and social studies scores” (RMC Research, 2005, p.1). In Vermont, 6th and 2nd grade students who participated in community service learning scored higher in areas of reading and word analysis (RMC Research, 2005). While the focus on community service learning in my classroom is not to primarily increase test scores, it is important to see that it has possible academic implications that are related to demonstrating proficiency.
Since my research is focused on community service learning in elementary schools, I strived to find a structure for implementing community service learning that applied to my specific age of students. According to Chapman and Skinner (1999) in the National Center for Education Statistics, service-learning must have four essential components: be organized in relation to an academic course or curriculum, have clearly stated learning objectives, address real community needs in a sustained manner over a period of time, and assist students in drawing lessons from the service through regularly scheduled, organized reflection or critical analysis activities, such as classroom discussions, presentations, or directed writing. In their statistical research of the presence of community service learning in K-12 schools, they had to establish these definitive requirements in order to make their findings more consistent and credible. In nationwide surveys, 25% of students in elementary schools participated in community service learning that met the above noted essential components (Skinner & Chapman, 1999). They also found that, “elementary schools were more likely to have grade-wide or discipline-wide service-learning than were middle/high schools” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p.6). This means these essential components are relevant for to my elementary school setting and exist and function elsewhere in elementary settings.
With increased standardized test pressures coming down from state and federal officials, my students are lacking real world experiences and are absorbing their standard-based education from textbooks, worksheets, and test preparation materials. They aren’t able to articulate why they are learning a concept and are unable to explain how they can use it today, tomorrow, or further into the future. Their schooling experiences are void of real world connections and applications. With this in mind, I decided to focus my research on the implementation of community-service learning in elementary school. More specifically, how do students experience community-service learning in second grade?
Defining Community Service Learning (What is and is not CSL?)
Community service learning is not a new concept or idea being applied to today’s educational curriculum. Thoughts of community service learning can be traced back to late 19th – and early 20th century (Skinner & Chapman, 1999). “Though first suggested over a century ago, the incorporation of service-learning into the curriculum did not begin in earnest until the early 1970s, and it has only been in the last decade that extensive reform efforts have emerged” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p. 2). For the purposes of my research study, I will be referring to community service learning as an “experience” that connects educational curriculum with assisting/serving the community.
Currently in my teaching environment, learning is an isolated event that has little connection to the world beyond the classroom doors. It is not to say that my students are not learning information that is applicable to the “real world” but that they are not often aware of the purpose of their learning nor able to apply it in an actual situation. Referencing this isolated style of teaching, John Dewey states:
Learning here [in the context of an environment void of experience] means acquisition of what already is incorporated in books and in the heads of the elders. Moreover, that which is taught is thought of an essentially static. It is taught as a finished product, with little regard either to the ways in which it was originally built up or to changes that will surely occur in the future. (1938, p. 5).
In defining community service learning, it is important to make a distinction between community service (also known as volunteerism) and community service learning. Jeffery Howard (1993) elaborates on this important distinction stating that the difference lies in the deliberateness of student learning. There needs to be an intentional effort made to apply the community service experience to student learning. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “service learning takes community service one step further by incorporating the service experiences of students directly into their school work” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p. 2). Howard (1998) warns that community service learning should not be disguised as a stand-alone course that provides little connection between the community activity and the curriculum in the course. Novella Zett Keith also elaborates on the difference between community service learning and volunteerism in Doing Service Projects in Urban Settings. Community service learning should be viewed as “service with” rather than “service to” and that it should be based on reciprocity (Keith, 1997). According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas (1999), yet another difference between the two different approaches is that service learning usually involves not only action, but reflection as well. Through reflection, students are able to connect the community service learning experience to learning in the classroom.
Why Community Service Learning is important
Community service learning can be valuable for several academic, social, and emotional reasons. Long ago, John Dewey (1916), an advocate of service-learning, believed that students would learn more effectively and become better citizens if they engaged in service to the community and had this service incorporated into their academic curriculum. Academically, community service learning can enhance a student’s ability to understand related content and combine community experiences with classroom learning. Howard states:
Adding a service component, in fact, may enhance the rigor of a course because, in addition to having to master the academic material, students must also learn how to learn from community experience and merge that learning with academic learning, and these are challenging intellectual activities that are commensurate with rigorous academic standards. (1993, p. 102)
Specifically, students have demonstrated improvement in areas such as moral reasoning, problem-solving, and empathic understanding (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Community service learning also provides opportunities for developing real world skills and real world knowledge, a difficult content area to teach in the classroom (Howard, 1993).
Community service learning has also assisted students in developing positive attitudes towards school in general, especially for students labeled “at-risk”. According to Clary, Snyder, and Stukas, “In an evaluation of Florida Learn & Serve programs, at-risk students involved in service showed the greatest improvements in attendance, grade-point average, and discipline referrals” (1999, p. 6). Community service learning is especially important in improving the academic successes of students in urban settings, such as where I teach. According to Novella Zett Keith (1997), educators have been searching for a way to improve student success in urban settings and community service learning appears to be an answer. Educators are realizing the importance of connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom walls. In order for students to remain connected to the curriculum being taught inside the class, they must see the value of their learning beyond the school. According to Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn (1992), “…students are more likely to become engaged when academic work intellectually involves them in a process of meaningful inquiry extending beyond the classroom” (As cited in Shernoff & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009).
Socially, community service learning has shown to be an important component of the learning curriculum. It can enhance students’ understanding of and attitudes towards diverse groups in society. According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas:
Students who engaged in service learning with elderly people, while taking a course on aging, were able to develop more positive attitudes towards the serviced population than students who were in a similar course that did not have a community service-learning component. (1999, p. 4-5)
Students are also more likely to increase their social and personal responsibility and altruistic motivation. As stated by Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, “Studies also show that students who engage in service learning indicate that they are likely to continue serving in the future and believe it an important thing to do” (1999, p. 7).
Community service learning can also assist students in developing better relationships with their teachers. As noted by Keith, “Service learning may contribute to improving school culture through its beneficial effect on teacher-student relationships” (1997, p. 134). Community service learning is considered to be a valuable social tool because it encourages a sense of action in students, where students are able to decide how to solve problems rather than being told how to solve problems. Keith states, “The teacher, rather than simply being the provider of information and the evaluator of competence, is the creator of environments where students learn by doing, working with others, and reflecting on their experiences” (1997, p. 138). This is the type of teaching environment I’m striving to create within my classroom. I want my students to become self-motivated in their own learning experiences and be able to lead their peers in self-directive and reflection conversations. Once the playing field is leveled and power is no longer the dominating factor in educating, my students will be able to better relate to me, making their learning more feasible.
Emotionally, many people agree that service learning can impact students’ emotional development in areas such as personal efficacy, self-esteem, and confidence. According to Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, “It has been found, for example, that cross-age tutoring increased participants’ self-esteem. Similarly, in another study nearly 60% of youth in service programs agreed that the program showed them that it feel good to help others” (1999, p. 3). Volunteer activity can also provide students with a distraction from personal problems and an opportunity to work out their problems in a community service situation. Additionally, service-learning activities can shield students from stress in their lives. Engaging students in community service can furthermore reduce feelings of alienation and isolation as well as reduce disciplinary problems and increase student attendance rates (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Although this research was conducted with primarily high school and college students, I believe the academic, social, and emotional benefits discussed will be applicable and transferable to my second grade students.
How to implement Community Service Learning
When implementing community service learning, there are many important factors that need to be taken into account. According to James Howard, there are three ways to implement community service learning in high school and college curriculum: to have students “self-direct” their own learning and keep a reflective journal, for a campus community service program to provide the structure (i.e. guidebook, seminars, student placement), or to have the community service learning intentionally integrated into the academic course. Speaking of the last option, Howard suggests, “When used this way, community service learning may be conceptualized as a pedagogical model that connects meaningful community service experiences with academic course learning” (1993, p. 101). Although all components are important, community service learning must be connected to the learning currently taking place in the classroom in order for students to experience the greatest benefit. If community service learning is presented as a separate element (apart from the curriculum), students may have difficulty understanding the purpose and value of the experience.
Many times, teachers add community service learning to the curriculum as an extra assignment, rarely connecting it to the learning that is taking place in the classroom. Like project-based learning, many teachers assume that the mere presence of the project equates to student learning. It’s important for me to remember that community service learning, like project-based learning, needs to be thoughtfully created and strategically structured. It needs to be meaningful and embedded in current instruction. It should not be a separate activity that is rarely visited. To optimize student learning, community service learning needs to have deliberately planned learning goals. Howard (1993) reminds us that not all students will learn the same way and not all our projects will have the same outcome. Sometimes even our grandest projects/lesson plans will have failures. He states, “In community service learning courses, the variability in community service placements necessarily leads to less certainty and homogeneity in student learning outcomes” (Howard, 1993, p. 104). I must be prepared for uncertain and varied student learning outcomes.
Howard suggests principles to keep in mind in designing an effective community service-learning program. One I connected with was to minimize the distinction between students’ community learning role and the classroom-learning role. In my classroom, students are usually led and guided through various lessons and tasks. In community service learning, students are expected to be leaders, especially in regards to their own learning. It’s important to show students how to be self-motivated learners by allowing them lead their own learning in the classroom. According to Howard, “For students to have to alternate between the learning-follower role in the classroom and the learning-leader role in the community not only places yet another learning challenge on students but is inconsistent with good pedagogical principles” (1993, p. 103).
Students need ample time to participate in the experience, be able to experience an activity that is thoughtfully matched to current classroom instruction and learning goals, and provide opportunities for all participants to reflect. According to Howard:
The duration of the service must be sufficient to enable the fulfillment of learning goals; a one-time two-hour shift at a hospital will do little for the learning in a course on institutional health care…filling records in a warehouse may be of service to a school district, but it would offer little to stimulate learning in a course on elementary school education. (1993, p.103)
Clary, Snyder, and Stukas (1999) also note that it will be difficult for students to apply classroom learning to their community service learning experience if the service placement does not match the curriculum. They state, “Research suggests that service learning promotes student understanding, but the nature of the understanding depends on the relationship between course content and experience, and the chance to reflect upon the relationship” (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999, p. 6). In creating an effective community service-learning program, four important characteristics must be considered: student choice in structuring service activities, matching of learning goals to service activities, activities that help develop the relationships of all participants, and opportunities for reflection (Clary, Snyder, & Stukas, 1999). Novella Zett Keith (1997) also offers several suggestions in implementing an effective community service-learning program. She agrees with the incorporation of not only student input, but also the input of parents and community members in designing service learning opportunities.
Community Service Learning in Elementary School
According to Carl Fertman, “All students – elementary, middle, and high school, as well as special education – benefit from service learning” (1994, p. 7). Community service learning has become an integral part of middle school, high school, and college campuses. It isn’t often that we hear of community service learning at the elementary level. Elementary school students can surely gain the same benefits of participating in community service learning-projects as students in middle school, high school, and college. According to the Michigan Learn and Serve Study, students in Grades 2-5 who participated in community service learning reported significant gains in paying attention, completing homework on time, and sharing what they learned with others. They also noted higher levels of behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement in school than students who had not participated in community service learning projects (RMC Research, 2005).
Several educational theories support community service learning in elementary schools. John Dewey’s philosophy is that children acquire knowledge through experiences, “namely that children are overflowing with impulses and that they want to interact with the environment and people around them because these interactions create experience, and experience is what creates people” (Kinsley, 1997, p. 145). In my classroom, my students are very eager and curious about the communities around them. The more I can help create these experiences, the more I can assist my students in discovering who they are. Community service learning in elementary school can help students come into contact with several different groups of people and varying viewpoints, which can assist in the developing of moral reasoning. According to Jean Piaget:
As children interact with more people and come into contact with a wider range of viewpoints, they begin to discard the idea that there is a single, absolute standard of right or wrong and to develop their own sense of justice based on fairness or equal treatment for all. (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2006, p. 349)
Community service learning is also conducive to cooperative partner and group work. This is important because according to Vygotsky’s social interaction model of language development, “Students working in pairs wrote stories with more solutions to problems, more explanations and goals, and fewer errors in syntax and word use than did children working alone,” (Papalia, Olds, & Feldman, 2006, p. 359).
One of the key benefits of community service learning in elementary schools is that adults are able to serve as excellent models for young people. According to Fertman in Service Learning For All Students, “Service learning can help young people grow from the natural dependence of childhood into mature personal interdependence and engagement in community” (1994, p. 28). Community service learning has also been shown to increase parent involvement, providing more examples of adult models. Fertman states, “Service learning often gives parents the opportunity to get to know teachers and school administrators better, laying the foundation for a better working relationship in monitoring the progress of students” (1994, p.29). Since parent involvement, or the lack thereof, is an issue at my elementary school, community service learning serves as a great addition to not only my classroom environment, but to my school environment as a whole.
Community service learning in elementary school assists students not only socially and emotionally, but academically as well. Several studies have also showed that elementary students who participated in community service learning projects demonstrated higher test scores. In Michigan, “5th grade service-learning students outperformed their non-participating counterparts on the overall science and social studies scores” (RMC Research, 2005, p.1). In Vermont, 6th and 2nd grade students who participated in community service learning scored higher in areas of reading and word analysis (RMC Research, 2005). While the focus on community service learning in my classroom is not to primarily increase test scores, it is important to see that it has possible academic implications that are related to demonstrating proficiency.
Since my research is focused on community service learning in elementary schools, I strived to find a structure for implementing community service learning that applied to my specific age of students. According to Chapman and Skinner (1999) in the National Center for Education Statistics, service-learning must have four essential components: be organized in relation to an academic course or curriculum, have clearly stated learning objectives, address real community needs in a sustained manner over a period of time, and assist students in drawing lessons from the service through regularly scheduled, organized reflection or critical analysis activities, such as classroom discussions, presentations, or directed writing. In their statistical research of the presence of community service learning in K-12 schools, they had to establish these definitive requirements in order to make their findings more consistent and credible. In nationwide surveys, 25% of students in elementary schools participated in community service learning that met the above noted essential components (Skinner & Chapman, 1999). They also found that, “elementary schools were more likely to have grade-wide or discipline-wide service-learning than were middle/high schools” (Skinner & Chapman, 1999, p.6). This means these essential components are relevant for to my elementary school setting and exist and function elsewhere in elementary settings.