|
Session Title: Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: Framing the Evaluation Issues
|
|
Panel Session 598 to be held in Capitol Ballroom Section 7 on Friday, Nov 7, 1:35 PM to 3:05 PM
|
|
Sponsored by the Assessment in Higher Education TIG
|
| Chair(s): |
| Annalisa Raymer,
University of Alaska,
afalr@uaa.alaska.edu
|
| Abstract:
Service-learning is a concept that involves engaging in community service and learning subjects and dispositions (attitudes, values, etc.) related to being a citizen in a democratic society. A construct that is sometimes viewed as 'an amorphous concept that defies rigid definitions and universal understanding' (Shumer, 1993), service-learning if often defined by its context. Differing contexts create havoc for evaluators because they must continuously negotiate goals, purposes, processes, and outcomes.
The goal of this panel is to frame diverse issues involved in conducting evaluations of service-learning and civic engagement. Among the challenges to be discussed are: 1) delineating both the terms and actions of the programs; 2) issues of fit and effectiveness - how program activities lead to measures of effectiveness and quality; and 3) considerations in selecting evaluation approaches that match social and civic outcomes, from participatory approaches, to case studies and individual systems of assessment.
|
|
Matching the Methods to the Intent: Considerations in Framing Evaluation of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning
|
| Anne Hewitt,
Seton Hall University,
hewittan@shu.edu
|
|
Dr. Anne M. Hewitt is the Director of the Seton Center for Community Health, and she specializes in evaluation of non-profit agencies. She recently completed an evaluation of a $2 million grant focusing on service learning in the university. Dr. Hewitt is also the CEO/Founder of Mountainside Associates, a consulting firm founded in 1996.
|
|
|
Defining the Evaluand and Dealing With Complexity: Challenges in Service-Learning Evaluation
|
| Robert Shumer,
University of Minnesota,
drrdsminn@msn.com
|
|
Robert Shumer, Ph.D, is the founder and former Director of the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse at the University of Minnesota. He has been involved in service-learning and civic engagement for almost 40 years and has conducted more than 25 studies of programs dealing with service-learning, civic engagement, character education, and state and national service. He is considered one of the pioneers of the service-learning movement.
| |
|
Constructs and Measures Employed in Service-Learning Evaluation Today
|
| Bradley Smith,
University of South Carolina,
drbradleyhsmith@gmail.com
|
|
Dr. Brad Smith has been teaching service-learning courses in at the University of South Carolina since 2001 and is the Chair of the Provosts Task Force on Service Learning, which is tasked with promoting service learning scholarship at USC. Through these activities, Dr. Smith has seen several evaluations of service learning classes and is leading an evaluation review study on measurement and designs for evaluating service-learning classes. His presentation in the panel will focus on constructs to consider when evaluating service learning and extant measures for these constructs.
| |
|
Assessing the Impact of Service Learning Through the Lens of Community-Based Research
|
| Naomi Penney,
University of Notre Dame,
naomi5645@yahoo.com
|
|
Naomi Penney, PhD, has worked at the local, state, and federal levels in public health. She has worked as an evaluation consultant to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, the Global AIDS Program and for several non-profit organizations over the past five years. Two years ago she began working with the Center for Social Concerns at University of Notre Dame to build the community-based research aspect of their service learning activities. She will speak on using a stepped approach to identifying community impact through qualitative interviews of both faculty and community partners and identifying how each group is envisioning what 'community impact' should look like.
| |
|
Surveying the Landscape of Understandings: What Do the Terms "Civic Engagement" and "Service Learning" Connote?
|
| Annalisa Raymer,
University of Alaska,
afalr@uaa.alaska.edu
|
|
Annalisa Raymer, PhD, serves as Faculty Advisor for the academic program in Civic Engagement at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where she's also active in efforts to advance Community Engaged Scholarship. Her teaching and research focuses on building democratic participation in public life. Annalisa's background includes work in community planning, civic leadership development, and action research, and she is particularly interested in participatory placemaking of public space. In this session she will present a spectrum of conceptual understandings of the key terms, civic engagement and service-learning.
| |