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Measuring Cognitive and Social-Emotional Development in Faculty Preparing for Service-Learning Facilitation
Get PDFThe ongoing proliferation of service-learning as an institutionalized pedagogy in higher education has made effective faculty development essential. This study offers a conceptual framework, based in sociocultural theory, that establishes the importance of cognitive and social–emotional development to prepare faculty for service-learning facilitation. Through a longitudinal quantitative analysis of self-reported progress, 35 faculty over seven cohorts who matriculated through a service-learning faculty development program reveal their perceived confidence and capability to facilitate service-learning courses prior to implementation. The study finds that improved cognitive and social–emotional development increases faculty members’ confidence in their ability to facilitate courses. Further, the pre/posttest can act as a formative assessment to identify faculty who need further support in their development before engaging with community partners and historically marginalized populations. Ultimately, this measure provides a valuable tool in avoiding the entrenchment of damaged university– community relationships from ineffective instructor facilitation
A Framework to Understand and Address Barriers to Community- Engaged Scholarship and Public Engagement in Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Across Higher Education
No full textScholarship addressing public and community engagement in tenure and promotion often invokes Ernest Boyer’s landmark 1990 report, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, and goes on to lament the lack of progress made in the three decades that have followed. This review intervenes: We synthesize extant scholarship on community-engaged scholarship and public engagement (CES&PE) in appointment, tenure, and promotion (APT); lay out three central challenges to the advancement of CES&PE; review the strategies institutions and individuals have leveraged to advance more equitable and effective processes; and caution against potential inadvertent, damaging consequences of reforms focused solely on CES&PE. We argue not only that recognition for CES&PE in APT is essential for fulfilling the institutional missions of universities for the public good, but also that it is essential to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice on college and university campuses
Mutual fund knowledge assessment for policy and decision problems
No full textWe develop a measure of mutual fund investment knowledge that complements existing fi- nancial literacy measures. Our question battery was administered to 3,444 survey respondents. We validate the index with factor analysis identifying two latent components, and descriptive regressions demonstrating the additive value of our index beyond general financial literacy in explaining variation in financial well-being, investment ownership, and fee calculation profi- ciency. Despite mutual funds’ importance in household savings, our index suggests that the public lacks adequate understanding of them. We demonstrate the utility of our index for studying selected decision and policy problems
Social Participation and Theoretical Content: Appropriation of Curricular Concepts in Service-Learning
Get PDFIn recent years, higher education has lost its monopoly on the transmission of specialized knowledge. In response, it has sought to expand its contribution to society in areas such as equipping students with practical skills and fostering social engagement. New pedagogical approaches such as service-learning emphasize the importance of these new directions. However, a question arises: In this context, what role should be played by specialized knowledge and its acquisition? It is generally accepted that theoretical learning should not take place in a parallel, self-contained universe, isolated from practical concerns and social commitment, and therefore we must examine how these processes interact. Accordingly, this article analyzes the content learning processes of students participating in service-learning experiences. The results obtained show a diversity in the roles that curricular concepts play, ranging from mere definitions oriented to evaluation to tools for reflection and action in practice.
Doing What We Can With What We Have: Engaged Scholarship Among Community Psychology Doctoral Students
Get PDFGraduate students newly embarking on community-engaged scholarship often find themselves in a unique context, wherein as students they may enjoy a wealth of opportunities but a dearth of other resources that contribute to quality community-engaged research. This reflective essay explores how three ecological–community psychology doctoral students used their student status to leverage opportunities for community-engaged research despite resource-limited/shifting resource situations. After positioning the essay within existing thought and research, each author provides an in-depth description of a community-engaged project. Each vignette includes an assessment of the level of community engagement during various phases of the project using Doberneck and Dann’s (2019) abacus for collaboration. The authors then reflect on commonalities among their approaches and lessons learned and conclude with recommendations for graduate students and their mentors who may be operating in opportunity rich, resource poor contexts
Rural 3.0: A Case Study of University–Community Engagement Through Rural Service-Learning in Croatia
Get PDFAs part of the project Rural 3.0: Service-Learning for the Rural Development—RURASL (https://rural.ffzg.unizg.hr/), to ascertain the needs and gaps relevant to implementing service-learning in rural Croatia, we surveyed three target groups: university students, rural community organizations, and potential service-learning beneficiaries. We discovered three main challenges: insufficient human capacities, attributable mostly to difficulty in obtaining funding, which hinders development and implementation of new service-learning projects. Croatian local action groups (LAGs) and rural NGOs were found supportive of rural service-learning. The older population recognizes a great opportunity to get support for basic living needs, and the younger population shows a great interest in engaging university students in improving the tourist and cultural sector. Higher education institutions’ implementation of innovative service-learning will improve the quality of education for sustainable development and promote university–community partnerships in rural areas
Transforming Barriers into Opportunities: Teaching Environment and Sustainability Service-Learning Courses During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFIn response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions of higher learning locked down their campuses and altered their ways of teaching. This article discusses changes made to courses at five highly varied public universities in New England that were among those participating in the multi-year Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) program. The primary aim of the CES program is to integrate environmental service-learning (SL) into college curricula through workshops, faculty fellowships, and mentoring. We detail how teaching strategies were altered in the fall of 2020 to accommodate the threat of COVID-19 in the classroom. The authors transitioned significant portions of their instruction to online formats or outdoor classrooms. Specifics about the impacts of the shift to virtual teaching-learning is discussed, with particular focus on the impacts to the service learning components of each of the courses
Graduate Student Participation in K-12 Science Outreach: Self-Reported Impact on Identity and Confidence of STEM Graduate Students
No full textGraduate students often serve as a liaison between a university and its surrounding community through their participation in educational outreach programs. Astronomy graduate students’ responses to open-ended survey questions about their experience volunteering with an educational outreach program were qualitatively coded to investigate how participating in educational outreach influenced their identity and self-efficacy as scientists and educators. We found that “connecting with students” and “difficulty managing behavior” enhanced and diminished, respectively, participants’ confidence and identity as scientists and educators. We suggest ways in which universities and departments can aid graduate students’ experience in educational outreach and the myriad of benefits that the individual, university, and community may reap when a higher value is placed on participation in educational outreach in graduate programs