NR Bringle & Hatcher article annotations

"Reflections in Service Learning: Making Meaning of Experience"

Bringle & Hatcher focus their article on the importance of reflection in service learning and how it can answer the needs in education that traditional methods cannot meet.

Service learning is: an education experience where students volunteer in the community in order to fulfill a community need & reflect on that experience & how it relates to their particular college course.

Two limitations of traditional teaching methods are: "context specific learning" and the "shallow nature of the content" taught ("it does not promote personal understanding"). Service learning is an example of an"active learning strategy."

John Dewey, philosopher - experience is just as important as theory. "[I]t is only in experience that any theory has vital and verifiable significance." B&H p84 Introduction to Service Learning Toolkit.

According to Dewey, experiences can be either educative or miseducative. Communication, esp. face-to-face, is the key to creating educative experiences.

4 specific conditions are necessary (Dewey) to max. the chance that experience learning is educative: "it must generate interest in the learner, it must be intrinsically worthwhile to the learner, it must present problems that awaken new curiosity and create a demand for information, and it must cover a considerable time span and foster development over time."

3 principles of Dewey's educational philosophy: "education must lead to personal growth, education must contribute to humane conditions, and education must engage citizens in association with one another."

Types of reflection for service learning: Journals, Experiential research paper, Ethical case study, Directed readings, Class presentation and Electronic reflection.

3 distinct types of knowledge (Altman): content knowledge, process knowledge (skills), and socially relevant knowledge.

Beduc556 requirements for our service learning experience: Reflective paper, reflective journal, use journal to analyze how my experience relates to course readings/discussions.