Criteria for Service-Learning Course Designation--Click Here.
In May 2005, Dickinson College instituted a faculty stipend initiative to stimulate and support development of service-learning and community-based research courses. This stipend applied to the development of service-learning/CBR components of existing courses or the development of new courses.
Proposals for service-learning course development stipends for next academic year, 2008-2009, will be due at the end of the Spring 2008 semester.
“Service-learning” is a method of providing students with community-based
experience that benefits, whether through direct service or applied research,
community partners and enhances the students’ academic experience. The
community experience is integrated into the course’s readings, lectures,
discussion, and writing assignments. Students are evaluated in terms of regular
academic standards, not for the services provided.
At Dickinson, support for service-learning/CBR course development is part
of our broader interest in supporting innovative and active pedagogies, and
specifically community-based learning experiences.
Faculty may use these stipends to develop a service-learning/CBR component
to an existing course, to add significant new dimensions to an existing
service-learning/CBR course, or to develop a new service-learning/CBR course.
Faculty receiving these stipends will be asked to participate in a "service-learning
study group."
This informal study group will allow participating faculty to benefit from
each others’ experiences, build upon existing models and resources,
and create a distinctively Dickinson service-learning knowledge base that
can be shared with the faculty at-large.
Specifically, participating faculty will be asked to:
1. Teach a service-learning course during the upcoming academic year.
2. Participate in a day-long session in May-June to explore the conceptual
issues in service-learning course development and to refine their own early
planning for course development.
3. Participate in a ½ day session in late summer: Faculty will present
their preliminary course designs and plans for community partnerships for
informal peer feedback.
4. Participate in two lunch meetings during the academic year while the group
of courses are running to share experiences
5.Gather at the end of next academic year to reflect on your experiences
and guide the further development of service-learning/community-based
research at Dickinson
6. Prepare an evaluative report of your service-learning teaching experience.
Participating faculty will be supported in the development and implementation
of their service-learning course. Upon request, Shalom Staub, Assistant
Provost for Academic Affairs, will assist in identifying appropriate community
partnerships or appropriate resource materials, such as discipline-specific
service-learning models, service-learning based assignments, or student or
course evaluation tools.
Faculty interested in applying for this course development stipend should
contact Shalom Staub for the application
form. The application asks faculty members to briefly address the following
questions:
• What are the academic/intellectual issues which you plan to address
through the service-learning/CBR experience?
• With which community contacts or community partners do you think
you will develop this service-learning/CBR experience?
• What, if known, might be the nature of the community experience?
(For example, community-based service experience, or community-based research
that creates some value for the community partner.) How do you anticipate
that the community will benefit from the service/research?
If the proposal is to modify an existing course, you will be asked to submit
a syllabus and indicate how you think the service-learning experience will
impact the existing course. If the proposal is to develop a new course, you
will be asked to provide information about the course and how service-learning
will be integrated into its design. Any new course proposal will have to be
reviewed by APSC.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Service-Learning Subcommitee to the APSC,
composed of Kirsten Guss (liaison to APSC) Susan Rose (Community
Studies Center Director), Sarah Bair and Wendell Smith.