Center for Community Engagement
USM Policy for Designating Service-Learning Classes
USM has approved the following review process to identify and clearly label classes meeting the disciplinary standards for service-learning pedagogy. Faculty who teach a class with the “ASL” designation and who incorporate service-learning pedagogy during the semester will be indicated as using a "High-Impact Practice (HIP)" in Digital Measures by CCE at the conclusion of that semester.
Application
An application is available to USM faculty members, school directors, or other appointees who wish
to designate a class as service-learning. The completed application must demonstrate
that the class meets the following criteria for service-learning:
Criteria for service-learning
- service supports the attainment of one or more academic course objectives
- service addresses a community-identified (local, regional, global) need
- learning involves structured student reflection on the service experience and its relation to course goals and/or the academic discipline
- learning involves reciprocity between course and community that has the potential to result in students' enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility
- service contribution is a minimum of 15 hours, which may consist of planning a project, producing a product, or serving at a site
By design, the criteria for USM service-learning classes align closely with the definition of service-learning proposed by Robert Bringle & Julie Hatcher, who define it is a “course-based, credit bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility” (Bringle and Hatcher, 1995, p. 112).
Process
You can submit an application to designate an ASL class at any time during the year.
A faculty committee, with input from the CCE Director, will review and approve/deny
applications.
Applications can be submitted for a
- one-time designation
- long-term designation, renewable every five years
If a class is approved for the ASL designation, the “Academic Service-Learning” course attribute may be added to the appropriate section(s) in the class schedule before school access to scheduling is closed each semester. Please ensure attributes are removed if the class will not be taught with service-learning pedagogy.
For more information, contact Christy Kayser, director of the CCE, at christy.arrazatteeFREEMississippi.
