International Center Board of Directors Dear Service ... - Conference.ie

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Our Origins INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SERVICE-LEARNING IN TEACHER EDUCATION In 1997, the Corporation for National Service awarded two significant teacher education grants, one to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and one to Dr. Rahima Wade of the University of Iowa. Both grants developed national partnerships that merged together in 2000 to form the AACTE National Service-Learning in Teacher Education Partnership (NSLTEP). This group of national partners created the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education in 2003. The vision of the Clemson University President, along with the collaboration of the Provost, the Vice President for Public Service and Agriculture, the National Dropout Prevention Center, the College of Health, Education, and Human Development, and the Eugene T. Moore School of Education created a unique framework for the University to support the vision and goals of the International Center. Financial constraints on Clemson University that began in 2008 have led the Center to begin discussions on moving its central location to a new university site in 2009. We hope to finalize that exciting development at this conference or later in 2009. The International Center is committed to sharing experience, practice, and findings on service-learning in teacher education with colleagues throughout the world. Educators in different countries have different perspectives about how to offer young people the chance to learn through active involvement with their school and wider communities. The International Center will provide a forum for this exchange and create opportunities to learn from each other as we develop these concepts in service-learning. Our Goals The International Center collaborates with higher education institutions and pre-K-12 schools throughout the world to carry out the center’s goals and activities. These include the following: • Improve the quality of teaching and learning by preparing teachers and school leaders to use effective servicelearning methodologies. • Promote excellence in service-learning by supporting, conducting, and disseminating current research on service-learning in teacher education. • Endorse active civic engagement and community participation within a democratic framework through the dynamics of service-learning. • Develop and promote policies that support the implementation of effective service-learning guidelines in schools and colleges. International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education Eugene T. Moore School of Education • Clemson University 102 Tillman Hall Clemson, South Carolina, 29634-0702 www.clemson.edu/ICSLTE • icslte-l@clemson.edu 864-656-6575 18
Is Teacher Education the Achilles Heel of Service-Learning? by Jeffrey Anderson and Andrea Yoder The use of service-learning in preservice teacher education grew rapidly in the U.S.A. from 1990 until early in the 21st century. During the past few years, it appears to have languished and may even be decreasing in emphasis despite the fact that recent research confirms that the pedagogy of service-learning can help reduce the distressing number of school dropouts and facilitate the active engagement in learning of those students who stay in school. A featured forum at the 2009 National Service-Learning Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, addressed this issue by bringing together a diverse cross section of teacher educators and service-learning advocates. This group included Don Hill, a long-time service-learning advocate and teacher with Youth Service California; Professor Marcy Singer-Gabella, an experienced teacher educator from Vanderbilt University who has not been involved with service-learning; Andrea Yoder, a young faculty member at San Diego State University with considerable experience and a strong commitment to service-learning; Cathryn Berger Kaye, an international service-learning consultant for both K-12 and teacher education; and Jeffrey Anderson, an experienced service-learning teacher educator from Seattle University. This article summarizes key points made at the conference in regards to two questions: Is teacher education the Achilles heel of service-learning? and What can be done enhance both the quantity and quality of service-learning use with teacher candidates? Is teacher education the Achilles heel of service-learning? A recent survey of school administrators in the U.S. revealed that only 24% of K-12 schools now provide service-learning opportunities for their students (Corporation for National and Community Service, 2008). A national study that included all institutional members of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in the U.S. found that 59% claimed to include service-learning in the curriculum and 37% prepared teacher candidates to use service-learning as a pedagogy with their future K-12 students (Anderson & Erickson, 2003). The conclusion suggested by these data—that service-learning is more prevalent in teacher preparation programs than in K-12 schools— needs to be tempered with the realization that many teacher educators apparently confuse service-learning with traditional student teaching experiences. Over half the respondents to the 2003 survey indicated that the traditional student teaching internship was a form of service-learning. In addition, in most teacher education programs, only a few teacher candidates have the opportunity to participate in servicelearning, and of those who do, 50% serve as reading tutors in a K-12 school. It is clear that in order to advance service-learning in preservice teacher education key decision makers need to be educated regarding the distinctions between student teaching internships and service-learning. This difference is seen in the intentions behind the two practices. Student teaching is provided, primarily, to benefit teacher candidates by giving them an opportunity to develop professionally as they apply the methods and theories they learned in the university classroom. Service-learning includes this focus but also provides an equal emphasis on addressing genuine community-identified needs. Servicelearning also places explicit emphasis on strengthening the civic responsibility of the teacher candidates involved. The second issue also creates confusion related to the use of service-learning with teacher candidates. Service-learning can be used to assist preservice teachers to meet the goals of their professional courses, ranging from understanding theories of educational psychology to appreciating the diverse cultural backgrounds of their future students. This is the most frequent use of service-learning in teacher education, and perhaps the only use many teacher educators see. However, some argue that preparing teacher candidates to employ service-learning as a pedagogy with their future K-12 students is an even more important outcome. These educators note that each new teacher can influence from 25 to over 100 K-12 students in just one year by facilitating service-learning activities for them. Given the confusion around these key issues it is no wonder that “the idiosyncratic nature of its implementation makes widespread impact questionable” (Anderson & Erickson, 2003). A related issue is the reasonableness of expecting innovations in the teacher education curriculum to be capable of driving changes in the practice of K-12 education without the support and endorsement of K-12 teachers, administrators, school boards, and parents. In the past, this relationship has much more frequently operated in a reverse manner: when an innovation was adopted in K-12 schools and administrators began expecting teachers to understand and apply it, teacher preparation programs began preparing their graduates to employ that innovation. Several panelists disagreed on whether teacher education was the Achilles heel of service-learning, while others discussed the issue but didn’t offer a specific opinion on this question. All seemed to agree that service-learning proponents face several key challenges in addition to the definitional and purpose issues raised above. These include a lack of time in the preservice curriculum for any additional content; lack of space in the K-12 curriculum for service-learning; lack of quality placements in K-12 schools for teacher candidates to gain practical experience and guidance from master teachers knowledgeable about service-learning; the fact that many teacher education faculty and K-12 teachers and administrators are so busy and focused on other aspects of schools and education that they aren’t even aware of the potential of service-learning; 19
Page 1 and 2: International Center Board of Direc
Page 3 and 4: 25 June 2009 Greetings to Conferenc
Page 5 and 6: SPECIAL CONFERENCE FEATURES Thursda
Page 7 and 8: FRIDAY, 26 June 2009 Location: Frid
Page 9 and 10: Working the “Third Space” of Te
Page 11 and 12: Are They Getting It? Using a Reflec
Page 13 and 14: Saturday, 27 June 2009 Research 9:0
Page 15 and 16: Youth Leaders Guide Teachers in Ser
Page 17: Panel #3 Location: Room AM 150 (O
Page 21 and 22: community, and higher education par
Page 23 and 24: L Jamie Luedtke, Providence College

International Center Board of Directors Dear Service ... - Conference.ie

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