Service Learning and Community-Based Research: Implementation, Benefits, Challenges, and Future Directions

Rationale: Service learning and community engagement are a natural fit for many disciplines. Service learning projects provide students with an opportunity to apply course content to real world situations (Harder, 2010), developing projects that will benefit clients, agencies, and communities. Service learning is used across a variety of disciplines including social work (Hostetter, Sullenberger, & Wood, 2013) nursing (Murray, 2013) and business (Payne, Campbell, Bal, & Piercy, 2011). Working in a group within a service learning context provides a multitude of benefits including greater interest, motivation, and engagement; improved communication skills; real-life application of course content; and skills acquisition (Murray, 2013; Payne et al., 2011; Postlethwait, 2012). Panel Purpose: The purpose of this panel is to describe how four faculty members incorporated service learning into their social work courses. This panel is unique in that three of the four faculty began conducting service learning projects while at the same institution and are now integrating service learning into their respective university settings in a variety of ways. Goals: Five goals exist for this panel. By the end of the Panel participants will understand (1) how to implement student-led community-based research projects, (2) how to build partnerships with diverse stakeholders/agency settings, (3) benefits and challenges of student-led research within a community-based agency, (4) how to use projects to support agency change, and (5) future directions in service learning. Specifically, the panel will provide the audience with information on how to incorporate student-led community-based research projects into their courses. First, the discussion will focus on how to prepare for a community-based research project. The panelists will describe how to: (a) develop an assignment that is consistent with learning outcomes and meets the need of the partner agency, (b) create a project that is feasible to complete in one semester and results in a high quality project, (c) manage and plan for difficult group dynamics, and (d) incorporate measures of student learning and engagement into a service learning course. Second, the panelists will describe the art of building relationships and engaging diverse stakeholders/agencies in the community-based research project, highlighting key strategies. Next, the panelists will discuss the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from implementing service learning into their courses. For example, one panelist will describe the challenges of partnering with a rural agency, while another panelist will highlight how agency politics influence students’ abilities to conduct agency-based research. Lastly, the panelists will discuss how to use service learning to support community change and explore future directions for service learning. Participant Engagement will occur through questions designed to elicit discussion related to the five Panel goals. Participants will also be asked to share their experiences with the various topics covered during the panel

The Impact of Service Learning and Groups Dynamics on Learning Outcomes: Group Projects in Social Work Education

Rationale: Group projects are a natural pedagogical fit for social work education, as professional social work practice occurs in groups. Many social work students prefer courses that include active work in small groups, particularly when classroom activities are integrated and relevant to real world encounters (Carpenter-Aeby, & Aeby, 2013; Moulding, 2010; Williams, Brown, & Etherington, 2012). Service-learning projects provide students with an opportunity to apply course content to real world situations and develop projects that will benefits clients, agencies, and their communities. Thus, social work educators have started to link group work with service learning in order to increase learning and engagement in the course material. Presentation Goal & Participant Engagement: The overall goal of the presentation is to examine the impact of service learning and group work on learning outcomes in social work courses across four universities. Using data from 261 students, the presenters will share how they developed a tool to measure student experiences/learning and the findings from their study. The presenters will engage participants in a discussion on the benefits and challenges of incorporating group work and service learning into courses across disciplines. Innovative strategies for overcoming challenges and infusing active learning and civic engagement into courses will be sought in the large group discussion. Research Study: The primary researcher created a survey to assess student experiences with service learning and group work. The survey included both open and close-ended questions to gain a more detailed understanding of student experiences. Data were collected from 261 students over the course of several semesters during 2011 and 2013-2015. Surveys were anonymous, thus no demographic data is available for the sample. The majority of students (94%) were undergraduates. Students were from universities in the Southeast (85%) and Midwest (15%). Almost 80% of students participated in service learning projects. Projects were conducted in the following social work courses: research (67%), practice (21%), and cultural diversity (12%). Univariate analyses were used to examine responses to individual survey items and bivariate analyses examined relationships between variables. Qualitative analyses were conducted by using several rounds of open and focused coding to identify themes and patterns in the data. Findings: Overall, students reported positive experiences with the service learning project and group work. Students felt they had created a credible piece of work for their respective agencies. Findings suggest that a service learning approach increased motivation and engagement among most students. Students reported improved communication skills and believed that their group work prepared them for the real world. Still, 25 percent felt that the work was not divided equally. Qualitative findings revealed that students were engaged in their group projects and many noted how the applied nature of their project prepared them for the future. Students identified areas where they could have improved their work and discussed challenging group dynamics. The findings of this study have significant implications across disciplines for improving student experiences with group work, infusing service learning into the course curriculum, increasing civic engagement among students, and future research in this area