(Download) "Bringing an Ethnographic Sensibility to Service-Learning Assessment (Report)" by Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Bringing an Ethnographic Sensibility to Service-Learning Assessment (Report)
- Author : Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 248 KB
Description
How do we know if students are learning? A number of years ago Arthur Keene, co-author of this article, gave a presentation to the UMass-Amherst administration on some new work we were doing in community service learning. He grounded the presentation in the personal stories of students who had embraced their course work and service with great passion, students who had become increasingly reflective and sophisticated and who saw their courses as significant transformative experiences. One case he cited was the story of Seth, an engineering student who, as a sophomore, had wandered into an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) class (Addes & Keene, 2006). Seth was finding his engineering classes increasingly alienating as it became harder for him to link his concerns with social and economic justice to his schoolwork. He was considering changing his major to anthropology. During a trip to a rural community in the South, we were asked if we could build two handicapped ramps for community buildings. Our hosts had no design plans and a very small budget. Seth was one of only two students on the trip with any construction or design experience. He set out to design and supervise the construction of two ramps, soliciting donated materials from local businesses, recycling materials from recent demolitions, and instructing the other students in matters of construction. The ramps are still in use today. Following the trip Seth had an epiphany in which he was able to link his own technical expertise to his capacity to make change (1). He decided to remain in engineering and is working today in the field of alternative energy.