Susan J. Deeley

Service-learning: Thinking outside the box

Service-learning is a form of experiential learning that combines academic coursework with voluntary service in the community. There is a dearth of critical analysis of the effects of service-learning. To address this issue, this practitioner research aimed to explore and understand its effects. An inductive approach, using qualitative and grounded theory methods, was used. Twelve semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews and two focus groups, one held at the beginning and the other at the end of the students’ service placement, were conducted. Sequential and comparative analysis was made of the data gathered from various sources related to the course. The study demonstrates how intellectual and personal development can occur through service-learning. It also highlights potentially negative effects, but suggests that, overall, service-learning is potentially conducive to students’ transformation.

Summative co-assessment: A deep learning approach to enhancing employability skills and attributes

Service-learning is a pedagogy that combines academic study with service to the community. Voluntary work placements are integral to service-learning and offer students an ideal opportunity to develop their employability skills and attributes. In a service-learning course, it was considered good practice to raise students’ awareness of the development of these skills and attributes. To enable this, the assessment in the course was adapted accordingly, and thus an innovative, summatively co-assessed oral presentation was introduced. This study investigates the effects of using this type of assessment, in which students were required to give an oral presentation of their critical reflections on the employability skills and attributes they had developed during the course. This practitioner research study was a small project using qualitative semi-structured interviews and a focus group with students engaged in service-learning. Although this study uses service-learning pedagogy as its basis, the concept and practice of summative co-assessment is transferable to other academic courses.

Staff student partnership in assessment: enhancing assessment literacy through democratic practices

In recent years, research and practice focused on staff and students working in partnership to co-design learning and teaching in higher education has increased. However, within staff–student partnerships a focus on assessment is relatively uncommon, with fewer examples evident in the literature. In this paper, we take the stance that all assessment can be oriented for learning, and that students’ learning is enhanced by improving their level of assessment literacy. A small study in a Scottish university was undertaken that involved a range of different adaptations to assessment and feedback, in which students were invited to become partners in assessment. We argue that a partnership approach, designed to democratise the assessment process, not only offered students greater agency in their own and their peers’ learning, but also helped students to enhance their assessment literacy. Although staff and students reported experiencing a sense of risk, there was immense compensation through increased motivation, and a sense of being part of an engaged learning community. Implications for partnership in assessment are discussed and explored further. We assert that adopting staff–student partnership in assessment and more democratic classroom practices can have a wide range of positive benefits.

Critical perspectives on service-learning in higher education

1. Introduction 2. Contextualising Service-Learning 3. A Theoretical Paradigm for Service-Learning 4. Service-Learning as a Critical Pedagogy 5. Critical Reflection 6. Academic Writing in Service-Learning 7. Reflections in and on Assessment 8. Conclusion

Using technology to facilitate effective assessment for learning and feedback in higher education

Abstract The aims of this paper are to examine and critically evaluate a selection of different technological methods that were specifically chosen for their alignment with, and potential to enhance, extant assessment for learning practice. The underpinning perspectives are that: (a) both formative and summative assessment are valuable opportunities for learning, and (b) using technology may enhance learning in assessment and feedback processes. Drawing on the literature and empirical evidence from a research study in a Scottish university, the advantages and drawbacks of using technology are examined. It is asserted that, by adopting a flexible approach and taking small incremental steps, the use of different types of technology can be beneficial in facilitating effective assessment for learning and feedback in higher education.

Academic Writing in Service-Learning

The previous chapter was concerned with critical reflection: defining its meaning and role within service-learning; facilitating its use; and examining its potential consequences. This chapter delves deeper into this vital aspect of service-learning by focusing on how critical reflection can be ensnared from the ephemeral and abstract world of unseen thought to the material world through the medium of academic writing. This chapter demonstrates how critical incidents and journal writing can be used in critical thinking and reflective processes. Although the focus in this chapter is on writing in service-learning, it is also applicable to other types of experiential learning and reflective practice.

A Theoretical Paradigm for Service-Learning

The previous chapter was a metaphorical tour exploring different explanations of service-learning in an attempt to understand the nature of this pedagogy. In some respects, it would be fair to say that service-learning might be regarded as an umbrella term to denote diverse and multidisciplinary learning activities that are bound together by common characteristics and key component features. These components, within a structured framework, invariably consist of: academic coursework, practical service experience or voluntary work, critical reflection, tutorial group discussion, and journal writing. The practical service experiences, however, are often ill-structured and the learning from them opaque to students. It is important, therefore, that teachers facilitate students’ structured critical reflection because by relating practical experiences to theoretical aspects of the academic coursework, students can begin to comprehend how their service and learning meshed together are epigenetic and mutually informative.

Service-Learning as a Critical Pedagogy

The previous chapter explored various avenues of existing theories populated with the ideas of significant individuals. Ultimately, this led to a theoretical paradigm for service-learning, however, it is not an exhaustive list of potential influences on, or explanations of, service-learning. Indeed, this chapter ventures further afield to embrace an argument for service-learning as a critical pedagogy. Therefore, it proposes that a theoretical paradigm for service-learning may also include critical theory. This perspective resonates with Mitchell (2008) who defines two models of service-learning, that is, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘critical’ model. The aim of the latter model is explicitly for social justice, implying that students will actively contribute to soc ial change as a result of pa rticipating in service-learning. Taking a critical perspective of this model, however, there is an underlying assumption that students’ action for the ‘common good’ cannot be manifested through the ‘traditional’ model of service-learning. A problem with differentiating between these two approaches to service-learning suggests that the ‘critical’ model has an explicit agenda that goes beyond higher educational requirements. For assessment purposes, for example, it would not necessarily be feasible for students to be able to meet the intended learning outcomes of such a model.

Contextualising Service-Learning

The aim of this chapter is to present an overview of service-learning in the context of higher education. Essentially, service-learning combines service to the community with academic study. These two aspects of service and study are interrelated: students study an academic course in a field that is connected with their service in the community. Typically, academic credit is awarded for assignments related to the academic study and informed by the student’s community service experience. The learning gained from the latter is usually assessed through a reflective journal, although the service per se is not assessed. ‘Service-learning’ is a generic term used in education and does not belong to any particular academic discipline. Indeed, one of its strengths is that it can be utilised in different ways in a range of disciplinary contexts. Although service-learning is multidisciplinary, it nestles comfortably within the public policy domain of citizenship education, from which the examples of service-learning in the book are drawn.

Reflections in and on Assessment

Following the previous chapter on academic writing in service-learning, this chapter examines what students themselves think about assessment in service-learning. In order to do this, empirical evidence from my pedagogical research presents students’ reflections in and on their service-learning assessment. The assessment is outlined and explained, with particular attention paid to innovative summative co-assessment methods (Deeley, 2014) that are transferable to other academic courses and may contribute not only to the enhancement of students’ employability skills, competencies, and graduate attributes, but also to deep and lifelong learning.