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New England College (Henniker,
NH)
Teaching
the Pedagogy of Service-Learning
to Pre-Service Teachers
Summary
Experts in the field of education, such as Drs. Rahima Wade, Susan Root,
Jane Callahan, and Jeffrey Anderson, have made it clear that new teachers
are less likely to use service-learning as a pedagogy in their classrooms
if they are not taught the pedagogy in their teacher preparation programs.
Therefore, at New England College service-learning is taught as a pedagogy
while also being woven into the fabric of each teacher preparation course.
The Practice
Students enrolled in Principles of Education, the first education course,
are taught the pedagogy of service-learning while engaging in service-learning
projects. Working closely with our professional development school partners,
students identify and select a need to fill, review professional literature,
work with a mentor teacher to better understand the policies and procedures
relating to that need, and work to meet that need. Students create lesson
plans aligned to the NH Curriculum Frameworks and develop authentic assessment
tools to measure the degree to which 1) the need has been met and 2) students
have achieved academic goals. Each pre-service teacher develops a portfolio
of his/her work which is aligned to teacher certification standards and
publicly presents this work to our school partners who act as project
reviewers.
In other courses in the teacher preparation program, pre-service teachers
engage in a variety of service-learning activities, fine-tuning their
teaching skills and knowledge of service-learning as a pedagogy. For example,
students in the Evaluation and Assessment class identify appropriate assessment
processes and tools, while students in the Methods courses refine their
skills in lesson planning. Finally, each student teacher works with his/her
students to identify a need, create a plan to meet the need, implement
the plan, assess student progress, reflect on learning, and celebrate
their work. Student teachers document their service-learning projects
to share with other pre-service and in-service teachers.
In order to support our pre-service teachers, we have provided extensive
training in the pedagogy of service-learning to teachers in our partner
schools. In-service teachers have been paired with pre-service teachers
in a graduate course on service-learning. This course has helped in-service
teachers become familiar with service-learning as a pedagogy and enabled
teaching pairs to develop service-learning projects that 1) meet standards
of effective practice as identified by ASLER and 2) are aligned with the
New Hampshire Curriculum Frameworks.
Effectiveness
Pre-service teachers at New England College have a thorough understanding
of the pedagogy of service-learning and can use it effectively in a K-12
classroom. Using a survey instrument designed by KIDS Consortium, we have
determined that pre-service and in-service teachers who have participated
in the use of service-learning believe that using service-learning as
a pedagogy enables them to: know their students better (100%), make teaching
more rewarding for them (100%), get to their unmotivated or difficult
students (100%), challenge their students academically (100%), assess
whether their students are meeting national/state standards (100%), help
students to learn to work with others (91.6%), get their students to take
responsibility for their own learning (94.3%), and motivate their students
to meet high standards (100%).
Resources
For specific tools that you might want to use and a copy of various syllabi,
please email Debra Nitschke-Shaw at dnitschke@nec.edu.
You should also visit the Campus
Compact for New Hampshire and Maine
Campus Compact websites for tools and books for developing and assessing
partnerships, and the KIDS Consortium website
for a copy of the KIDS As Planners text.
Contact Information
Debra Nitschke-Shaw, Ph.D.
Director of Teacher Education
New England College
Box 22
Henniker, New Hampshire 03242
Phone: (603) 428-2322
Fax: (603) 428-2384
dnitschke@nec.edu
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