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Using Service Learning
Analyze your service-learning experience using two distinct theories from the first half of the
course. This assignment requires you to go beyond mere application of theory in that your
analysis should demonstrate how the course material has enhanced or influenced your
experience. For example, how has knowledge of a specific theory changed the way you inter-
preted an interaction or made you behave differently than you would have without that
knowledge?
The instructions for the final paper are identical except that students must use one theory
from the first half of the semester and two from the second half. (See Appendix for an
excerpt from a sample student paper.)
To promote critical thinking, I wrote the paper assignment in a way that requires students
to go beyond simply applying the course material, a task many (though admittedly not all)
students can easily do. Instead, the assignment asks students to critique their behavior using
the knowledge they have gained from the course. This process is a bit more difficult for
students, and it challenges them to use the course material to think critically about their
experiences. For instance, in a recent semester, a student worked with Hunger Relief, an
organization that provides meals to the homeless. In her paper she chose to examine the
psychological concept of schemas, mental units of organized knowledge about objects or
events in our social world (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). She mentioned that her schemas for the
homeless were incorrect because many of the people she talked with were not lazy or choos-
ing to remain homeless; instead, many were actively seeking employment and trying to
improve their situations. She pointed out that she had fallen prey to the fundamental attri-
bution error (Ross, 1977) by making internal attributions about homeless people in general
(i.e., all homeless people are lazy). Up to this point in her paper, the student had only
applied the material, yet the assignment challenged her to go one step further. That is, how
did knowing about the fundamental attribution error change her while she was there? At
first, all she could come up with was “Being aware of this bias will help me avoid it in the
future.” Through class discussion and stretching her critical thinking skills, she was able to
come to the realization that recognizing the error in her schema allowed her to feel that she
had more in common with the people she was feeding than she had thought, which in turn
made her feel less timid and afraid around them and more likely to engage with them. By
struggling through this thought process, the student became aware not only of the power
of social cognition, but also of opportunities to think critically about her social world.
There are pros and cons to each of these assignments. A major benefit of the journal
assignment is that it keeps students thinking about their service-learning experiences
throughout the course. By writing entries every two weeks, students are continuously inte-
grating their work at the site into the course material (as opposed to only doing this twice a
semester). Also, having an entry for each chapter ensures that students apply a broader array
of theories and topics to their experiences. Conversely, the traditional papers allow for more
depth. It goes without saying that a shortcoming of the journal approach is that it generates
a great deal of writing for the instructor to review and grade. In contrast to the midterm and
final paper, students turn in the journals every two weeks, so faculty must be diligent in
responding to assignments and getting them back to the students promptly. Instructors can
vary these assignments (e.g., reflections could be done in a blog or discussion board). Like
any assignment, it should be selected to meet the objectives for the course.