STLHE 2016 SAPES

NOTE: this session has been moved from the CON02 time slot. It is an interactive session.

Service learning is a form of experiential learning that cultivates academic development, personal growth, and civic engagement. Students contribute to and learn from community. Service learning empowers students, enabling them to recognize their ability to act as agents of social change. Service learning is gaining momentum as a movement, given its ability to prepare students for the “real world” after graduation. Irrespective of past experience with service learning, participants in this workshop will benefit from a hands-on session led by four experienced service learning instructors from Universities across Canada. The goal is to share experience, foster collaboration, explore future developments, and initiate national discussion on service learning at Canadian universities and colleges. The four hosts come from health sciences, psychology, and environment and sustainability. They will approach service learning through four lenses:
1. An innovative team-based service-learning course partnering with older adults, healthcare providers and community agencies (Gerontology in Practice, Western University);
2. An international service learning course combining intensive coursework, 3-month placements with non-profit organizations in Africa, and presentations at an interdisciplinary international service learning symposium (Psychology and Developing Societies, University of British Columbia);
3. A unique curriculum design that includes service learning and interdisciplinary graduate problem-based training and research focused on experimental education (Environmental Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan); and
4. An extraordinary example of an institutional-level commitment to service learning with 50 courses, involving 40 faculty, 100 community agencies, and 900 students per year (St. Francis Xavier University).

Following this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Discuss service-learning pedagogy,
2. Consider alternative models for the integration of service learning, and
3. Propose strategies to implement service learning into their undergraduate and graduate courses in university and college programs. Come ready to be inspired and stay beyond the allotted workshop time if the discussion continues ….