Learning Through Serving: A Student Guidebook for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Across Academic Disciplines and Cultural Communities

by Christine M. Cress, Peter J. Collier, Vicki L. Reitenauer

This substantially expanded new edition of this widely acclaimed text maintains the objectives and tenets of the first. It is designed to help students understand and reflect on their community service experiences both as individuals and as citizens of communities in need of their compassionate expertise. It is designed to assist faculty in facilitating student development of compassionate expertise through the context of service in applying disciplinary knowledge to community issues and challenges. In sum, the book is about how to make academic sense of civic service in preparing for roles as future citizen leaders.This edition presents four new chapters on Mentoring, Leadership, Becoming a Change Agent, and Short-Term Immersive and Global Service-Learning experiences. The authors have also revised the original chapters to more fully address issues of social justice, privilege/power, diversity, intercultural communication, and technology; have added more disciplinary examples; incorporated additional academic content for understanding service-learning issues (e.g., attribution theory); and cover issues related to students with disabilities, and international students.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Textbooks

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2005

Reviews

[Sherry Cabrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book for College Students

I had to read this book for a class. Being out of college for 30 years, I knew most of it, however, it was a lot of valuable info for college grads heading out into the world.

[La-Shanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning Through Serving: A Student Guidebook for Service Learning is best read in physical text especially if you are using the book for educational purposes. The book is appropriate for secondary students who want to understand service learning and community engagement. The book can be used as a supplemental tool in Civics and Government classes or youth-based community groups supporting civic engagement.

[Cherice Bock · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need a book for a college course on service-learning, this is a good one! It walks readers through the basics of what service-learning is and compares it to volunteering, etc. It has lots of great examples, stories, and quotes from students. I appreciated the chapter on dealing with cultural differences and the one on acknowledging that failures happen, but are still learning opportunities. For someone who has a lot of experience doing service-learning, the text is not as helpful, but if you've done service-learning and haven't really sat and reflected on what goes into a good service-learning experience, this is a helpful text to bring some of those thoughts to the surface.

[LSC-University Park SLRC]

Read it through Lone Star College's EBSCO Ebook Collection.

[Fred Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty basic stuff. I guess that's ok for an introductory text for students but don't expect a lot.

[Erika]

Read the necessary portions for developing course - won't use again as it doesn't fit the format of the course as well as I would like - good text for a different kind of course