Service Learning Procedures for
Service Learning Faculty

as of
September 3, 2003

http://www.berkshirecc.edu/studentservices/service_learning.html

In the face of the loss of our grant-funding, the Education in Action office will not be able to provide the support for service learning that it has provided in the past. These are the suggested procedures that faculty put in place in order to continue the program and uphold BCC’s relationship with the community. The four stages of the service-learning semester are Recruitment, Orientation, Placement, and Conclusion.

Recruitment
Education in Action will supply brochures and forms, which are also available on the service learning pages of the BCC website. Faculty will make their own recruitment presentations in class, if comfortable with this, and someone from Education in Action will present to the classes of new service-learning professors. In all cases we recommend limiting the placement options in your class to no more than three.

Orientation
Current service-learning faculty will orient their own participating students into the process and what is expected for their class. For new service-learning faculty and others who wish to take advantage of it, there will be two orientations, already on the student schedule for the beginning of the semester.

Placement
Education in Action will supply each faculty member with a binder containing:

1. Orientation packets with timesheet,
2. Service-learning contract forms,
3. CORI forms for BCC and the Pittsfield Public Schools (NB: Salvation Army insists on doing their own CORI and SORI forms),
4. Participant Profile form (optional),
5. Assessment by Site Supervisor (optional, most faculty do not use this)
6. A section on placements and partnerships with agency contacts

Conclusion
Faculty will grade the service-learning component of their classes as before, and Education in Action will gather data on classes using service learning (i.e. numbers of students involved, names, outstanding achievements and comments). At the end of the year, the Education in Action office will put on a recognition event to celebrate the work of student and faculty participants.

Notes on Sustainability
There are three members of the service learning team; you, your students and the agencies where they are placed. It is important to keep clear roles in mind for these three players and to communicate those roles to them at the beginning of the relationship. This avoids later confusion and misunderstanding about expectations, requirements, etc.

In order to build those relationships, it is a good strategy to select a few agencies and maintain close contact with them. You can train those agencies how to fit into your teaching cycle, and they can communicate with you about adapting your class structure to their needs.

Finally, documenting will ensure longevity! We recommend that you recognize student work with academic credit, annotate your own work incorporating service learning for professional recognition, and acknowledge the agencies’ role in student education. Maintaining records of these things guarantees the institutional future of service learning here at BCC.