Thursday, 11:30 AM – 1:29 PM
This course, “Student Engagement Practicum (SEP),” will use community-based engagement pedagogies, often called “service learning,” as a teaching and learning modality that will specifically integrate meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to: illustrate the practical implications that educational policies have on learner communities; build upon students’ cumulative knowledge of their specific disciplines; demonstrate the integration of disciplinary knowledge with “real life” issues; explore ways students’ disciplinary expertise and competencies translate into leadership opportunities to address extant community needs; develop student acumen for self-efficacy important to their professional development, and intentionally link students’ academic experience and intellectual growth to the nurturing of their connections to the Philadelphia community through the creation of a “pedagogy of engagement.” Further, this practicum will serve as a vehicle for students to explore the relationship between service-learning and career preparation defined in Knowles’ theory of “andragogy”
1. as both a theoretical framework and opportunity for them to prepare for their future careers and to provide a mechanism for ongoing, structured reflection, throughout the course, to develop skills and self-efficacy important to their career trajectory. This mandated course reflection component, further, will integrate the framework developed by Eyler and Giles (1999)
2. to include those five characteristics of optimal reflection frameworks for students enrolled in service learning including:
- connections between experience and knowledge;
- continuity of reflection before, during, and after the service experience;
- context of applying subject matter to real life situations;
- challenging students’ perspectives; and
- coaching and providing emotional support to students (Mills, 2001).
3. The practicum will also expand students professional career options upon graduation as explored by Chhinzer, N., & Russo, A. M. (2018). 4 Note: Course will require 10 hours/week service commitment (flexible time) and background checks.