Service-Learning for ASAS

Values & Service-Learning for ASAS:

ISQ May 2009

Service-Learning for ASAS

Nine Values of Australian Nine Values of Australian SchoolingSchooling

• Doing your bestDoing your best• Care and compassionCare and compassion• Fair goFair go• FreedomFreedom• Honesty and trustworthinessHonesty and trustworthiness• IntegrityIntegrity• RespectRespect• ResponsibilityResponsibility• Understanding, tolerance and inclusionUnderstanding, tolerance and inclusion

......as articulated in the National Framework (Australian ......as articulated in the National Framework (Australian Government:2005)Government:2005)

Service-Learning for ASAS

What’s in a name?• Volunteerism

• Community service

• Peer support

• Experiential education

• Civic responsibility

• Community-based learning

• Values Education

•SERVICE-LEARNING

Service-Learning for ASAS

What is service–learning?• Asks question: How can I first be a global citizen,

second a national citizen, third a local citizen? (although can be either direction) e.g. What does an ASAS graduate look like?

• Is a “way of teaching” to nurture global citizens.

• Is a pedagogy of engagement

• Puts the language of values into action

• Is embedded in the P-12 academic curriculum

• Is reflective, changing us from the “inside out”

• Is “assessable”

• Is learner-centred

• Aims to change both recipient and provider of the service

• Strengthens our sense of being part of humankind

• Reflects the values and mission of ASAS and takes them further

Service-Learning for ASAS

Service–learning is NOT• Another school subject

• An episodic volunteer programme

• An add-on to a school programme

• Completing a number of service hours in order to graduate

• Ticking off a box to say “I’ve done S-L”

• Just about “arms-length” giving

• Service assigned as a form of punishment

• One-sided i.e. benefiting only students or only the community

• Is not the panacea to all our problems, but is a part of an ongoing global challenge, development and change with people

Service-Learning for ASAS

Common characteristics of service-learning• Has P-12 potential

• Students are able to identify the most important issues within a real-world situation through critical thinking

• Changes many teachers and parents as well as students

• Promotes deeper learning (there are no “right answers”)

• Requires many elements of quality teaching

• Generates emotional consequences, which challenge values and ideas

• Moves students from fundraising to awareness raising to action/engagement

• Develops CHARACTER as well as TALENT

Service-Learning for ASAS

Service-Learning needs 4 key stages• 1. Planning &preparation

• 2. Action

• 3. Reflection

• 4. Demonstration (celebration of outcomes)

Very powerful, deep learning can occur at stages 3 and 4.

Service-Learning for ASAS

Where we started at ASAS

• Giveathon

• Shiluvane School in Africa

• Imnau Foundation in Banda Aceh

• Mudgeeraba Special School

• GAP programme in UK

• Wetlands project

• Community Service Programme

• Recycling project

These, in addition to our Christian mission and Values Education

Service-Learning for ASAS

S-L growth at ASAS since Jan. 08 • Yrs 1/2/5/8/9 projects in action 2008 & 2009 (Details)

• Volunteer GAP placements o/seas …(Shiluvane, Banda Aceh, Solomons, Indigenous school in NQ, Tanzania, PNG, Crossroads International …etc)

• Indigenous & New Caledonia exchanges (Signed documents)

• Years 11/12 at Drop-In Centre

• Aged care penpals/picnic/concert

• Riding for the disabled

• Salvos & Red Cross

• Volunteering Gold Coast……………………………etc.

Service-Learning for ASAS

Where to from here?

• Use S-L to “sharpen the focus of values and service” at ASAS

• Use S-L to help set the values and service agenda at ASAS

• Draw on each sub-school staff for ideas of where we are at and what “tweaks” we would need to give to projects already in place to make them become S-L projects (e.g. Rural Fire Cadets? Year 9 Woodwork? Year 10 BOM?). Hence, use “lighthouse” points from P-12 to start it off.

• The benefits/values will accumulate over 13 years of schooling at ASAS

• Publication of ASAS S-L magazine (1 or 2 per year)

•Commit to support/liaison mechanism in place to assist staff embracing S-L projects …… critical element for success

Service-Learning for ASAS

• “I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service I might give others….I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent it” (Thomas Edison)

• “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” (Mahatma Ghandi)

• “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve” (Martin Luther King)

• “I tell you this: anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me…..” (St Matthew 25. 37-40)