FOR FACULTY

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin

Why Service-Learning?

Service-Learning has been adopted by college faculty nationwide. Service-Learning is intentionally linked with an academic course and incorporates specific pedagogical goals for civic engagement. Service-Learning includes structured reflection activities to process what was learned from the service experience, and to connect it to course learning outcomes. With social justice at its philosophical root, Service-Learning pedagogy naturally combines the life of the mind with the habits of the heart.

Potential Benefits to Faculty

• Connects curriculum to real-world situations in the community
• Encourages collaborative learning: everyone is a teacher and learner
• Enlivens the educational experience
• Improves academic performance
• Provides opportunities for research and development
• Addresses relevant social problems, creating more responsible citizens

Faculty Roles

Success of the Service-Learning program at Pellissippi State depends on faculty collaboration with other colleagues, students, and with our community partners. By incorporating service into an existing course, faculty members are given the opportunity to address important social problems and enliven the educational experience for students and themselves. We support faculty development by providing resources and training for professors who want to integrate service into their courses.

Resources

The following resources will help you design and implement service into your course curriculum:

Current Community Partners

This list of community partners will be updated each semester.  We can help place students at these agencies or give you the contact information to do it yourself.

Faculty Guide to Service-Learning

This guide is intended to prepare you for integrating service into your course curriculum. This is an overview of Service-Learning, including best practices, syllabus integration, and expectations.

Community Partner Profile Library

We are establishing and developing relationships with non-profit organizations in Knoxville and surrounding areas. View our Community Partner profile Library to see a list of current partnerships and contact information.

Sample Reflection Questions

Reflection is the most important important tool for ensuring a successful Service-Learning experience. It is the means through which students make sense of what they are seeing and doing. It also is the key to how their service relates to course learning outcomes. Reflection questions are tailored to helping students make those connections.

Sample Reflection Activities

A sampling of reflection activities including journal ideas, discussion, and other group activities.

Faculty, please join the Pellissippi State Service-Learning Cafe on D2L for up-to-date service-learning information and samples of syllabi from a variety of courses with a service-learning component.

Campus Compact and Tennessee Campus Compact provide resources and training for faculty seeking to integrate Service-Learning into their courses. This is a list of exemplary syllabi across a wide variety of disciplines and institutions. Contact Service-Learning Facilitator, Annie Gray (ajgray@pstcc.edu) for a customized approach to your course.