1. Definition and Orientation Service Learning

2. Service Learning - Definition
"The basic theory of service-learning is Dewey’s: the interaction of knowledge and skills with experience is key to learning. Students learn best not by reading the Great Books in a closed room but by opening the doors and windows of experience. Learning starts with a problem and continues with the application of increasingly complex ideas and increasingly sophisticated skills to increasingly complicated problems.”
Thomas Ehrlich, in Barbara Jacoby and Associates
Von Service Learning gibt es viele verschiedene Definitionen. Ich möchte eine von dem Philosophen und Pädagogen John Dewey aufgreifen:
The basic theory of service-learning is Dewey’s: the interaction of knowledge and skills with experience is key to learning. Students learn best not by reading the Great Books in a closed room but by opening the doors and windows of experience. Learning starts with a problem and continues with the application of increasingly complex ideas and increasingly sophisticated skills to increasingly complicated problems.”
Thomas Ehrlich, in Barbara Jacoby and Associates. Service-Learning in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bas, 1996

3. Service Learning - Definition
“Service-learning is a teaching method which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility, and commitment to the community.”
Campus Compact National Center for Community Colleges

4. Einführung Service Learning – Definition/Orientierung
Method of experiential education, linking classes with local society
SL asks students, to implement theory in practice
Helps to understand and reflect complex topics on various scales
Reflection and reciprocity are central concepts of service learning
Im Mittelpunkt der Sustainability Challenge steht die Methode des Service Learning oder Lernen durch Engagement.
Dabei soll gesellschaftliches Engagement mit fachlichem Lernen verbunden werden indem kognitives Lernen mit der Übernahme von Verantwortung im Umfeld der Studierenden kombiniert wird.
Die Erfahrungen, die die Studierenden beim „Engagement für die Partner“ machen, werden im Unterricht aufgegriffen, reflektiert und mit Unterrichtsinhalten verknüpft. Dabei werden soziale und demokratische Kompetenzen trainieren.
Und: Studierende können ihr praktisch erworbenes Wissen und ihre Erfahrungen in den Unterricht einfließen lassen. Unterricht wird so praxisnah und handlungsorientiert.
Service Learning, als Pädagogik, unterscheidet sich von der traditionellen Lehre in vielerlei Hinsicht, einschließlich der Rolle des Studierenden. Es verlangt von der Fakultät traditionelle pädagogische Konzepte zu überdenken. Die Verantwortung für das Lehren und Lernen wird von Studenten und Dozenten gemeinsam genutzt; die Beteiligung/Partizipation der Studierenden und die Teilnahme wird gefördert sowie Dialog und Beratung stark als primäre Modi des Lehrens und Lernens betont. Die vorgeschlagene Format ermöglicht es den Studierenden praktische Umsetzungskompetenzen zu erwerben, innerhalb der Projektarbeit der einzelnen Sustainability Challenges.

5. Service-Learning Outcomes for Learners
Engagement in society is fostered, networks and connections are created
Holistic perspective is aimed
Individual personal development
Communication skills and group competencies
Awareness of complexity, problem analysis skills, critical thinking and cognitive development
Capacity development for enhancing change
Professional development for career
Learning does not necessarily come from the experience of service alone, but from reflection on and
creating meaning from that experience
• Service-learning can help young people grow from the natural dependence and egocentrism of childhood
into mature personal interdependence and engagement in community
• Young people who serve learn holistically. All functions of personality contribute to development of the
self
• Students learn and grow as they feel and think about service experiences (i.e., through behavior, affect and
cognition). Because learning begins with behavior, students gain efficacy and self-direction
• Service-learning empowers youth to become service-oriented citizens and leaders
• Students who serve develop communication and leadership skills which aid in their ability to apply what
they learn to the “real world”
• Service-learning participation has an impact on such academic outcomes as demonstrated complexity of
understanding, problem analysis, critical thinking, and cognitive development
• Service-learning contributes to career development
Key competencies in sustainability (Wiek et.al, 2012)

6. Service Learning – Orientation
Coaching involves four phases
Preparation
Action
Reflection
Evaluation
Learning does not necessarily come from the experience of service alone, but from reflection on and creating meaning from that experience
The Experiential Learning Cycle Kolb (1984)

7. Cooperation with Service Learning Partners, Project und group organization

8. Service Learning Partners – Cooperation
...can be companies, associations, NGOs or public bodies
Tasks project partners: contact person for student group, personal meetings in work environment, presentation work field (current challenges), continuous feedback process
Focus of cooperation: not only output is important but learning process, learning from each other, talk about expectations, progress etc.
Community Development
Sustainability- driven Entrepreneurship
Bottom-Up Change
Community Development - GB 2/20 local offices of the City of Vienna competent in the area
GreenCityLab – cities for people, cities by people, integrated city development means climate protection
Ökostadt – Institut for ecological city development focusing on interests of pedestrians, public transport users, efficient energy- and water usage, muliple public space options
Sustainability-driven Entrepreneurship
Too good to go -> App with the aim to reduce foodwaste, restaurants can register and offer left-overs for a reduced price for interested customers -> box can be picked up in a certain time slot
RUSZ -> repair and service centre in the 15th district of Vienna focusing on washing machines and other electronic devices
Gutes Bäck -> focuses on the idea to reduce foodwaste of bakeries and tries to find location for start-up to offer left-overs
Bottom-Up Change
Jugend am Werk - Supporting and coaching people with learning difficulties and disabilities towards in a process of strengthening their self-determination and self-responsibility
Synergies for the Viennese refugee relief - Improve the mediation of volunteers within Vienna in the field of refugee relief

9. Drafting the first ideas of possible project at a poster
Tasks for semester I
To develop realistic service learning projects together with service learning partners
Drafting the first ideas of possible project at a poster
Elaborating the project design through interviews and „real life checks“ all over the semester
Adjusting the original project design and making a new poster
Presenting the (two)poster(s) and the learning process at the end of the course (oral presentation)
So, and this is what you shall do in my course: 9

10. Service Learning – Group Work
Self-organized group work during semester
Select contact person in your group (for service learning partner and coach)
Organize first collective meeting with students, partner and coach
Further meetings during the semester with coach based on individual needs
Self-organized continuous meetings with your group and together with service learning partner min. 1-2 per month
Group Meetings during the semester
Select a contact person in your group who is responsible for arranging the following meetings during the semester:
First collective meeting with service learning partner, coach and student group to be arranged after the session on the asap
Further 3-4 group meetings are suggested during the semester based on individual arrangements with Christian Rammel and Petra Biberhofer in the RCE office (EA, 1st floor) depending on the needs of the teams. But also scheduled dates in syllabus possible.
Self-organized team meetings (student groups)
Meetings with Service Learning Partners during the semester at least 1-2 times per month

11. Service Learning – Group Work and Coordination
Discuss and start from the beginning
Allocation of roles in group/responsibilities
Expectation management (also with Partner!!!)
Develop time management plan
Fair division of work
Write protocols during meetings (use for research diary and reflection)

12. Service Learning Project Concept (group task)
Structure project concept
Presentation of problem
Project aim
Measures and methods  
Stakeholder analysis
Team organisation and time management
How to conduct the project concept?
Via ongoing group work process during semester
Self-organized group meetings
Self-organized meetings with service learning partners
feedback meetings with coach

13. Service Learning Research Diary (individual task)
From the beginning on keep an individual updated service-learning research diary
Write memos when you meet your group and/or partners
Write down your thoughts/hypotheses during literature research/practical research e.g. at site (oberservations, talks etc.)
Use key questions in template for diary