Excerpts
from
American Youth Policy
Forum & Service Learning
Creating a new kind of
Citizen for the 21st Century
2004
http://www.aypf.org/mission.htm
See also
Global service &
Service Learning
American Youth Policy
Forum (AYPF):
"To improve opportunities, services, and life prospects for youth,
we provide learning experiences for national, state, and local policymakers
and practitioners. ...Located in Washington, DC, AYPF provides policymakers
and their senior aides with information and experiences useful in
the development of an effective youth education, training and transition-to-employment
system for the United States (including formal and informal learning
opportunities, internships, national community service, and other
experience-based learning methodologies). ....Our
aim is to develop better communication,
greater understanding, enhanced trust and, ultimately,
a climate in which constructive action
can be taken that strengthens national, state and local leadership
in the education, career preparation and youth."
Service-Learning and
Citizenship:
"This area focuses on policies, methodology and programs that feature
service-learning, and national and community service.
Service-learning is a teaching
methodology used in schools, juvenile justice programs like Youth
Court, and community-based organizations
to apply academic skills to
solving real world problems.
Service-learning is used in
Learn and Serve America and can incorporate project-based learning,
applied learning, contextual-based
learning, and frequently involves civic engagement, character
education, and tutor/mentoring.
Individuals involved in national and community service volunteer
their time to assist schools and communities. Programs include VISTA,
AmeriCorps, Freedom Corps, Senior Corps, City Year, America's Promise,
and many others.
AYFP Policy Brief on
Service Learning
: “TO MAKE CITIZENS:
SEVEN PROPOSITIONS TOWARD A COURSE CORRECTION IN EDUCATION”
Proposition 1:
Civic education-including character education and
service-learning-is necessary to the survival of our democracy.
We must change the context in which we view the mission of our
schools; their lost purpose, which must be regained, is “to make
citizens.”
Proposition 2: The
overriding question driving education
reform must be: “What kind
of child (person, human being) do we want to produce? The
answer we offer is: “A child who can take charge of his/her learning
process so as to:
(a) learn for
a lifetime,
(b) make a net
contribution to the society, workforce/economy, and culture,
and
(c) be civically engaged as a citizen and decision maker.”
Proposition 3: The
national education policy preoccupation with reading, mathematics,
and science as the “core disciplines” of public education is myopic
and lop-sided. It is not delivering
the outcomes the nation requires. The importance of placing
civic education on a par with
core subjects cannot be overstated.
Proposition 4: We
need a new reform strategy that balances two paramount goals:
(1) higher levels
of academic achievement in core academic disciplines, with
(2) school and
community efforts aimed at producing informed, principled, and
engaged citizens.
Proposition 5: Service-learning,
character education, and civic education demonstrate an encouraging
and impressive success in improving student engagement in school
and community life, and in bolstering academic performance.
Proposition 6: A
linked approach bringing together civic education, character education, and service-learning
must be guided by the following precepts. These
linked approaches:
- Must be
of high quality if they are to succeed and should proceed
with an eye to changing school
culture. Accountability for quality and content,
therefore, is paramount;
- Must be
directed by a state policy that is reflected in local policy
and action;
- Must be
student-focused, democratic
in nature, and unaffected by partisan politics;
- Must be
infused throughout the whole
curriculum, not taught separately, i.e., they should
contain a reflection component, use interdisciplinary instructional
methods, and be continually fed by
contextual learning;
- Must be
directed by a philosophy/policy committed to
experiential learning;
- Must be
outcomes-based, with outcomes
being measured by behavioral change in students,
by positive changes in student engagement, and visible changes
effected in community settings;
- Must be
accompanied by a focused communications and PR effort to
build and sustain public support;
- Must be
focused on developing needed
civic skills, e.g.,
critical thinking, flexible
thinking, problem-posing, and problem-solving; Can
and should be used as a vehicle for meeting curriculum standards
across the board; and
- Must use
the school building as the unit of educational reform.
Proposition 7: Success
in these approaches will be grounded in a “coalition
mentality” that links schools,
community organizations, local government, and the business and
nonprofit sectors. /American Youth Policy Forum, April 2004.
This is a working document for comment.
http://www.edaction.org/2004/051204b.HTML
See also
Global service & Service Learning
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