A Glorious Revolution for Youth and Communities: Service-Learning and Model Communities

“This book is a call-to-action for those who realize, and those who wish to influence others to realize, that the key for building a community in the twenty-first century is to engage its youth. This is essential reading for any teacher, administrator, parent, or community partner interested in using service-learning to help students connect academic content with their community in a meaningful way. It provides concrete ideas that can be used immediately, along with a summary of the latest research that shows the impact service-learning has on students and the greater community.” —BRIAN RAYGOR, supervisor of science and student service-learning, Wicomico County Public Schools, Maryland

WHITEHEAD and KITZROW

Education • Policy and Reform

A “The material presented in this book provides many helpful suggestions for how educators can take advantage of service-learning to promote development of specific skills associated with each topic. I think educators will learn to value this book as a resource that will help them improve their teaching. It is practical and presents a new model for thinking about service-learning as a way to build communities by providing youth with more central roles. It will be useful and provocative to those who are already teaching service-learning classes as well as to those who are contemplating how to design a successful experience for the first time.” —ROBERT G. BRINGLE, Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University

For orders and information please contact the publisher ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD EDUCATION A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 • fax 717-794-3803 www.rowmaneducation.com

GloriousRevolutionPBK.indd 1

90000 9 781607 096214

COMMUNITIES

ANDREW P. KITZROW works in youth recreation programming and advocacy in Wicomico County, Maryland, and is cofounder of Uandgeo, LLC.

AND

GEORGE I. WHITEHEAD III is professor of psychology at Salisbury University and cofounder of Uandgeo, LLC. He is coauthor of Serve and Learn and a number of articles on service-learning and social psychology.

YOUTH

A Glorious Revolution integrates the ideas of service-learning, positive youth development, and model communities into a book with a comprehensive message about making communities more democratic. Specifically, the book argues that through service-learning an educator can teach higher-order thinking, such as information literacy, problem-solving, and critical and creative thinking. The authors use current and classical research, books, and web sites to employ examples of how different communities currently engage their young people.

FOR

“Whitehead and Kitzrow give a fantastic and comprehensive look at the history of service-learning and what needs to be done to have it be a more practiced educational approach. They lay out an educational strategy that policy makers and educators can agree will make young people more engaged in learning. . . . Service-learning helps students better understand why what they are learning is relevant—in many cases it may also empower them to become civically engaged in their communities and stay in school. This is a must-read book for anyone who works with young people in America.” —ELAINE LEIBSOHN, America’s Promise Alliance

GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

“This book explores a very exciting concept—a paradigm shift in our view of youth—and I can see why it is called A Glorious Revolution. It contains a great many interesting ideas and represents a great deal of work and wide-ranging thinking about ways to help young people grow.” —FLORENCE PRITCHARD, former associate vice president for academic affairs at Salisbury University

GLORIOUS REVOLUTION F O R YOUTH A N D COMMUNITIES A

Service-Learning and Model Communities GEORGE I. WHITEHEAD III A N D ANDREW P. KITZROW 1/5/10 12:18:41 PM

A Glorious Revolution for Youth and Communities Service-Learning and Model Communities George I. Whitehead III and Andrew P. Kitzrow

Rowman & Littlefield Education A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Published by Rowman & Littlefield Education A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.rowmaneducation.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2010 by George I. Whitehead III and Andrew P. Kitzrow All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitehead, George I. A glorious revolution for youth and communities : service-learning and model communities / George I. Whitehead III and Andrew P. Kitzrow. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-60709-620-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-621-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60709-596-5 (electronic) 1. Service learning. 2. Teachers and community. I. Kitzrow, Andrew P., 1982– II. Title. LC220.5.W45 2010 371.19—dc22 2009046221

⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America

We dedicate this book to the caring adults who raised each of us: George and Phyl Whitehead, parents of George Jay and Jane Kitzrow, parents of Andrew

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

vii

Preface

ix

Chapter 1: Service-Learning, Education, and Community Reform

1

Chapter 2: Information Literacy

13

Chapter 3: Problem Solving

25

Chapter 4: Critical Thinking

37

Chapter 5: Creativity and Creative Thinking

47

Chapter 6: Communities for Youth

63

Chapter 7: Four Cornerstones

73

Chapter 8: Youth Empowerment

85

Chapter 9: Community Examples

95

Chapter 10: Before You Shift

105

Chapter 11: Call to Action

113

References

121

About the Authors

129

v

List of Figures and Tables

FIGURES Figure 1.1

Figure 3.1 Figure 6.1 Figure 6.2 Figure 6.3 Figure 6.4 Figure 8.1

Addressing an Unmet Need Using Higher-order Thinking Skills to Create a Service-learning Project and a Model Community How Do You Define Community? Dimensions of Model Community Cross Sections and Cornerstones of Model Communities Explanation of Shading Gradual Change in Shading Empowerment Model: Decision-Making Process

12 27 69 70 70 71 89

TABLES Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 5.1

Magazines vs. Journals Evaluating Website Content Example of Parts Is Parts

vii

17 21 57

Preface

We live and work in a community that America’s Promise Alliance designated as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People three consecutive years. Since 2005 we have worked together on the Salisbury’s Promise Alliance to bring the five America’s Promise Alliance Promises to the youth of Salisbury / Wicomico County, Maryland This effort and our collaboration with others led to the creation of a Youth Leadership Academy (Whitehead and Kitzrow, 2007) and a youth-focused public access television show called Hometown Heroes (Kitzrow and Whitehead, 2009). We also worked together with others to have our community named a finalist in the All America City competition in 2009. These endeavors, coupled with our attendance at 100 Best Communities Celebration, Search Institute conference, and All America City competition, reinforced our belief in positive youth development. Our mission is to work with others to foster a climate in our community that perceives its youth as assets. For the past three years we discussed at length the important role of experiential education, specifically service-learning, in making education exciting for students. In part this discussion grew out of the activities of Salisbury’s Promise. Recall that one of the 5 promises is the opportunities to help others. We also reflected on service projects we did prior to 2005. We are advocates for service-learning and positive youth development. As we thought deeply about the assets that youth develop through servicelearning, our ideas about how communities can best utilize these assets developed into the idea of model communities. These are communities that endorse, enrich, embrace, and empower their young people. Our purpose in writing this book is to share our thoughts on servicelearning, its relationship to positive youth development, and their relationship to what we call model communities. We believe that many individuals and groups will find the book useful. Among these are teachers and students who want to teach various skills using service-learning. We also anticipate that the book will be useful to teacher ix

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educators who are introducing service-learning to pre-professional students, and to education interns who are guiding graduate students in an in-depth study of service-learning. Developmental psychologists should find our proposition that service-learning leads to positive youth development, which leads to more service to be worthy of investigation. Finally, we believe that policy makers and people who care about their communities will find our ideas about youth in model communities helpful in better community decision making. We wrote a draft of this book prior to the election of President Barack Obama. However, we believe that this book is timely given the president’s interest in integrating service into learning. For example, the Obama website (http://barackobama.com/issues/service/) states, “Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do fifty hours of community service a year, and will establish a new tax credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service per year.” We also believe that this book is timely given that the House of Representatives recently passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, which among its provisions increases the authorization for service-learning programs to $97 million, and that Congress passed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

OVERVIEW This book is divided into three sections. Chapters 1–5 make up the first section, which focuses on service-learning. In chapter 1 we define servicelearning and explain its relationship to other initiatives, such as educational initiatives at the federal level, positive youth development, and future educational trends. Chapter 2 shows how a teacher can teach information literacy skills using service-learning. The focus of chapter 3 is on service-learning as a strategy to teach students problem-solving skills. Chapter 4 describes how service-learning as a teaching strategy provides a teacher with another way to teach critical-thinking skills. Finally, in chapter 5, we explain how servicelearning allows teachers to teach creative thinking. Students who possess information literacy skills, problem-solving skills, critical-thinking skills, and creative-thinking skills have the requisite skills to become part of the decision-making process in their communities. To that end the second section focuses on model communities. Chapters 6–10 make up this section. In chapter 6 we explain what we mean by model communities in the context of national initiatives and organizations that focus on young people. Chapter 7 explains the four cornerstones of model communities:

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embrace, enrich, endorse, and empower. The focus of chapter 8 is on empowerment. Chapter 9 describes communities that embrace, enrich, endorse, and empower their young people. Finally, in chapter 10, we discuss a number of issues that communities must consider as they strive to become model communities. Chapter 11 makes up the third section of this book. Here we lay out how youth and other stakeholders can become advocates for model communities. The time is now! As this book has evolved, we have worked to give it what we believe are seven distinctive features. A Glorious Revolution for Youth and Communities • explains in detail how to teach information literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking using service-learning; • offers a new and thought-provoking way to think about communities through the lens of model communities; • offers a new way to think about the community empowerment of youth through a decision-making model; • integrates the work on service-learning and positive youth development with our thoughts about model communities; • lays out a strategy for youth and other stakeholders to create a model community using the most recent thinking in social psychology on persuasion; • provides current and classical psychological research to support our ideas; • includes end-of-chapter activities that help those who use the book as a text understand and utilize the concepts in the chapter. Just as we collaborated in the writing of this book, so too have we collaborated with many in bringing it to birth, and we wish to thank and acknowledge them. Lynn Rising edited previous drafts of this book. Tom Koerner, Bob Bringle, Florence Pritchard and Elaine Leibsohn read an earlier draft of the book and challenged us to think about the content and the way in which we presented it. Their insight and knowledge of the subject matter proved to be invaluable as we revised drafts of this book. We have worked with Brian Raygor on several projects in Wicomico County and appreciate his dedication to young people. We also want to thank Barbara and Julia Zalesak for their inspiration and support throughout the development of the book. Finally, we hope that this book demonstrates the productivity of communicating across the generations. George is a baby boomer. Andy is Generation Y. George Whitehead Andrew Kitzrow

Chapter 1 Service-Learning, Education, and Community Reform Please read and reflect on the following mottos: Service Above Self —Rotary International We Serve —Lions Clubs International Serving the Children of the World —Kiwanis International

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you read and reflected on the mottos of three social organizations, you no doubt noticed the one goal they have in common—service. In these and other social organizations, men and women come together to serve various communities: local, regional, state, country, or international. They assist, help, or aid others. For example, Rotary is dedicated to eradicating polio throughout the world; Lions is dedicated to ending preventable blindness; Kiwanis is dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. Just as the adults in these organizations serve others, students in our schools often serve others through the teaching strategy of service-learning. This chapter focuses on service-learning, positive youth development, the relationship between positive youth development and service-learning, the inclusion of service-learning in federal initiatives, and the role of servicelearning in school-community partnerships.

DEFINITION OF SERVICE-LEARNING Pritchard and Whitehead (2004, p. 4) define service-learning as follows: Service-learning is a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic studies to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities. It engages students in addressing real unmet needs 1

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or issues in a community and actively involves them in decision-making at all levels of the process.

This definition has three important components. First, service-learning is tied to the curriculum. Typically teachers decide on a concept that they want to teach using service-learning and then design, implement, and evaluate the project. Second, students address an unmet need or issue. By doing so, they focus on a real problem and can see that they are making a difference. Third, student involvement in the entire service-learning process with community members is essential. This engagement allows students to develop skills such as information literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking. How educators teach these higher-order thinking skills is the focus of chapters 2 through 5. They can be deliberately taught (Bleedorn, 2005). From the information in A Glorious Revolution, teachers learn how to teach these higher-order thinking skills through service-learning. Because community members are part of the process, they also learn firsthand the power of service-learning. Model communities and service-learning’s contribution to developing model communities are the central points of chapters 6 through 10. Chapter 11 is a call to action to change a community. DEFINITION OF POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT Positive Youth Development (PYD) is defined as caring adults engaged with youth in meaningful activities that foster the development of assets. The definition has four components. First, “caring adults” include adults from families and the wider community. Second, “engaged with youth” implies the appreciation of different strengths and weakness. Third, “meaningful activities” are ones young people find challenging and valuable. Fourth, “assets” are the strengths of a young person—a definition that will be developed more fully below. Historically young people used their assets to assist their communities in programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and other organizations discussed in chapter 6. As a field, PYD evolved separately from developmental psychology (Larson, 2000). RELATIONSHIP OF SERVICE-LEARNING TO POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT (PYD) Service-learning leads to PYD, and PYD leads to service. Richard Lerner’s (2007) research on PYD is relevant to this contention.

SERVICE-LEARNING, EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY REFORM

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Lerner posits that young people possess assets or strengths, as have others (cf. Benson, 2006). These assets lead to a successful transition to adulthood. For Lerner these strengths are the five Cs: competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring. He also argues that when the five Cs are present, a sixth C (contribution) emerges. Competence is the ability to work effectively in school, in social situations, and at work. Confidence is an internal sense of overall self-worth and efficacy. Connection is positive bonds with people and social institutions. Character is respect for society and cultural rules. Caring is a sense of sympathy for others and a commitment to social justice. Contribution is the capacity to participate effectively by caring for oneself and by giving of oneself at home, in the community, and in civic life. The next four chapters explain how the skills taught through servicelearning contribute to the five Cs. To illustrate how service-learning makes this contribution, consider the asset of character. In discussing the relationship between service-learning and character, Winings (2002, p. 49) concluded: “Service-learning is ideally suited to nurture the development of character. Students are immediately challenged in terms of their ability to act selflessly and become responsible; love, and become compassionate men and women; and make a meaningful contribution to society. In short, service-learning provides students with the means to fulfill their three basic life goals.” According to Lerner the Big Three components foster the growth of the five Cs. Specifically, all teens must have the opportunity to: • Have sustained positive interactions with adults • Participate in structured activities that enable them to develop valued life skills • Become leaders of valued community activities A service-learning project embodies the Big Three. By its very nature service-learning provides an opportunity for young people to interact with adults. These adults include their teachers, school administrators, and community members. Service-learning is a structured activity where students learn valuable life skills (e.g., critical thinking). Addressing unmet needs in their community also provides them with leadership opportunities. Service-learning fosters the growth of the five Cs, but it is not the only way to grow them. Furthermore, Lerner’s theory suggests that the five Cs in turn foster the growth of more service (the sixth C). The Giraffe Heroes Project (2006) also supports the connection between service and positive youth development. Specifically, the curriculum for the

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Giraffe Heroes Project is “a K–12 curriculum that instills courage, caring, and a sense of personal ability and responsibility in young people and helps them build lifelong commitments to service as active citizens” (Giraffe Heroes Project, 2006, p. vi).

RELATIONSHIP OF SERVICE-LEARNING TO AMERICA’S PROMISE ALLIANCE America’s Promise Alliance advances the position that in order to thrive, young people need five resources: a caring adult, a healthy start, a safe place, effective education, and opportunities to give back. The last resource is clearly linked to service-learning. Recently, America’s Promise started a “15 in 5 Campaign” with the goal of reaching fifteen million young people with more promises in the next five years. Ready for the Real World, one of the strategies to meet this goal, includes service-learning This strategy targets middle-school-age youth with the intent of connecting what they learn in school to future possibilities. Specifically, “Ready for the Real World will, through exposing youth to service-learning and career exploration, increase the motivation of 11- to 14-year-olds to achieve in their schools, communities and later, their environment” (America’s Promise Alliance, 2009). The premise of this book is that service-learning provides youth with higher-order thinking skills that communities can utilize in their decisionmaking processes. Service-learning also develops skills that employers desire in their employees. These skills include communication, strong work ethic, teamwork, initiative, interpersonal skills, problem solving, and analytical, flexibility/adaptability, computer, and technical skills (Salisbury University, 2009). The relationship between service-learning and these skills for success will be discussed in relevant chapters of this book.

WHY EDUCATORS USE SERVICE-LEARNING AS A TEACHING STRATEGY In the past educators employed service-learning as a teaching strategy for three reasons (Stanton, Giles, and Cruz, 1999): to reform education, to prepare students for effective democratic engagement, and to address issues of social justice. With respect to educational reform, service-learning empowers students, improves curriculum and pedagogy, and transforms education.

SERVICE-LEARNING, EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY REFORM

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This book demonstrates how service-learning can do each of these. Furthermore, because service-learning is relevant to educational reform, a pertinent question is the extent to which service-learning is included in the goals of federal educational reform efforts. Students who participate in service-learning projects also become engaged citizens. They are aware of the issues in their community and know how to get things done. These same students can also strengthen and change their communities. They are assets to their communities. How can or do communities utilize these assets? The idea of model communities presented later in the book provides one answer to this question.

AN EXAMPLE OF A SERVICE-LEARNING ACTIVITY To this point service-learning has been defined, and its relationship to positive youth development has been discussed. But what does a service-learning activity look like? Typically a teacher specifies the course objectives that could be met through performing a service-learning project. For purposes of this example, the course objectives are to teach students about the needs and assets of the elderly. This may be the thesis of a book they are reading in English or a topic about human development in science. The teacher, her students, community members, and other school personnel determine the real community need the project meets after discussing the project with someone who works with an agency focusing on the elderly. As a result of this conversation, the team learns that a number of elderly living in nursing homes or their own homes have few visitors. The agency representative also reports that these elderly are lonely. Thus, the specific unmet needs are that the elderly seldom have visitors and are lonely. In this way the teacher facilitates the team’s investigation of community needs and prepares them for the service project. She introduces the concept of service and explains the goals and expectations of the project. The team then decides on the form of action they want to and can take. For example, they may decide that they want to take direct action (one-onone interaction). That is, they want to visit the nursing home and play board games with the elderly, such as chess or checkers, or bring senior citizens to the school for lunch. They may want to take indirect action (channel resources to the problem). They may decide to make cards that their teacher can deliver to elderly in the nursing home. Or they may decide on a form of service called advocacy

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(work to eliminate the cause of the problem). They could write letters to the editor encouraging people to visit an elderly person in a nursing home. Following the action, students and others critically reflect on the activity through diverse activities. The teacher may design reflection activities that tap into the students’ multiple intelligences (Pritchard and Whitehead, 2005) as they answer questions such as: What have you learned about yourself? Was it difficult playing checkers with the elderly? Teachers then want to have students demonstrate what they have learned, or demonstrate the impact of the project. For example, students may want to present a graph indicating how many more visitors the elderly had as a result of the students’ letters to the editor. They could also measure the elderly person’s loneliness prior to and after the direct service. Finally, the team celebrates the completion of the project. It is important for the class, community representatives, and people served to celebrate together, if possible. In short, a teacher prepares her students and other members of the team for the service project. The team decides on a form of action. They then engage in the action. Critical reflection occurs throughout the process. Students demonstrate what they have learned and celebrate the completion of their project. If teachers use service-learning to reform education, to what extent have federal school reform initiatives included service-learning? The next sections answer this question.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND SCHOOL REFORM EFFORTS DURING THE PRESIDENCY OF RONALD W. REAGAN Service-learning as defined above may be compatible with recent efforts toward school reform, though the term was not originally used. Let’s first examine “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform” (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983). The purpose here is not to evaluate the impact of this initiative as others have done (cf. Bell, 1993), but to explore whether or not service-learning is mentioned. In 1981 Terrell Bell, President Reagan’s secretary of education, created the National Commission on Excellence in Education. This commission was to report on the quality of education in America. About two years later the commission wrote an open letter to the American people called “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.” The authors of this letter made five sets of recommendations to improve American education. These recommendations focused on content, standards and expectations, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal support.

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Recommendations concerning content were divided into five recommendations about “New Basics” and four additional recommendations. The New Basics included recommendations about English, mathematics, science, social studies, and computer science in high school. Although they did not use the terms “service” or “service-learning,” the authors included an application component to each recommendation. In English the recommendation was for graduates to “use what they read”; in mathematics graduates should “apply mathematics in everyday situations”; in science graduates should be introduced “to the application of scientific knowledge in everyday situations”; with regard to social studies the authors said it is a “requisite to the informed and committed exercise of citizenship in our free society”; in computers graduates should “use the computer for personal and work-related purposes” (National Commission on Excellence in Education , 1983, pp. 25–26). Although these recommendations focused on high school, one of their additional recommendations (Recommendation 8) focused on the eight grades prior to high school. This recommendation stated The curriculum in the crucial eight grades leading to the high school years should be specifically designed to provide a sound base for study in those and later years in such areas as English language development and writing, computation and problem solving skills, science, social studies, foreign language, and the arts. These years should foster an enthusiasm for learning and the development of the individual’s gifts and talents. (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983, pp. 26–27)

In sum, the content recommendations of “A Nation at Risk” included the idea of the application of the New Basics across K–12. As Recommendation 8 indicates, the recommendations also included higher-order thinking skills (e.g., problem solving).

SERVICE-LEARNING AND SCHOOL REFORM DURING THE PRESIDENCIES OF GEORGE H.W. BUSH AND WILLIAM J. CLINTON George H. W. Bush followed Ronald Reagan into the presidency, and William J. Clinton followed Bush. Their educational reform efforts were called America 2000 (Bush) and Goals 2000 (Clinton), and each specified national goals to improve the quality of education. Again the purpose here is not to evaluate either reform effort. Others have already done that (e.g., Clinchy, 1991 and Ohanian, 2000). Rather, the focus is on whether or not servicelearning is included in the statements of the goals.

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America 2000 specified six goals for American education. One of these, Goal 3, is specifically related to service-learning. Goal 3—Student Achievement and Citizenship: By the year 2000, American students will leave grades four, eight, and twelve having demonstrated competence in challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, history, and geography; and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our modern economy. (U.S. Department of Education, 1991, p. 9)

Goals 2000 kept the six goals of America 2000 and added two additional goals. One of the objectives under Goal 3 stated: All students will be involved in activities that promote and demonstrate good citizenship, good health, community service, and personal responsibility (National Education Goals Panel, 1995, p.11; emphasis added). In sum, both America 2000 and Goals 2000 included the ideas of service and higher-order thinking skills. Again the goals do not utilize the term service-learning. Yet they included language indicating that students should use their minds well for responsible citizenship.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND SCHOOL REFORM EFFORTS DURING THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. BUSH George W. Bush followed Clinton as president. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-110, 2002) into law in January 2002. This educational reform plan contained sweeping changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The intent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was to close the achievement gap among various ethnic groups of schoolchildren with accountability, flexibility, and choice. Its overall goal was to have all students achieving at grade level. The steps to reach this goal have focused on testing and achievement and teacher quality and preparation. Much has been written about accountability, test scores, and Average Yearly Progress (cf. Guilfoyle, 2006; Hayes, 2008). These measures are not the focus of this section. Rather, the focus is on whether or not servicelearning was included in NCLB. Gent (2007) recently provided such an analysis. The authors of NCLB often used the term “scientifically based research.” For example, schoolwide programs shall include schoolwide reform strategies that “use effective methods and instructional strategies that are based

SERVICE-LEARNING, EDUCATION, AND COMMUNITY REFORM

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on scientifically based research” (No Child Left Behind, §1001, 115 STAT 1114). In examining the available literature on the impact of servicelearning on academic achievement, Gent concluded that there is “little scientifically-based research” demonstrating that service-learning enhances academic achievement. Nonetheless, NCLB did mention the strategic use of service-learning. For example, Innovative Assistance programs included funds for twenty-seven innovative types of programs. Service-learning was mentioned as one of these types of programs (number 24). (No Child Left Behind, §1001, 115 STAT 1782). NCLB also states that schoolwide reform strategies may include applied learning and encourage the teaching of advanced skills. In sum, Gent provided strategies where service-learning can be used in conjunction with NCLB. First, teachers can pair service-learning with other school reform efforts, such as direct instruction. Second, teachers can use servicelearning strategically, such as innovative programs and character education.

OUTCOMES OF SERVICE-LEARNING If studies have not demonstrated that service-learning affects academic achievement, what does the available literature show regarding its impact? Billig, Root, and Jesse (2005) provided an answer to this question. They surveyed 1,052 students: 645 were service-learning participants, and 407 were in a comparison group. They asked students to respond to a survey that assessed civic development (civic knowledge, civic disposition, civic skills, and civic participation) and attitudes toward school (school enjoyment, academic engagement, and student attachment). Although the students in the service-learning group scored higher on all of these student outcomes, the results were not statistically significant. The researchers then examined the following moderating variables: students’ perceptions of the quality of their service-learning experience, student engagement in service-learning, duration, service issue, student choice, and type of service activity. They found that each of these variables influenced student outcomes. Specifically, perceptions of quality were positively related to assessments of school attachment and civic knowledge. Student engagement in servicelearning was related to all outcomes except for civic knowledge. The duration of service-learning was related to all but two student outcomes (civic dispositions and efficacy). Moreover, students who chose their projects made greater gains on civic knowledge than others, whereas student who worked on the teacher-selected

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civic issues thought they gained more than those who worked on an environmental project. Students engaging in direct service had greater community attachment, whereas students who engaged in indirect service had greater academic engagement, valued school more, and enjoyed the subject matter of their courses. The results of the study clearly suggest that the quality of the servicelearning plays a crucial role in enhancing student outcomes. The finding of the positive impact of student engagement in service-learning becomes important for the discussion in later chapters regarding what communities can do to utilize the assets of their students.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES Service-learning also has the potential to reduce the high school dropout rate, thereby increasing the high school graduation rate. In a report, Bridgeland, DiIulio, and Wulsin (2008) made the following statements: • Service-learning holds the potential to increase the attendance and engagement of students in classrooms and schools. • Service-learning engages students in classroom learning in ways that foster academic achievement and increase motivation to learn. • Service-learning alone cannot solve the complex high school dropout problem, but it can be a powerful tool to help address many of the warning signs that students are on track to leave school.

POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES Citizens in local communities develop programs to address the high school dropout rate from the perspective of PYD. They do so because of the research demonstrating the power of assets. Assets promote positive behaviors in young people (e.g., school success) and protect them from negative behaviors (e.g., illicit drug use). The organization Kids of Honor (2009) exemplifies such an asset-based approach. Specifically, the mission of Kids of Honor is to empower youth to graduate from high school. This program “helps build positive assets by empowering participants to be fully engaged, excited about learning, and hopeful for the future.”

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SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS A number of excellent books discuss a plethora of ways that school and communities can form partnerships (cf. Constantino 2003; Decker, Decker, and Brown, 2007). The focus of the present book implies that service-learning offers a beneficial partnership to all involved. Indeed, Decker, Decker, and Brown (2007) list the many benefits of service-learning to school, community, and partners that support this contention.

BEYOND THE BASICS If you surf the Internet, you will find many resources on service-learning for K–12 teachers. If these resources already exist, then why write another book on service-learning for K–12 teachers? This book has four purposes: First, service-learning provides a strategy for teachers to teach higher-order thinking skills. Shelley Billig’s (2006, p. viii) statement that “service-learning is associated more often with the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills such as problem solving, perspective taking, and analysis than with the more basic ones” is correct. However, no single book explicitly shows a teacher how to do this. In subsequent chapters educators will learn how to use service-learning to teach information literacy skills, problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Educators will also learn the research and theory behind the approach. Second, service-learning is a teaching strategy that can transform a school. The information in this book demonstrates to a teacher how to take a content standard and integrate it with a text used in class to create a servicelearning project. Thus an educator learns how service-learning can be paired with direct instruction. Third, if teachers use best standards in designing a service-learning project, they have engaged students and community members in every step of the process. Now that a student is engaged, what are the next steps to the student engagement process? Later chapters develop the idea that servicelearning can be a component of a model community, one that enriches, endorses, embraces, and empowers young people. It is important that young people become part of the decision-making process in communities for two reasons. First, young people need to be a part of the solution. You often hear that young people are our future, but you also hear that the future is now. Young people need to be a part of the process that affects their “now-future.” Second, young people bring a different perspective to the decision-making

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Figure 1.1. Addressing an Unmet Need Using Higher-order Thinking Skills to Create a Service-learning Project and a Model Community.

process. A decision made on the basis of input from all stakeholders is probably one the public at large will endorse. Fourth, average citizens who read this book will learn about the power of service-learning as a teaching strategy. They will also learn that it is based on solid research. As a result, they will want to know whether or not their school system utilizes this strategy. Figure 1.1 below depicts the approach of this book. In creating a servicelearning project, the class and other members of the team first decide on an unmet need and then decide on the service-learning project. Throughout the process, the teacher uses strategies to teach problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Students who are involved in creating a servicelearning project have a set of skills that communities should utilize to become model communities.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. What is an unmet need in your community that is a priority to you? 2. What initiatives are in place to meet this need? Who is currently involved? 3. Who are the key people who are not currently involved who need to be involved? Why do you think they need to be involved? 4. What are the limiting factors in resolving this issue? 5. What are potential strategies and/or action steps to address this need? 6. How would you revise NCLB to include service-learning?

Chapter 2 Information Literacy

Students may ask: •˜How and where do I find what are the unmet needs in the community? •˜How and where do I find a copy of No Child Left Behind? •˜How and where do I find information about problem-based learning?

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you think about how you might answer the three questions, you probably noticed their commonality is that they are requests for information. In this chapter, an educator learns how service-learning is used to teach information literacy. The educator will also learn a definition of information literacy, and how to teach a student or other members of the service-learning team to become literate in obtaining information. Team members can investigate community needs as they begin their service-learning project using their information literacy skills.

DEFINITION OF INFORMATION LITERACY Literacy can be defined as the possession of a specific set of skills that have broad applications (Smith, 2007). There are, however, specific types of literacy. In this chapter the focus is on information literacy, a set of abilities requiring individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, Final Report, 1989) Other types of literacy are authentic and disciplinary literacy. Authentic literacy is the ability to read, write, and think effectively (Schmoker, 2007). Disciplinary literacy is based on the premise that students can develop deep 13

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conceptual knowledge of a discipline by using habits of reading, writing, talking, and thinking that the discipline values and uses (McConachie et al., 2006).

ABILITY TO LOCATE INFORMATION Until a decade ago, when people wanted to research information they went to the card catalog of the library. Once a person found a book, he or she might browse adjacent books to see if another relevant book existed. In a card catalog books were usually arranged by subject matter or author using some system, such as Dewey decimal or Library of Congress classification. For most of us, those days are gone! Now we have online library catalogs and databases and the Internet for scholastic research. In the following three sections we discuss how a teacher instructs her students and others to locate information using each technique.

ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGS If you have been to a library lately, you probably found out that it is automated. Your public library might use software such as Innovative Interfaces Inc., which is designed to handle functions such as the public catalog. Your public school might use software such as Sagebrush/Winnebago or Follett’s Destiny Resource Management System as an online retrieval system. Your colleges and universities probably use different systems, such as USMAI (University of Maryland system) or IRIS (Rutgers University). All of these allow someone to locate books that the library has in its collection. They also allow a person to determine the journals, magazines, and newspaper articles in the library’s catalog. However, people cannot expect to find the electronic full text of articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers in a library’s catalog. For these media, someone must use online library databases, the topic of the next section. A number of excellent books have been written on these topics (cf. Mann, 2005). Consequently, this chapter offers ideas and tips recognizing that people may want to take advantage of the tutorials many libraries offer (cf. Rutgers University, 2009). What do you want your students and other members of the team to know about online catalogs? Most important is how they would search for relevant information. Often there is the option for a basic search. What is on such a

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search varies across libraries but may include the title of a book, the author of a book, the subject of a book, and the call number or ISBN of a book. Someone who specifies a title and/or its ISBN can locate a specific book if the library or its consortium has the book in its collection (e.g., Nickel and Dimed; ISBN 0-8050-6389-7). This is obviously the choice if a student is looking for a particular book, such as Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 book, Nickel and Dimed. A student who specifies an author (e.g., Barbara Ehrenreich) locates all the books the library has that the author has written (e.g., Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class; Re-making Love: The Feminization of Sex). This is the choice if a person is looking for the author’s oeuvre. People who specify a subject (e.g., globalization) obtain all of the books the library has on that subject. This type of search yields many more citations than would a more specific subject (e.g., globalization and technology). The advantage of the more global subject search is that the researcher may obtain books related to globalization (e.g., globalization and international trade), which gives additional terms to search. The disadvantage is that a researcher may obtain many books, creating information overload. Often the categories are broken down into subcategories, with the specific words of the title, author, subject, or keywords in each. Specific categories were discussed in the previous paragraphs. Key words for title (e.g., Nickel), author (Ehrenreich), or subject (current events) will generate a list of many more books than the more specific category. The main disadvantage of a keyword search is that someone may obtain many books. The major advantage of a keyword search is precision. People can locate a book they might not be able to find any other way (i.e., doesn’t fall under any subject heading). When does a teacher recommend a more global search or a more precise search? In the research literature this issue is referred to as recall and precision. Recall measures the ability of the system to retrieve the relevant resources in the library’s collection and precision the ability of the system to reject nonrelevant resources (Su, 1994). Gordon and Kochen (1989) show that recall and precision are inversely related (greater recall, less precision). In this regard, Buckland and Gey (1994) suggest a two-stage retrieval process. Specifically, teachers instruct their students to use the more global term for a preliminary search, particularly if it is a topic that is unfamiliar to the student. From this first search, the student may find key words and phrases that are good search terms for the topic, as well as names of authors who are studying the topic and may have relevant publications. Then in the second stage, the student can search for specific authors and subjects. On the other hand, if the student is familiar with the topic, he or she may want to conduct a more precise search.

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ONLINE LIBRARY DATABASES The team may also want to find information from professional journals or magazines. A teacher explains the difference between the two. For example, one of the differences is the audience for whom the periodical is written. In the case of a journal (e.g., Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning), the audience is usually a scholar, researcher, or professor. In the case of a magazine (Newsweek), the audience is usually the general public. See table 2.1 for a more complete list. When does a teacher recommend using a journal or a magazine? The answer depends on the kind of information the student and others need and their level of expertise. Journal articles are usually written by specialists (i.e., scholars) for scholars. They are most often research-oriented. On the other hand, magazines are written by generalists (i.e., people whose knowledge is applied to a wide variety of fields) for the general population. They are usually not research-oriented but may summarize relevant research. Libraries typically have a variety of databases. For example, they may have OCLC FirstSearch, EBSCOhost, CSA Illumina, Gale, and Thomson Scientific Links. What the library has depends on costs and relevancy to the curriculum. These databases generally index articles from scholarly journals and periodicals. The data coverage varies across databases. Information about each of the databases is provided below, but you need to check your library to see what system it has. • OCLC FirstSearch: This publishing company maintains 75 databases and citations from 12,500 journals. http://firstsearch.oclc.org/ • EBSCOhost: This publishing company makes available about 250 fulltext and secondary databases. http://ebscohost.com/ • CSA Illumina: CSA specializes in publishing and distributing, in print and electronically, 100 bibliographic and full-text databases and journals in natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanity, and technology. http://www.csa.com/ • Gale: This publishing company creates and maintains more than 600 databases that are published online, in print, as e-books, and in microform. http://www.gale.cengage.com/ • Thomson Scientific Links: Thomson Scientific Databases is a collection from over 8,000 international scholarly journals. http://scientific. thomson.com/ Database providers usually make libraries sign a contract that limits access. To illustrate what this means, let’s use the example of a university library.

Table 2.1. Magazines vs. Journals

Articles from magazines and journals are an important information source for researchers. They generally contain more timely, current, and up-to-date information than book resources. A savvy researcher will quickly understand that articles from magazines and articles from journals vary significantly in their academic (popular versus scholarly) usefulness. Your instructor may require that all, or a certain number, of your sources be from scholarly journals, so it is important that you know the difference. Listed below are some comparisons between the two.

Audience Purpose Authors

MAGAZINES (Popular)

JOURNALS (Scholarly)

• General reading population or specific interest groups • To inform or entertain the general public or promote a viewpoint • Popular, entertainment coverage • Journalists, professional writers, or freelance writers (generalists)

• Academic population or specific scholarly groups • To present original research to the scholarly world • Scholarly, academic coverage • Researchers, scholars, academics (experts in the discipline) • University presses, professional associations, research institutes • Articles reviewed and chosen by a panel of experts in the field • Published quarterly, monthly, or bimonthly • Professional, technical language • Standard style formats (APA, MLA, Turabian, etc.) • Sources properly cited • Formal research methodology (methods, data, conclusion) • Articles usually multiple pages in length (longer than in magazines) • Tables, charts, graphs, and figures • Few advertisements aimed at earned groups • Serious, somber look Adolescence, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, European History Quarterly, American Anthropologist, Psychological Bulletin, JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Landscape and Urban Planning, Journal of Research in Personality, Philosophy of Science, Latin American Perspectives, Political Theory, Educational Research, Journal of Paleontology, Music Educators Journal, Journal of Sport Sciences

Publishers

• Commercial, often owned as part of a chain • Articles reviewed and chosen by an editorial board • Published weekly or monthly

Writing Style

• General populace language • Various, often unstructured style formats • Sources rarely cited or footnoted • Often no formalized research methodology • Articles usually a few paragraphs or pages in length

Graphics

• Glossy multicolor photos/graphics • Expensive advertising aimed at general public • Appeal to the general population

Examples

Popular: Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, People Weekly, Psychology Today, Mother Earth News, Ebony, Cosmopolitan, Readers Digest, Health, Popular Mechanics, USA Today News (not scholarly): U.S. News and World Report, Time, Newsweek Opinion (not scholarly): National Review, Nation, New Republic Trade Journals (not scholarly): Automotive News, Architectural Review, Beverage World, Computer World

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Access from off-campus requires a student to go through an authentication process, because the contract prohibits anyone who is not a current student from using the databases off-campus. Students do this automatically from oncampus because they must log in for each computer they use.

INTERNET: LOCATING INFORMATION The Internet provides people with a wealth of information. They need to learn how to locate the information from the World Wide Web (www) and to evaluate it. The information that they obtain either through online library catalogs or online databases has been reviewed by the library’s staff or peers of the authors of the books, journal articles, or magazine articles. In contrast, anyone can create a web page. Thus it becomes more important for students and others to evaluate the validity of the source of the information on the web. People can locate information on the web in three ways. First, someone could search with a known URL. For example, if students wanted to find information on any one of the five online databases mentioned above, they would type the URL into the browser. Note also that each address ends with a domain name. In the examples above, it is .com, meaning commercial (for profit). Other common domain names include the following: .org (not-forprofit organizations), .edu (U.S. colleges and universities of two-year or higher degree level), and .gov (U.S. federal government and municipalities). Second, students and others could use a subject directory, such as Yahoo!, Google Directory, and Looksmart.com. In a subject directory, selected websites are arranged into categories and subcategories. Third, someone could use a search engine, such as Google, Excite, Bing .com, or AltaVista. Each uses software to compile a database of pages found on the web and has a somewhat different database. When a person enters a search, the search engine scans its database to match the term entered with the terms in the database.

INTERNET: BLOGGING AND NETWORKING Other popular tools used for gathering information online are blogs and networking websites. These functions create feedback and live chat with other people who have expertise or an opinion on a subject matter. Utilizing these tools can make searching for information quicker and easier. Through ongoing dialogue, service-learning teams can expand their knowledge and un-

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derstanding of their subject matter and create a more effective and complete service-learning project. Likewise, service-learning teams use these online tools to create ongoing group discussion and promotion of their service projects. By streaming conversations to message boards and uploading event descriptions onto networking sites, service-learning teams expand their base of community awareness and participation. These are not only marketing tools, but also opportunities for reflection. Service-learning teams can post comments, pictures, and videos to these websites after the completion of a project. At a later date, this information is gathered by the same servicelearning team as it completes follow-up projects, or is accessed by different service-learning teams searching for support material for their potential community project. INTERNET: ACCESSING, STORING, AND COMPILING INFORMATION People access the Internet through their personal computer, laptop, cell phone, PDA, and navigation systems. Currently, there are several Internet connection formats (to access online information) from dial-up, DSL, cable, or TI-T3 connections. The speed at which people can access information, surf the web, or download information is dependent on their Internet connection. Usually the faster the connection, the more the connection costs the consumer. In 2009, there is still a cost associated with accessing the Internet through major Internet providers, including Comcast, AOL, Netscape, and Verizon Wireless Mobile Web 2.0 (cell phone). Users can store and compile information on mainframes and hard drives inside information processor and storage units (IPSUs), computer modems, laptops, cell phones, PDAs, and so forth. Portable storage devices such as jump drives and memory cards, DVDs, and CDs can also be used to transport information (from one PC to another) or back up information from a hard drive. Another way to transport information is through wireless transfer, Internet connections, or through direct connection between two IPSUs by using a USB connector or similar device. Also, with current technology, information can be transferred from one IPSU to a different IPSU simply. An example would be storing information on a PDA’s memory card, removing the memory card, and then inserting the card into a PC and uploading the information. As time continues, companies are trying to make IPSUs more compatible with each other to make the accessibility, storage, and retrieval quicker and simpler.

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INTERNET: EVALUATING INFORMATION Because anyone can publish on the web, people need to evaluate the quality of the information they have located. Here is another opportunity to utilize the critical-thinking skills discussed in Chapter 4. Table 2.2 delineates five criteria: accuracy, authority, currency, coverage, and objectivity. One of the benefits of information from the web is that it is often more current than information from books, journals, and magazines, which have a publication lag time. However, someone needs to make sure that the information on the web is current. The author of the material is important. A student, for example, wants to make sure that the author is credible (i.e., is an expert and trustworthy) and wants to know who sponsors the site. In reading through the material, the student wants to confirm that information appears to be accurate. Specifically, the student wants to be able to verify the facts. The material should have few distracting errors. The student also wants to ensure that the information is objective. That is, the student should know whether or not there are biases reflected in the website. Finally, the student should assess the coverage of the website. Is it still being constructed? Is the content comprehensive? Once the student has evaluated the information on the website positively, the student may then ask a series of other questions: Is this site relevant to my topic? Is this the best information I can find on the topic? Does this site complement material I have already gathered?

SERVICE-LEARNING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL Students and others planning a service-learning project may need information-retrieval skills to obtain the following information: • To find an unmet need in the community of interest • To find information relevant to the unmet need • To find examples of service-learning projects addressing that unmet need • To obtain information on mini-grants focusing on service-learning projects

Table 2.2. Evaluating Website Content No one person or group checks that all web content is accurate, so you must! Attempting to answer the following questions about a particular Internet site will help you determine if the site is a valid source for your research needs. You may not find answers to each question, but the investigative process should allow you to weigh the overall legitimacy of the site and help you refine your evaluating skills. Name of the Web Site: ____________________________________________________________________________ Web Address / URL : ____________________________________________________________________________ Purpose of the Site: ____________________________________________________________________________ 1. Accuracy • Is the content free of spelling and grammatical errors? • Is the site easily navigable, well organized, and functional? • Are sources provided so the information can be verified? 2. Authority • Who is the author of the material on the website? • Can you determine if the author is qualified to speak authoritatively on this topic? • Are there clues about who sponsors the larger site and what their motive is? • Are you able to find contact information for this person or group? • Does the content on the site contain a bibliography or a list of reputable sources? 3. Currency • Can you determine when the site was copyrighted, created, or last updated? • Are all the hyperlinks on the website working correctly? • In the absence of a copyright or revision date, does the content of the website allow you to determine if the information is current? 4. Coverage • Is the website partially constructed or fully completed? • Is there a comprehensive range of content or merely links to other web pages? 5. Objectivity • Why is this information being posted? Does the site identify the goals or objectives.? • Is the author’s point of view obvious? Does it reflect a bias? • Is the information intended to persuade the reader toward a particular way of thinking? • Does the site link to external, nonaffiliated websites or only to other websites with similar points-of-view? Also ask:

Will the information be useful for my topic? How does the information compare with other information I have gathered? Is the information consistent with my knowledge of the topic?

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INFORMATION THE TEAM MAY ALREADY KNOW To this point, team members learned how to obtain new information relevant to their service project. In this process they are getting assistance from their teacher, peers, and librarian. Yet the team may already have information relevant to designing a service project. They may have heard about unmet needs in their community or about different service projects through previous classroom experiences, organizations to which they belong (e.g., Scouts and faith communities), or presentations and discussions with members of community agencies. Nonetheless, they still must assess the validity of this information using procedures discussed above.

WHAT HAVE STUDENTS LEARNED? Students who have learned to navigate online catalogs, online databases, and the Internet are equipped to locate information on any topic. They can discern the relevancy of information and evaluate the credibility of information. Students have become competent or had this quality reinforced. Recall that competency is one of Lerner’s Cs. Connection is taught or reinforced because students are connected to information and others through the Internet. Recall that connection is one of Lerner’s other Cs. With regard to skills for success, students have learned computer skills and initiative. They are finding an unmet need using technology.

WHAT HAVE COMMUNITY MEMBERS LEARNED? Community members have learned that students have the ability to access and evaluate information, that they are competent. The community may come to realize that if they need to research an issue, such as whether or not to eliminate class rank from a student’s transcript, students know how to find information relevant to the issue.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. How can you access information in your community? 2. Do all citizens in your community have access to all the information resources? Explain why they do or do not. 3. Does the public school system have Internet access? Wireless classrooms? Explain why it does or does not.

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4. Does your community have a source of information that organizations and agencies can utilize to form partnerships or make contacts? Explain why it does or does not. 5. Use the source of information identified in question 4 to answer questions 1 through 3 at the end of chapter 1. 6. Use the source of information identified in question 4 to locate a book, journal article, and magazine article on service-learning.

Chapter 3 Problem Solving

Students may be asked: • After reading Tony Johnston’s (2001) book Any Small Goodness, what is the significance of the title of the book? • If in a bed of fifty-six flowers consisting of tulips, roses, and daffodils, the ratio of tulips to roses to daffodils is 3:5:6, then how many of the flowers are roses? • Is there too much lead in the drinking water of our community?

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you think about how you might answer the three questions, which are from English language arts, mathematics, and science, you probably noticed that their commonality is that they are problems to be solved. Some students may have difficulty solving these types of problems because they don’t have a strategy to solve them. In this chapter a teacher learns how to use service-learning to teach problem solving. She also learns a definition of a problem, a problem-solving strategy, and how service-learning can teach students and others to learn and utilize problem-solving skills.

DEFINITION OF PROBLEM Bransford and Stein (1993) state that a problem exists where there is a discrepancy between an initial state and a goal state and there is no ready-made solution for the problem solver. Other writers have used a similar definition. For De Bono (1970), a problem is simply the difference between what one has (initial state) and what one wants (final state). In the examples at the beginning of the chapter, the initial state would be where you begin the problem 25

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(e.g., trying to think through situations in the book that might illustrate the title of the book), and the goal state is where you want to end up (e.g., deciding on the significance of the title).

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH SERVICE-LEARNING What are the problems associated with service-learning? To answer this question, a review of the definition is necessary in order to identify some problems. Service-learning is a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic studies to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities. It engages students in addressing real unmet needs or issues in a community and actively involves them in decision-making at all levels of the process. (Pritchard and Whitehead, 2004, p. 4)

The first problem for the teacher to solve is whether or not to use servicelearning as an instructional strategy. When deciding upon a style, teachers should select service-learning. Service-learning projects teach students a set of skills, such as problem solving. These skills are assets that a community needs to include in its decision-making processes. The teacher then decides what concept she wants to teach using servicelearning. She can then introduce that concept and service-learning to her class. Probably the first problem for the teacher and student and other members of the team, such as community members, to solve is deciding on the community in which the service project will be accomplished. A definition of community might range from the level of the school to the world (see figure 3.1). The age of the students and the resources available to the teacher and community agency may determine the community that the team selects. Once the community has been determined, the next problems to solve are: • • • • • •

Deciding on the unmet needs in that community Designing a service project that addresses that unmet need Designing the reflection activity Implementing the service-project Determining how to demonstrate learning and impact Deciding on celebratory activities for the culmination of the project

As you think about all of the problems to be solved, a number of them are components of preparation: deciding on the community; deciding on the

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Figure 3.1. How Do You Define Community? Courtesy of the Maryland State Department of Education.

unmet need; designing the project; designing the reflection activity. Problem solving, then, is one of the components of preparation. Other components include exploring unmet needs, selecting the project, communicating with others during and after the selection, and organizing information relative to the project.

A PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGY To this point the word “problem” was defined. A number of problems that need to be addressed with a service-learning project were also indentified. What about a strategy to solve the problem? How does the team of students, community members, and school personnel decide on the community they want to serve or what unmet needs they want to address? Bransford and Stein (1993) proposed a strategy they called IDEAL that can be useful in solving the above problems. IDEAL stands for the following: Identify problems and opportunities; Define goals; Explore possible strategies; Anticipate outcomes and act; Look and learn. Other writers use a

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similar approach. For example, Chaffee (1994) offered a five-step process to solving problems: 1. What is the problem? (Bransford and Stein’s I) 2. What are the alternatives? (Bransford and Stein’s D and E) 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative? (Bransford and Stein’s A) 4. What is the solution? (Bransford and Stein’s E) 5. How well is the solution working? (Bransford and Stein’s L) A teacher can use either approach. The IDEAL strategy will be used here for purposes of demonstrating the process. With respect to I, students in a science class along with other team members create a list of unmet needs in the community. This list may include the following: reducing litter on school grounds and in the community; improving water quality in a local river or lake; preventing erosion of the riverbanks; increasing recycling at school and in the community. They then have the opportunity to solve the unmet need that they select from the list. Assume that the team decides it wants to address the problem of too much trash on school grounds. The science teacher believes that this project fits into her curriculum in several ways. First, there is a section in the curriculum on the uses and abuses of rivers, streams, and bays. Second, one of the items discussed is that the pollution of these waterways is partially caused when people throw trash on the ground that may make its way through the drains on local roads to the waterways. Third, the teacher believes that students need to learn that the source of some of that litter is a result of what students and community members do near the school. One community member believes that this project demonstrates to the neighboring community that the school and students at the school do care about the neighborhood, that they are indeed interested in being good neighbors. Another community member representing a local environmental group believes that this type of project serves as a model for other schools and public areas. The community members actively participate in a service-learning project. Once team members have identified the problem they want to address, they can define the goals (D). Team members may list the following goals: reduce the amount of trash on the school grounds; make the student body more environmentally conscious; enforce school rules about littering. In this case they decide that the goal is to reduce the amount of trash on the school grounds. At this point they can begin to suggest possible strategies (E). For example, students may suggest the following list: have a litter pick up; put up signs in

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the community about not littering; work with community members to police the area. Community members may suggest attending a neighborhood association or the environmental association meeting to discuss the project. Once the team members have enumerated all the possibilities, they then evaluate the possibilities in terms of their feasibility to be accomplished in the service-learning project (A). For example, they may decide that litter pickup is a short-term solution; that they do not want to act as policemen; that putting up anti-littering signs may be the best short- and long-term solution. They may also decide that they want to share this project with the neighbors as well as the environmental community. Creating and erecting signs provides an opportunity for students to reflect on this process. They also evaluate its effectiveness over a period of time and indicate what they have learned (L). In this regard they might want to: • Think about signs as prompts (i.e., strategies that precede behavior). They could bring in examples of signs that they have seen in the community (e.g., “Don’t Litter” or “$200 Fine if Caught Littering”) and decide which are more or less effective and why. To help answer the question, they or the teacher may want to review the research on this issue. • Compare and contrast the use of prompts with or without consequence strategies (i.e., reinforcement and punishment). In the above example, they might discuss why a sign with a fine (consequence strategy) is more or less effective. To have an informed discussion, they may want to review the research on this issue. • Think about the specificity of the request on the sign and any threats to people’s freedom to litter. They may want to discuss the effectiveness of a sign that says “Don’t Litter” versus one that says “Dispose in the Proper Receptacle.” Again they may want to review the research on this issue. In terms of demonstrating the impact, they may decide to count the amount of trash before and after the placement of the signs. They could also create a short questionnaire designed to assess the neighborhood’s opinions of the signs.

BRAINSTORMING In using the IDEAL method, the team creates a list of unmet needs, goals, strategies, and outcomes and actions. Brainstorming (Osborne, 1957) is probably the best way for them to create these lists. It is a group activity

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during which the ideas from other people provoke one’s own ideas. Baumgartner (2006) suggests the following process for brainstorming: 1. Define the problem. For brainstorming to be effective, it is necessary to state a specific problem. For example: What are the unmet needs in our community? Given these unmet needs, what do we want to see happen? In what ways might we meet these goals? What are some of the positives and negatives of each of these goals? 2. Set a time limit. The time limit will depend on the size of the class or group. Larger groups probably need more time. 3. Brainstorming is a process whereby everyone is encouraged to offer ideas. At this point, team members offer ideas without criticism from other members. The teacher asks each person in a sequence for his or her ideas. The teacher should write the ideas down on a black/white board or flip chart. 4. When the time for brainstorming is up, the teacher has the team agree on three to five of the best ideas. The teacher probably uses consensus (to be discussed below) as the decision-making strategy. 5. The teacher and other team members then want to specify three to five criteria for solving the problem. For example: It should be feasible to do. It should be cost effective. It should be legal. 6. Each idea is given a score from 0 to 5, where 0 indicates it does not meet the criteria and 5 indicates that it does meet the criteria. Once all the ideas have been scored for each criterion, the teacher adds up the scores. 7. The idea with the highest score is the team’s solution to the problem. As an alternative to steps 4 to 7, the teacher could give team members several dots and ask them to place them next to the one or two or three items they endorse. The team would then select the alternative with the most dots. Research on brainstorming is discussed below. However, the research suggests that the teacher might want to train team members to brainstorm on similar-type problems prior to the meeting where they decide on the service project. In our example the teacher is the facilitator. The structure of the team could be such that the team selects someone else to facilitate this process.

DECISION-MAKING ALTERNATIVES In number 4 above, the recommendation is for a teacher to use consensus for collaborative decision making. What is consensus? What are other forms of

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decision-making? Why may consensus work better than other forms of decision making? Consensus is trying to find an idea that is acceptable enough so that all members can support it. The teacher presents an idea, which is then discussed. Team members raise concerns and questions. They explore similarities and differences in opinion and offer suggestions and modifications. The team may create a new idea. The teacher checks for consensus. If there is not consensus, the teacher may go through the process again or have alternative procedures in place (e.g., have a smaller group decide). One way to gauge consensus is the “Fist to Five” technique. Five fingers: “It’s a great idea, and I’ll be one of the leaders in implementing it.” Four fingers: “It’s a good idea, and I’ll work on it.” Three fingers: “I’m neutral.” Two fingers: “It’s not my first choice, but I’ll try.” One finger: “I don’t agree, but I promise not to block it.” Fist: “I’m completely opposed to the idea. I’m going to block you if you try to implement it.” Any participant showing the “fist” signal must offer an alternative solution to the team for discussion. Other forms of decision-making include majority vote and unanimous vote. With a majority vote, more than half of the class agrees on a single choice. A major drawback is that those who voted against the decision may not be committed to its implementation. With a unanimous vote, the whole class must agree. Problems may arise because some people who feel pressure to agree may not really support the decision and because one person can block the decision by disagreeing. Research on majority versus unanimity rules is discussed below. Consequently, many believe that decisions reached by consensus are of higher quality, even though there are potential problems with this approach (cf. Buchen, 2005). It is a collective opinion derived by a group whose members have listened carefully to the opinions of others, communicated openly, and have been able to state their opposition to other members’ views and seek alternatives in a constructive manner. When a group reaches a decision by consensus, all members should feel they understand the decision and can support it because they have had the opportunity to influence it. At this point, a service-learning team knows how to problem solve. Research relevant to brainstorming and decision-making alternatives that supports their use is presented next.

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RESEARCH ON BRAINSTORMING In his review of the research on brainstorming, Stein (1975) explained that brainstorming is based on two principles and four rules. The two principles are: 1. Deferment of judgment: List ideas with respect to a specific problem. 2. Quantity breeds quality: Our thoughts or associations are structured hierarchically—the most dominant in the hierarchy are those that are most common; a person has to get through the dominant thoughts to get to the more creative ones. The four rules are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Criticism is ruled out. Freewheeling is welcomed. Quantity is wanted. Combination and improvement are sought.

Research shows that deferred judgment increases the number of responses, but there is little support for brainstorming producing more creative responses. Stein reviews a number of studies addressing the question of whether it is better to have individuals work separately and collate their ideas (nominal groups) than it is to work with real groups. Results indicate that nominal groups produce more ideas than real groups, but nominal groups may or may not produce more quality ideas. For real groups to obtain a large number of ideas, there needs to be sequencing and training. Bouchard (1971) demonstrated that adding sequencing procedures to typical brainstorming instructions brings group performance up to the level of individual performance. Specifically, Bouchard had participants speak in sequence and give up their turn and say “Pass” if they had no ideas to contribute that time around. With regard to training, research shows that training on similar-type items improves brainstorming in real groups. For example, Maltzman, Bogartz, and Berger (1958) found that participants who received a training list five additional times with instructions to give a different response on each repetition produced more original responses on a subsequent test list as compared to a control group that received the training list once. There was not a significant difference between the two groups on a different task (Unusual Uses Test, in which an examinee thinks of as many possible uses of a common object, such as a toothpick).

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RESEARCH ON DECISION-MAKING ALTERNATIVES Research on majority versus unanimity decision rules with mock juries is relevant to issues of majority versus unanimity vote. This research suggests why consensus is the preferred approach to decision-making. For example, Kameda (1991) asked six-person mock juries to discuss two civil cases in which applicable law required them to form a personal verdict prior to deliberation (verdict-driven jury) or after deliberation (evidencebased jury). The participants were either assigned a majority or unanimity rule. Kameda found that minority-opinion members whose opinions were not reflected in the final group verdict showed lower acceptance of the verdict when they had to make a personal verdict prior to deliberation with a majority vote. Thus Kameda concluded that perception of premature consensus might eventually risk successful enforcement of a policy. Furthermore Ohtsubo et al. (2004) asked six-person mock juries to discuss a civil case. The participants were assigned either a majority or unanimity rule. The researchers found that unanimity rule decisions are vulnerable to the presence of participants who endorsed an extreme individual position.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING To this point, the problems that a service-learning team must solve and a process to solve them were discussed. Other writers have discussed service-learning and its relationship to problem-based learning (cf. Whitfield, 1999).What is problem-based learning? What is the relationship with service-learning? Definition of Problem-Based Learning Torp and Sage (2002) stated that problem-based learning is focused experiential learning organized around the investigation and resolution of messy real-world problems. It includes three main characteristics: 1. It engages students as stakeholders in a problem situation. 2. It organizes curriculum around a given holistic problem, enabling students in relevant and connected ways. 3. It creates a learning environment in which teachers coach student thinking and guide student inquiry, facilitating deeper levels of understanding.

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Although Barrows (1985) originally developed problem-based learning for medical school, K–12 educators have also used it as an instructional strategy. For example, Stepien and Gallagher (1993) reported exercises where middle school students tried to solve the “thorium waste problem.” High school seniors tried to find out why 22 residents of a community of 20,000 contracted pneumonia. Stepien and Gallagher also reported how students in a German class received a letter from the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda; the students were gallery directors, and the letter informed them that they must review their art collection and discard degenerate art. Torp and Sage (2002) summarized problem-based learning in elementary, middle, and high schools. In elementary schools, students helped their former principal create a healthy flower garden. Middle school students designed a prairie restoration project and a mass transit system from Chicago to northwest Indiana. High schools students, as members of an Alabama Historical Society, researched a family’s background during the period of the novel they were reading in class, To Kill a Mockingbird. A project in a Greece, New York, school district (2009) also exemplifies problem-based learning. Students wrote a book titled Ever Wonder Why? to raise money needed to purchase an industrial washing machine for orphaned children in Lima, Peru. Relationship of Problem-Based Learning to Service-Learning The problems each class identified in the above examples were not necessarily unmet needs, as in part of the definition of service-learning. Nonetheless, Whitfield is correct that problem-based learning complements servicelearning. For example, a teacher may want to use the questions proposed for goal setting and the strategies proposed for the assessment of learning. These ideas are discussed more fully below. The model for service-learning is the investigation of community needs, preparation, action, critical reflection, demonstration of learning and impacts, and celebration. What is the problem-based learning model? Torp and Sage indicated that the teacher as coach does the following: • • • • • • •

Prepare the learners Meet the problem Identify what we know, what we need to know, and our ideas Define the problem statement Gather and share information Generate possible solutions Determine the best fit of solutions

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• Present the solution (performance assessment) • Debrief the problem As instructional strategies, both service-learning and problem-based learning prepare their students and meet the problem (first two points above). As previously indicated, one difference between the two strategies may be the type of problem (i.e., unmet need for service-learning). Another difference may be in the way the class decides on the problem. As indicated above, in service-learning it is important for the team of students, community members, and school personnel to decide on the problem. The next three points above—Identify, Define, and Gather—are similar to the Define the goals (D) stage as discussed previously. However, Torp and Sage provided explicit questions that a teacher can use when defining the goals of a service-learning project. In identifying, the teacher can ask the following questions: “What do we know? What do we need to know? What ideas do you have about the problem?” In defining the problem, the teacher can say, “How can we . . . in such a way that . . . ?” Teachers who use service-learning also want to think about the best way for their students to share information. The next four points in the problem-based learning model are similar to items in the IDEAL approach. That is, “Generate possible solutions” is similar to “Explore possible strategies” (E), and “Determine the best fit of solutions” is similar to “Anticipate outcomes and act”(A). “Present the solution” and “Debrief the problem” are similar to “Look and learn” (L). What is particularly useful to the teacher using service-learning are Torp and Sage’s strategies for assessment of learning, such as “a presentation that conveys the situation, possible causes, anticipated solution, and potential effects in an organized and articulate manner.” (Torp and Sage 2002, p. 96)

WHAT HAVE STUDENTS LEARNED? If service-learning engages students, what skills have they learned through problem-solving that they can use in other situations? First, they have learned a problem-solving strategy. Second, they have learned how to brainstorm ideas. Third, they have learned how to use consensus to make a decision. Fourth, they have learned much about the issues in their community. Fifth, they are becoming independent learners. Sixth, they have learned to work together as a team. Thus, by problem solving through using service-learning, students have learned to become competent or had their competence enhanced. Similarly,

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they have become confident or had their confidence reinforced. Recall that competence and confidence are two of Lerner’s five Cs for positive youth development. With regard to the skills for success, students have obviously learned problem-solving skills. By learning how to work together as a team, they have learned to work well with others—teamwork skills. Teamwork also fosters interpersonal skills, the ability to relate to others. The brainstorming process probably enhances their verbal communication skills and their flexibility. They are listening to what others say, expressing their opinions, and trying to reach consensus.

WHAT HAVE COMMUNITY MEMBERS LEARNED? Community members may have had their problem-solving skills reinforced or learned new ones. They have also learned that students know how to problem solve effectively. They have observed firsthand students’ level of competence and confidence. Given these characteristics, communities can empower youth to help make the decisions that impact them. For example, suppose a community is deciding whether or not to build a new civic center. Typically a governmental body will convene a task force to make a recommendation on the issue. Young people who have learned to problem solve should be invited to serve on this task force. A model community would include young people in the process.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Review the unmet need you identified in chapter 1. Brainstorm all important unmet needs in your community. Rank them in order of importance. Are some more easily resolved? Explain why they are or are not easily resolved. 2. Select an unmet need identified above and brainstorm all potential strategies to resolve it. Include the advantages and disadvantages of each solution. 3. Design a service-learning project to address the unmet need you identified in question 2. 4. What course objective is the service-learning project addressing? 5. Discuss how you would assess the impact of the service-learning project. 6. Discuss whether or not the service-learning project has sustainability.

Chapter 4 Critical Thinking

Students may be asked: • In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” does the speaker believe that he made the wrong choice in taking the road “less traveled by”? • Analyze the causes for the wetland loss in Louisiana. Explain whether or not you believe that it is a result of coastal zone canal construction. • Evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign speech according to the techniques of persuasion used.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you think how you might answer the three questions, which are from three different content areas, you probably noted that their commonality is they are asking you to think critically in responding to the question. In this chapter a teacher learns how to use service-learning to teach critical thinking. She also learns a definition of critical thinking and then how service-learning can teach students and others on the team to become critical thinkers.

DEFINITION OF CRITICAL THINKING Many writers on critical thinking generally agree that critical thinking is reasoned and has standards. They also generally agree that critical thinking is authentic and reasonable (cf. Nosich 2005). Specifically, people think about why they hold the beliefs that they do (reasoned). Their reasoning is then measured against some criteria (standards). People reason about real issues (authentic), and their thinking is reasonable given the standards that are set.

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CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING The focus of the present chapter is on critical thinking, whereas the previous chapter focused on problem solving. Authors such as Beyer (1995) and Nosich (2005) emphasize that critical thinking is not problem solving. Beyer (1995, p. 8) states that each of these “types of thinking serves a specific purpose.” When solving a problem, someone other than the problem solver presents the problem, and the problem solver has to get to a preferred position (i.e., the goal state). In critical thinking, people generate their own questions and ascertain whether or not these questions meet a standard. Thus, as Nosich (2005) indicates, one of the differences is that in critical thinking people generate their own problems, whereas in problem solving people are presented with the problem. Nosich also indicates a second difference between the two concepts. Specifically, some questions are too large to be classified as problems. For example, in chapter 1 a service-learning project addressed the needs of the elderly. Problem solving might involve determining how to get the seniors to the school for lunch. Critical thinking might involve thinking about why older people might not have much social interaction.

CRITICAL THINKING AND SERVICE-LEARNING In chapter 1 the component parts of a service-learning project were presented. They were: investigating community needs, preparation, action, critical reflection, demonstration of learning and impacts, and celebration. Notice that the word “reflection” is preceded by the adjective “critical.” Clearly reflection involves the use of critical thinking. However, students and others involved in the project should use critical thinking skills throughout the project. A service-learning project, therefore, provides a perfect opportunity for the teacher to reinforce the teaching of critical-thinking skills. As Eyler and Giles (1999, p. 117) state, there is “some tentative support for the proposition that highly reflective service-learning enhances critical thinking skills.” What constitutes good reflection activities? In answering that question, Eyler and Giles offer a framework that includes five characteristics, called the five Cs. They are: connection 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; coaching and providing emotional support to students. These are not the same as Lerner’s five Cs, though it is interesting that they use the same terminology.

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Bringle and Hatcher (1999) answer the question about what constitutes good reflection activities with a second set of guidelines. Good reflection activities should: clearly link the service experience to the course content and learning objectives; have a structure that includes description, expectations, and the criteria for assessing the activity; occur regularly throughout the semester, thereby allowing students to develop the capacity to engage in deeper and broader examination of issues; provide feedback from the instructor so that students learn how to improve their critical analysis and reflective practice; include the opportunity for students to explore, clarify, and alter their personal values. Hatcher, Bringle, and Muthiah (2004) stated that both sets of guidelines emphasize connecting reflection to the course content, providing feedback and coaching, and challenging the clarification of values. A distinctive aspect of Bringle and Hatcher’s guidelines is the structuring of reflection with clear expectations and criteria for assessment. The following sections demonstrate how to use Bringle and Hatcher’s approach using the elements of reasoning (expectations) and standards (criteria for assessment).

ELEMENTS OF REASONING For service-learning to improve students’ critical-thinking skills, a teacher should instruct students in the elements of reasoning, as well as the standards on which she will judge the students’ reflection activities. This section presents the elements of reasoning using the approach of Paul and Nosich (1992). These elements provide a framework for critical thinking in psychology (Whitehead and Smith, 1998). They are equally useful for critical thinking in service-learning because of some similarity in language and utility for teachers. Service-learning begins when a teacher identifies a concept that she wants to teach using service-learning. Concept is one of the eight elements of reasoning. The other seven elements are purpose, central problem, assumptions, point of view, empirical evidence, inferences, and implications and consequences. Note that the word “problem” is also one of the elements, thus tying the elements back to problem solving. If a teacher expects her students to use the elements of reasoning in critical thinking, then she must teach these elements prior to the service-learning project. She also wants to share the elements with community members, but perhaps in a different venue. First, an English teacher learns how to use the elements with Christopher Paul Curtis’s 1999 novel, Bud, Not Buddy. Then in the next section she learns

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how she might use the elements for a service project. A question format between the teacher and students illustrates this process. Teacher: A concept is a general idea, thought, or notion. We want to discuss one of the major concepts in chapter 6, soup kitchen. Can anyone tell me how you would define a soup kitchen? What is it? (Students answer: A soup kitchen is a place poor people get a meal.) Given that the teacher has been using “concept,” she might want to say to the class: What were some of the other concepts in the previous chapters that we discussed? (Students might answer: suitcase; rules.) Teacher: The purpose is the goal or aim of an activity. We want to discuss the purpose of chapter 6. What do you think is the author’s goal of chapter 6? (Students answer: One purpose may be to show how nice some people can be to strangers.) Again, the teacher might want to say to the class: What was the purpose of chapter 5? (Students answer: To tell us why the title of the book is Bud, Not Buddy. Teacher: The central problem is the question the author is addressing. What do you think is the major issue the author is addressing in chapter 6? (Students answer: How will Bud ever get to eat breakfast in the soup kitchen?) What was the central problem of one of the earlier chapters? (Students answer: Bud’s relationship with the Amoses.) Teacher: An assumption is something we take for granted. What are assumptions that you have about Bud, the soup kitchen, or people being nice to strangers? (Students answer: Bud always seems to have a problem; poor people eat in soup kitchens; people usually aren’t nice to strangers.) What is one of the assumptions we discussed in an earlier chapter? (Students answer: Bud assumed that Mr. Amos only pretended to lock the door to the shed.) Teacher: The point of view may be the author’s or reader’s perspective. In chapter 6, from whose point of view is the story being told? Explain your reasoning. (Students answer: Buddy, because he is the one who is telling the story.) To make sure that the students understand the concept “point of view,” the teacher could then say: How might this chapter be different if it were told from the perspective of the natural children or the parents themselves? Teacher: The empirical evidence is derived from observation. In chapter 6, what does Buddy observe about the soup kitchen? (Students answer: the long line; the great big sign hanging over the door.) Again, the teacher might ask: What is the evidence that Buddy has a lot of rules? (Students answer: There’s one in this chapter and several in previous chapters.) Teacher: The inferences are conclusions you make from the empirical evidence. In chapter 6, what conclusions have you reached about soup kitch-

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ens? (Students answer: There were a lot of people who needed food during the Great Depression; soup kitchens had rules.) The teacher might then ask: What is one inference we can make about the family’s natural child in this chapter? Explain your reasoning. (Students answer: He isn’t happy that Bud joined the family for breakfast; he stuck his tongue out at him.) Teacher: The implications and consequences are what follow from a line of reasoning about an argument. In chapter 6, what are the implications of the rules in the soup kitchen? (Students answer: People may not get to it.) What are the implications of that? (Students answer: People will go hungry and maybe starve.)

ELEMENTS OF REASONING AND SERVICE-LEARNING The members of a service-learning team could design a service learning project around Bud, Not Buddy. For example, the teacher could ask: Does this book suggest some unmet need that our team can address in the community? The members of the team may say something about feeding the poor at a shelter. At this point, the teacher can then ask them to use the elements of reasoning for their project. Team members may respond as follows: Member: The concept of our service project is poverty. Member: The purpose of a service-learning project is to help feed poor, hungry people. Member: The central problem is to find a place close to school where we can do this. Member: An assumption is that poor people are different from us. There is something wrong with them. Member: That point of view is mine. That’s what I see on television and what others say.

The teacher may want to have this kind of discussion or writing assignment prior to having her class engage with the team in the service-learning project. During the service project students might want to think critically about empirical evidence, inferences, and implications and consequences. For example, students’ empirical evidence may confirm or contradict their assumptions. Students may come to believe that the poor person is someone just like them. They then have to explain how they made that inference and the implications and consequences of their new point of view. As students reflect critically using the elements of reasoning, they begin to learn more about the content of the course, themselves, and their society.

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STANDARDS The definition of critical thinking referred to assessing a student’s thinking against a set of criteria. Nosich (2005) provides a useful set of criteria. Specifically, a critical-thinking task should be assessed against seven criteria. They are: clearness, accuracy, importance (relevance), sufficiency, depth, breadth, and precision. • Clearness: Students want to make sure that what they write/say/draw/do is understandable to everyone. To ensure this they might want to use examples or analogies. For example, if they are reflecting on poverty, they may want to give an example of a poor person that they served. They could reflect on this in terms of Christian thinking. • Accuracy: Students want to ascertain that their statements are true—that is, they are corroborated. Again, if students are writing about poverty and discuss the prevalence of poverty in their community, they want to make sure the others agree with them. • Importance: Students want to establish that their arguments are related to the issue they are addressing. If students are reflecting on poverty, they want to focus their presentation on issues related to poverty and not get sidetracked on irrelevant issues. • Sufficiency: Students want to demonstrate that they have thought out their arguments completely. If they are arguing about why there needs to be another way to address hunger other than soup kitchens and food banks, they need to have some well-thought-out reasons. It is not sufficient to say it should be so. • Depth: Students want to prove that they understand the complexity of the issue. Poverty has many underlying causes. Students should establish that they understand this complexity. • Breadth: Students want to make sure that they need to look at other aspects of the issue. Many issues besides hunger relate to poverty. For example, they might reflect on other health issues and educational issues. • Precision: Students want to show that they provide sufficient detail. If students are discussing the prevalence of poverty in their community, they may want to provide a number or a percentage.

CRITICAL REFLECTION To this point, the teaching of critical-thinking skills using service-learning was described.

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There are, indeed, other ways to reflect critically on the service project. One such approach is guided integrative reflection (Ash and Clayton, 2004). Students first describe their service experience objectively. They then analyze this experience in terms of academic, personal, and civic perspectives. Each dimension is explained below. With respect to the academic, students identify, describe, analyze, and evaluate course-related concepts in the context of the service-learning project. For example, in the context of the service project related to Bud, Not Buddy, students should reflect on how the service-learning project helped them understand the concept of poverty better, to show that they can apply it. For the personal perspective, students identify, describe, analyze, and evaluate a personal characteristic that the service project has enhanced. For example, they may identify compassion. They should explain the sources of this characteristic and how to improve on it to show that they can analyze this personal characteristic. To reflect in terms of civic action, students should identify the approach they took to solve the problem of feeding the poor with their service-learning project and alternative ways to solve the problem (e.g., plant a community garden). They then apply their understanding of their approach in terms of collective action. Another way to engage in critical reflection is to recognize that servicelearning allows students to hold up a mirror for them to see themselves; provides a microscope for them to examine society; uses binoculars for them to see what lies ahead. This approach also allows students to reflect in terms of academic, personal, and social dimensions. Educators often instruct students to reflect on what surprises them. This is the mirror. Students’ expectations stem from the assumptions they make about people. For example, if a student assumes that all older people are feeble, he is surprised when he attends the Senior Olympics and sees an older person pole vault. Consequently, students examine their values, their stereotype, and their level of empathy. Second, educators often instruct students to describe their experience. Have them explain what they have learned about the agency, the people, or the community. As students think about the empirical evidence (the microscope), they may come to question why there are so many poor and homeless in our society. Third, educators often instruct students to project into the future (the binoculars). What would they do to solve the problem? Does this affect their future actions and beliefs? In this way, educators are asking students to think about the implications and consequences of their service for themselves and their community.

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This chapter has presented several ways for educators to have their students critically reflect on their service project. No research has compared and contrasted the different approaches in terms of their effectiveness. A teacher should select the approach that she believes works best for her team. What is important is that students critically reflect on the service-learning project.

WHAT HAVE STUDENTS LEARNED? What skills have students learned that they can use in other situations? First, they have had critical-thinking skills reinforced on multiple occasions and for diverse content. From this type of repetition they will understand that critical thinking skills generalize. Second, they have begun to learn more about themselves by reflecting on the assumptions they make about other people and organizations. Third, they have learned about a segment of their community previously foreign to them. Fourth, they have begun to think about how they can change their community. They want to make the community a better place for themselves and others. Perhaps they are thinking globally but acting locally. Students may see hunger as a worldwide problem but choose to improve the volunteer efforts at the local food bank and soup kitchen. Teaching young people critical-thinking skills reinforces or teaches three of Lerner’s Cs: competence, confidence, and caring. Reflecting using the elements of reasoning provides young people with the skills to think effectively (competence), to think that their opinion matters (confidence), and to understand other people’s points of view (caring). With regard to skills for success, critical thinking as outlined here fosters communication and analytical skills. Students are reflecting through speaking and writing. They are also analyzing what they have done in the context of their course, themselves, and their community.

WHAT HAVE COMMUNITY MEMBERS LEARNED? Community members may have had their critical-thinking skills enhanced. They have also learned that students can think critically. They observed students’ level of competence, confidence, and caring. Given these characteristics, a community is more likely to embrace a student’s ideas and opinions because they result from critical thinking about an issue. For example, suppose a community is deciding about the location of a playground. Young people who have learned to think and reflect critically should be invited to

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be a part of the decision-making process. A model community would include young people in the process.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Create three critical-reflection questions for the service-learning project you created in chapter 3. 2. Use the standards presented in the chapter to evaluate the servicelearning project you created in chapter 3. 3. As you review your answer to question 2, remove all of the assumptions made about the unmet need. How does that change the service-learning project? 4. Discuss the unmet need from the point of view of people who are in need. How does that change the service-learning project? 5. Discuss whether or not there are multiple service-learning projects that could address this unmet need and course objectives. 6. What dynamic change will occur in your community if this unmet need is resolved? What will be the change?

Chapter 5 Creativity and Creative Thinking

Students may be asked to: • Draw a picture of the common good. • Design a contraption to catch an egg dropped from the roof of a building without breaking the egg. • Write a poem on how you feel when you serve others.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you think about the three different assignments drawn from three different content areas, you probably noted that their commonality is they are asking you to create something new. In this chapter a teacher learns how servicelearning can be used to teach creative thinking. She also learns definitions for the terms creativity and creative thinking, and how service-learning can be used to teach a student to be creative.

CREATIVITY DEFINED Csikszentmihalyi (1996, p. 28) offers the following definition of creativity: “Creativity is any set, idea, or product that changes or transforms an existing domain into a new one.” Indeed, most researchers agree that creativity has two separate components: originality and utility (cf. Simonton, 1999; Sternberg and Lubart, 1999). Originality means new or novel. Thus cubism was a new style of painting in the early 1900s. Social networking on the Internet (e.g., MySpace, Facebook) is a new way of interacting in the 21st century. Each of these also had or has high utility. Cubism led to an innovative way of creating images, and tens of millions of members use social networks. A Rube Goldberg device, on the other hand, is original but not very useful. 47

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Some researchers (cf. Amabile, 1983) add another component to the definition of creativity that the task must be heuristic and not algorithmic. An algorithm is a mathematical rule for solving a problem, whereas a heuristic is a simple principle used to formulate a judgment. For example, to find the area of a rectangle a student used the following algorithm: multiply the height of the rectangle by the width of the rectangle. There is, however, no algorithm to solve the nine-dot problem. A person is given a set of nine dots in the form of a square. The person is then told to connect the dots using only four straight lines; to touch a dot only once; to work alone and then with others. To solve this problem, the person needs to “think outside the box” and use a heuristic. Other researchers differentiate among types of creativity. For example, Boden (2004) offers three: unfamiliar combination of familiar ideas, exploration, and transformation. The original creation of symbolizing the Democratic Party with a donkey and the Republican Party with an elephant illustrates unfamiliar combination of familiar ideas. With exploration, people explore domains that already exist in their minds: Adding new features to MySpace or Facebook exemplifies what Boden means by exploration. With transformation, people “transform” the domain, much as the cubist did to painting.

CREATIVE THINKING DEFINED Many writers have provided definitions of creative thinking, but they generally agree that creative thinking is the process that we use to make new and useful products. The process includes combining ideas in new ways using heuristics and analogies. A heuristic is a principle that contributes to solving the problem more quickly, such as making the familiar strange. Gordon and Poze (1973) illustrate this heuristic with the example of William Harvey’s discovery. At the time, the heart was thought of in terms of the ebb and flow of tides (the familiar), but then Harvey looked at the heart in terms of a pump (the strange). People use an analogy when something is likened to something else. Boden (2004) illustrates an analogy with the example of Friedrich August Kekulé’s discovery. Kekulé envisioned the structure of the benzene molecule by relating it to a snake biting its tail.

CREATIVITY VERSUS PROBLEM SOLVING As Nickerson (1999) asserts, some people argue that creativity and problem solving are similar. However, Nickerson also highlights an important differ-

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ence. Some problems can be solved creatively, whereas other problems have an algorithm that allows them to be solved. This is the difference discussed previously between a task that requires a heuristic solution and a task that requires an algorithmic solution. Problem solving includes both; creativity refers to problems that are solved, in part, through the use of heuristics and analogies.

CREATIVE THINKING VERSUS CRITICAL THINKING Paul (1993) and Nickerson (1999) assert that some writers argue that creative and critical-thinking are opposites, because critical thinking is more focused, directed, logical, and constrained. However, Paul (1993) believes that the two concepts are intimately related. Specifically, Paul believes that people use creative thinking when they reason, but that people use critical thinking when they assess or evaluate the reasoning using the criteria presented in chapter 3. On the other, hand, Nickerson (1999) argues that they are independent of one another. Regardless of the relationship between the two, it is clear that creative and critical thinking have different purposes: creative thinking is for making, and critical thinking is for evaluating.

UNDERSTANDING CREATIVITY There are a plethora of approaches to understanding creativity. Sternberg and Lubart (1999) list eight approaches. In this section, two examples of the confluence approach are presented. Each provides a framework that is useful for thinking about creative thinking and service-learning. Again, there is some similarity of language with service-learning and utility for teachers. Sternberg and Lubart’s (1996) investment model is one example of the confluence or multidimensional model, because it includes six interrelated resources that must converge. These are: intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation, and environment. The theory is named an investment theory because a creative person “pursues ideas that are unknown or out of favor but that have growth potential” (Sternberg and Lubart, 1996, p. 683). The creative person presents the finished product when it is highly valued and moves on to another unknown or out-of-favor idea that has growth potential. Definitions of the six interrelated resources and their relationship to creativity are presented below: • Intellectual abilities: These include analytic, synthetic, and practicalcontext abilities. The creative person has the ability to recognize the

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feasibility of pursuing various solutions to the problem (analytic ability), to see problems in new ways (synthetic ability), and to persuade others about the value of the solution (practical-context ability). Intellectual abilities should be positively related to creative performance. Knowledge: If someone doesn’t know the field, he or she cannot advance it. Knowledge should relate positively to creative performance. Intellectual styles: These are conceptualized as governmental in function (i.e., legislative, executive, and judicial), form (monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic), level (global and local), scope (internal and external) and leaning (conservative and liberal). The legislative, liberal, and global styles should be positively related to creative performance, whereas executive, conservative, and monarchic styles should be negatively related to creative performance. Personality: This resource includes five attributes: tolerance of ambiguity, perseverance, a willingness to grow, willingness to take risks, and valuing one’s work. Personality should relate positively to creative performance. Motivation: This resource includes both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Moderate levels of both should facilitate creativity. Environment: The environment must be conducive to fostering creativity. In studies comparing creative and noncreative environments, the former have been characterized as having more openness, generosity, sense of community, and shared commitment to a goal (Smith and Carlsson, 2006).

Lubart and Sternberg (1995) tested this model with the exception of the environment. Their results supported the model but suggested some revisions. For example, intellectual abilities, knowledge, and personality were each positively related to creative performance. Moderate levels of motivation also were related to creative performance. With regard to intellectual styles, executive and conservative styles were negatively correlated with creative performance; liberal and local styles were positively related to creative performance, though the findings were not statistically significant; legislative and global styles did not relate to creative performance. Amabile’s (1983) model is another example of the confluence approach. Specifically, she proposes that three intra-individual components are necessary for creativity. These are domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant processes, and intrinsic task motivation. • Domain-relevant skills: This resource includes factual knowledge, technical skills, and special talents in the domain in question (e.g., English, mathematics, or social studies)

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• Creativity-relevant skills: These include the ability to break a mental set during problem solving (creative style); possessing a general rule to break a mental set during problem solving (knowledge of heuristics); having a style conducive to creative production, such as an ability to concentrate effort and attention for long periods of time (work style). • Intrinsic task motivation: Intrinsic properties of the task (e.g., interesting, involving, satisfying, challenging) motivate people, whereas external factors (e.g., rewards or winning a competition) do not. Originally Amabile (1983) proposed that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity, whereas extrinsic motivation is harmful. Subsequently she divided extrinsic motivation into controlling and informational (Collins and Amabile, 1999). The former is incompatible with intrinsic motivation, whereas the latter may combine additively with intrinsic motivation because it is designed to enable a person to complete the task better. As Florida (2002, p. 87) asserts: “Motivating creative people has always required more than money. It depends on intrinsic rewards and is tied to the very creative content of their work.” Debate about this theory focuses in part on whether or not creativity is content-specific. For example, Baer (1998) argued for domain specificity. That is, creative thinking is specific to a content area, such as poetry or math puzzles. On the other hand, Plucker (1998) argued for content generality. That is, creative thinking cuts across specific content areas, such as poetry or math. With regard to this issue, it is noteworthy that Lubart and Sternberg (1995) found positive correlations across the measures of creative performance they assessed. Thus educators can teach creative-thinking strategies by creating an environment that fosters creativity using service-learning. Students will be able to take their creative-thinking skills beyond the service-learning project to community decision making.

SERVICE-LEARNING AND THE CONFLUENCE MODELS OF CREATIVITY As you reflect on the two examples of the confluence models of creativity, you might ask: What are the variables that a teacher and other team members can impact in the classroom with a service-learning project? The teacher and team probably cannot affect a student’s intellectual style or personality. The teacher may be able to affect a student’s intellectual abilities, knowledge, motivation, and environment. Each of these variables is now examined.

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• Environment. Certainly the teacher can set an environment that fosters creativity. Recall in chapter 2 where brainstorming was discussed. Important in brainstorming is that students express their ideas without criticism. Creativity also comes from people working in small groups that emphasize exploration and discovery (Brown and Duguid, 2000). Other strategies that a teacher might use to set the right environment for creativity are presented below. • Knowledge: Recall that service-learning is designed to teach a concept that is part of the curriculum. Certainly the teacher and other team members can provide and students can find knowledge about the unmet need they are addressing with the service project. As Weisberg (1999, pp. 248–49) argues, “the reason that one person produced some innovation, while another person did not, may be due to nothing more than the fact that the former knew something the latter did not.” It should be noted that sometimes knowledge can constrain creativity, as is the case with mental sets—that is, the tendency to stick with a familiar method of solving a particular type of problem. This issue will be discussed in greater detail in the “Can Everyone Be Creative?” section below. • Motivation: To create intrinsic motivation, the teacher should let the team choose the service-learning project. This allows team members to do something that they love. Recall that in the definition of servicelearning, teachers are encouraged to let students select the project. To reduce controlling extrinsic motivation, teachers should downplay evaluation and competition. As Collins and Amabile (1999) suggest, teachers might talk about grades less or emphasize that evaluation helps build stronger skills. Performance feedback should be informational and confirm the student’s confidence. • Intellectual abilities: Recall that these include analytic, synthetic, and practical-context ability. Brainstorming clearly informs students that there are various solutions to a problem (analytic ability). Analogies and heuristics (to be described below) are ways that provide students with the opportunity to see problems in new ways (synthetic ability), and principles of persuasion (to be discussed in chapter 11) foster students’ ability to persuade (practical-context ability).

ANALOGIES As previously argued, analogies are one way to provide students with the opportunity to see problems in new ways. Synectics teaches students to use

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analogies. As developed by Gordon (1961), Synectics includes two basic principles: making the familiar strange, and making the strange familiar. The former principle is a heuristic for creativity, whereas the latter is a principle for learning new information. For example, Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees” makes a poem (familiar) strange by comparing it to the loveliness of a tree. On the other hand, to learn a new concept, such as the effects of drugs on the brain (strange), the teacher or student might relate it to an egg frying in a pan (familiar). A popular drug advertisement used this technique. Three techniques for making the familiar strange are direct analogy, personal analogy, and compressed conflict (Gordon and Poze, 1973). A direct analogy is a simple comparison of two concepts or objects, such as the brain is like a computer. The two concepts are brain and computer. A personal analogy is a description of how it feels to identify with a person, concept, plant, animal, or nonliving thing. For example, a teacher might ask: “How does it feel to be the eggshell from which the baby chick just hatched?” Compressed conflict is a poetic, two-word description of a high level of generality where the two words don’t fit together, such as “cold, fire.” These two words may have come from the class describing a baseball game. They are playing on a diamond, and sometimes the players can play hot or cold. Another way to teach analogies is the technique of “I Like It Like That” (VanGundy, 1995, pp. 215–18). This approach has three steps: 1. Think of the major principle underlying the problem and use it to generate a list of things similar to the problem. To help generate this list say, “This problem is like . . .” 2. Select one of the analogies and describe it in detail. Elaborate as much as possible, listing parts, functions, or uses. Be sure to include many action-oriented phrases. If possible select an analogy that is controversial or out of the ordinary. 3. Review each description and use it to stimulate ideas. An example of a service-learning project below will illustrate this approach. The reader who is interested in learning other ways to teach analogies should know that VanGundy (1995) suggests three other ways to teach analogies: Bionic Ideas, Chain Alike, and What Is It?

ANALOGIES AND SERVICE-LEARNING Synectics works with service-learning in at least two ways: designing the service-learning activity, and designing the reflection activities. Two examples illustrate this idea, the first with the elderly, and the second with the poor.

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First, assume that the unmet need the English class and other team members want to address is the loneliness of the elderly. The team might typically perceive the elderly as needing assistance. Perhaps using a direct analogy, a student begins to compare an older person with an owl; other members compare an older person with an encyclopedia; still others compare the elderly to Wikipedia. Consequently, the team now perceives the elderly as a resource that can help them. As a result of their service project, the team creates a job fair and has some older people talk about their careers. Or a history class using the same process decides that they will invite some older people to come in and talk about their experiences during the Vietnam War. Perhaps using personal analogy, the teacher asks the class: “How does it feel to be someone who used to dance and now can’t?” For this discussion the team decides that for their service project they will lead elderly people in movement exercises that they can do. After a discussion of elderly people, perhaps the team has a compressed conflict that describes the elderly as independent and needy. The elderly are less likely to conform to group norms (independent) but cannot do everything they used to do (needy). Consequently, the team designs a service-learning project to address some of the needs of the elderly people. Perhaps the team decides to rake their lawns if they still live at home and have physical needs, or read to them if they are visually challenged. Second, assume that the unmet need the team is addressing is feeding the poor. Team members may initially associate poverty with dirty and other negative terms. A student may then say something such as “poor in wealth but rich in spirit.” As a result the team decides to have a service project where they help out at a soup kitchen but also use the opportunity to have the poor people relate their oral history or sing if they can. The teacher could also ask: “How does it feel to be an empty stomach?” Team members might relate an empty stomach to an empty cement mixer, really showing that they understand the poor’s need for food. Perhaps they would then design a service project where they collect food weekly to help feed the poor. As a result of the discussion team members have about poverty, they may have the opposing words “rags” and “hopeful.” The poor may not have nice clothes to wear (rags), but they are hopeful about getting out of poverty. Therefore the team decides on a service project where they collect clothes so that the poor person can have “nice” clothes for job interviews. In terms of reflection activities for both the elderly and poverty examples, the teacher could have team members think of other analogies and compressed conflicts and other potential service projects.

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A teacher who wants to use “I Like It Like That” might use this strategy to help decide on a service-learning project to feed the poor: 1. The teacher would say, “This problem is like . . .” Team members might generate the following answers: • Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor • Mother Nature providing wild fruits and vegetables • Giving gifts to others for holidays and birthdays • Stopping to help someone start their car • Feeding pigeons in the park • Saving someone drowning in the ocean • Having a handicap in golf • Reading to a child 2. The teacher and the team then select Mother Nature providing wild fruits and vegetables and elaborate on it. • Deciding where to find the wild fruits and vegetables • Learning what is and is not edible • Determining who is going to gather the fruits and vegetables • Deciding how to store the produce • Sharing the bounty • Warding off predators 3. Finally, the teacher makes use of elaborations to suggest ideas for the service project of providing food to the poor through a community garden. • Deciding where to plant a community garden • Obtaining information about what seeds to plant • Determining who is going to cultivate the garden and harvest the produce • Deciding how the produce will be distributed • Sharing recipes for utilizing the produce • Ensuring people don’t steal the produce A community garden may have additional benefits. Pollan (2008) points out that a community garden may reduce a community’s carbon footprint because the food is local. People would also get more exercise, perhaps reducing obesity. A community garden could also be a service-learning project for a history lesson exploring what Americans did during World War II. One of the ways Americans supported the war effort was to create Victory Gardens. Furthermore, community gardens may assist in the teaching of geometry because students could divide the land into plots of various sizes.

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HEURISTICS Creative thinking also involves the use of heuristics—that is, principles that aid in solving a creative problem. The principle of making the familiar strange was discussed at length. But there are other heuristics. For example, Newell, Shaw, and Simon (1962) discuss ways to reduce the number of possible solutions to problems. Two of these are simple selection and unconventionality. With simple selection, people use some rule to reduce many possible solutions to a few solutions. With unconventionality, people select the solution selected least often. How an educator can utilize these in a service-learning project is demonstrated below. Tversky and Kahneman (1973) enumerate a number of other heuristics, such as the availability heuristic. That is, a person perceives the truth based on the most available information. This heuristic will be discussed more fully in chapter 7. HEURISTICS AND SERVICE-LEARNING How do you use heuristics to facilitate a service-learning project? With simple selection, team members, while brainstorming, may reduce the number of possibilities by focusing only on ones that they can do effectively in their community or that are of low cost. The unconventionality rule suggests that the team selects the service-learning project that may have been mentioned least often. For example, because everyone helps out at a soup kitchen when feeding the poor, the team decides to invite the poor to eat lunch with them at school or plant a community garden. Parts Is Parts is also a strategy using heuristics (VanGundy, 1995, pp. 140–43). The heuristic for this strategy is that most ideas can be described by two-word combinations. Team members list the groups they want to help: children, poor, elderly, and homeless, and then list activities they can engage in: feed, visit, invite, and mentor. From this matrix they can choose the most interesting one (Table 5.1). Specifically, they eliminate all the combinations that are presently occurring in their community and select a combination that is not happening, perhaps mentoring the poor. They then plan a service project around that combination. OTHER STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE CREATIVE THINKING People’s assumptions influence the way they generate ideas to solve problems. “Law Breaker” is one way to help young people break these assumptions (VanGundy, 1995, pp. 198–200). The three steps to Law Breaker are:

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Table 5.1 Example of Parts Is Parts

Children Poor Elderly Homeless

Feed

Visit

Invite

Mentor

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16

1. List all possible assumptions about your problem. 2. Break each assumption. Specifically, ask why the assumption is made about a particular aspect of a problem. 3. Use broken assumptions to stimulate new ideas. Suppose the service-project the team is interested in is the creation of a community center for young people. They list all the assumptions that the community makes about young people: • Youth have and cause problems. • Youth already have a place to hang out—the mall. • Community members won’t listen to youth. What do young people know? • Youth are unable to raise money for a community center and will need local government support. • Youth do not have the skills to design a community center. They then break the assumptions as follows: • Youth are assets. • Community members will listen to the youth position if it is well argued. • Youth need a place to hang out. • Youth can raise funds (e.g., car washes, athletic events). • Youth know how to be creative in problem solving.

CAN EVERYONE BE CREATIVE? As you reflect on a teacher’s role in enhancing creativity, you might ask, don’t geniuses have some special ability or talent? Can a teacher and team members really enhance creative thinking?

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Perkins’s (1981) theory of creative systems provides an answer to this question. This theory is another example of a confluence model, because it posits that creativity is made up of many factors. Specifically, Perkins (1981, p. 274) argues that “the extraordinary, if not specifically creative abilities involved in extraordinary creating are not different in kind. They can be understood as exceptional versions of familiar mental operations such as remembering, understanding, and recognizing. They are more of the same.” Psychological processes, therefore, do not define creativity. Rather, for Perkins (2000) creativity is a topographical challenge. The creative process is a search through space of possibilities. To illustrate this idea, Perkins uses the analogy of Klondike space, where someone is searching for gold. In this analogy, gold is the creative idea. With respect to service-learning, gold is the creative service-learning project. In Klondike space, there are four challenges: 1. The wilderness problem. Suitable solutions occur sparsely scattered in a large space of inadequate solutions. With regard to service-learning projects, there are new and innovative projects to serve the poor, the homeless, and the elderly. 2. The plateau problem. In large regions, there is no clear gradient of promise. With regard to service-learning projects, no new and innovative projects come to mind. 3. The canyon problem. Search proceeds within limiting and often unrecognized boundaries, with suitable resolutions in another part of the possibility space altogether. With a service-learning project focused on feeding the poor, perhaps all that students can think of is giving them food in various ways. 4. The oasis problem. It is hard to abandon the neighborhood of a promising solution even when the partial solution resists refinement. Students designing a service-learning project to feed the poor may think that they need to provide food so that the poor can take it home to prepare and cook for themselves, or serve it in soup kitchens. Perkins provides a strategy to address each challenge. 1. Roving is the strategy to solve the wilderness problem. Roving is exploring possibilities widely, as may occur with brainstorming (see chapter 3). 2. Detecting is the strategy to solve the plateau problem. Detecting is looking harder for clues pointing in a particular direction. The strategies discussed under analogies and heuristics may help students in detecting a creative service-learning project.

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3. Reframing is the strategy to solve the canyon problem. Reframing is examining the assumptions and perspectives that are brought to the problem. Law Breaker will help students reframe. 4. Decentering is the strategy to solve the oasis problem. Decentering is moving away from approaches that are not working, as in a mental set. Perkins suggests that to decenter it is necessary to notice the fixation, deliberately set aside the solution, and look elsewhere for a while. Boden (2004) provides yet another answer to the question of who can be creative. She asserts that what makes the difference between an outstandingly creative person and a less creative one is not any special power, but greater knowledge (in the form of practiced expertise) and the motivation to acquire and use it.

EUREKA! VERSUS PERSISTENCE People often believe that creativity comes in flashes of brilliance—Eureka! As Perkins and other assert, invention is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. For example, Perkins (2000, p. 193) states: “Solutions are hard to get to, lost in a wilderness of possibilities, amid cluelessness plateaus, hidden beyond entrapping canyons, and temporary oases. However, once the problem solver is close, he/she encounters a small homing device inside the Klondike space that leads quickly to the solution.”

DARWIN AND CREATIVITY Psychologists who study creativity often cite Charles Darwin as an exemplar of the creative person. Several psychologists also use Darwin’s theory of evolution to explain creativity. Campbell (1960), for example, proposed a model for creative thought that he named blind variation and selective retention. From his perspective, creativity is based on three evolutionary principles. They are: • A mechanism for inducing variation • A consistent selection process • A mechanism for transmitting the selected variation In terms of creativity, then, variation is someone’s creative contribution; selection is the contribution to the field; transmission is the contribution of the creative contribution across time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999). Simonton’s

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(1999) review of Campbell’s model concludes that it has not been shown to be implausible. What implications does the model have for creativity and servicelearning? First, it suggests that creativity results from a purposive trial-anderror process. Second, heuristics can also be applied on a trial-and-error basis. Third, this approach suggests that creative thinking goes beyond the bounds of knowledge, and thus the relationship between creativity and knowledge is curvilinear. In his review of the literature on the relationship between knowledge and creativity, Weisberg (1999) finds a positive linear relationship and not a curvilinear relationship.

WHY ARE CREATIVE THINKING AND CREATIVITY IMPORTANT? Richard Florida’s book The Rise of the Creative Class offers an answer to the question. As he analyzes the change in our society over the last fifty years, he argues that the driving force for the change is creativity. He argues that our society has moved from one where the norms were homogeneity, conformity, and fitting in (the organizational age) to one where the norms are individuality, self-expression, and openness to difference (the creative age). As a result our society has created a new class of people, which Florida names the creative class. Their distinguishing characteristic is that they engage in work whose function is to create meaningful new forms. Furthermore, Florida (2002, p. 223) asserts that “Regional and economic growth is driven by the location choices of creative people—the holders of creative capital—who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant, and open to new ideas.” In short, creativity is fundamental to economic growth. Ward, Smith, and Vaid (1997, p. 3) make a similar argument. “Creativity is, after all, the engine that drives human progress. When applied effectively, creative thinking can better the human condition through miraculous advances in science, medicine, and technology; enrich our lives through exquisite works of art, music, and literature, and help us solve personal, corporate, and societal problems.” If creativity is becoming increasingly important in our society, then Lesch (2008) argues that we need to teach students a new set of skills so they will be successful. As this book has shown, service-learning is a way to do that.

WHAT HAVE STUDENTS LEARNED? What skills have students learned that they can use in other situations? First, they have learned techniques to foster creativity that can be used in other situ-

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ations. Second, they have learned that they can create something “new,” or at least new to them. Third, they have utilized their critical-thinking skills in another context. Fourth, they have learned the value of persistence. Teaching young people creative-thinking skills reinforces or teaches two of Lerner’s Cs: confidence and character. Creating something that is evaluated to be new and worthwhile builds confidence and persistence and helps build character. With regard to skills for success, creative thinking fosters communication skills and flexibility/adaptability. Students speak and write as they think about new ways to problem solve. In this process they are learning to “think outside the box,” which enhances flexibility/adaptability.

WHAT HAVE COMMUNITY MEMBERS LEARNED? Community members may have also had their creative-thinking skills enhanced. They have also learned that students can think creatively. They have observed students’ level of confidence and character. A community that judges young people’s service-learning project as creative endorses young people. A community that is trying to decide on the plans for the specifications of a new middle school probably needs creative thinkers on the committee. A model community would include young people in the process.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Explain whether or not your service-learning project involves the recipient being empowered in the process. 2. Research communities of similar size that have the same or a similar unmet need. What are their current initiatives to meet this community need? 3. Review the service-learning project you created in chapter 3. Using one or more of the strategies discussed in this chapter, explain whether or not there is another innovative approach to resolving this problem. 4. Discuss whether or not there is a way to expand your service-learning project to reach more unmet needs. What would this project look like? 5. Discuss any problems you have had in finding an answer to questions 3 and 4 in terms of Perkins’s ideas about creativity. 6. How would you use one of the confluence models of creativity to create a service-learning project?

Chapter 6 Communities for Youth

Please read and reflect on the following three statements: Good Communities have the essentials . . . to engage youth. Great Communities have the leadership . . . to mentor youth. Model Communities have the attitude . . . to mobilize youth.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER The first section of the book discussed higher-order thinking skills, their connection to service learning, and how they can be utilized for school reform. Chapters 6 through 10 focus on community efforts to engage, mentor, and mobilize youth while employing service-learning. The goal of each community is to shift its attitude and work toward becoming a model community. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the concept of model community. It is evident that a school’s curriculum could ignite into action a body of students who want to play a role in their community. Likewise, successful service-learning projects that integrate community into the process expose policy makers to passionate youth and empowerment opportunities. Servicelearning unifies the youth and community leaders (adults) behind a common thread, community change. In the next chapters, you learn how youth utilize these higher-order thinking skills and adult leaders mobilize their youth to advance a youth initiative in their community. For argument’s sake, a community is a town/city represented by a democratic governing body and having neighborhoods and a public school system with grades K–12 (see figure 3.1). When considering the composition of a community, the youth population is central. Taking into consideration their wants and needs is a must to have a thriving community. Communities are increasingly becoming aware that their youth need to have an active voice. The degree to which youth are involved 63

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in decision making, planning, and implementation of policies differs from location to location. The national initiatives and organizational efforts that led to the creation of Model Communities are reviewed first. Then, in the next chapter, examples of communities that have switched their attitude and are working to become model communities for their youth are discussed. Comparisons to your community initiatives can be made.

NATIONAL INITIATIVES In the past fifteen years two national programs have been making great efforts to recognize youth needs and establish strategic plans to improve the quality of life for young people across America. America’s Promise Alliance was founded in 1997 by General Colin Powell. Led by Peter Benson, Search Institute launched its “Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth” initiative in 1995. America’s Promise Alliance Since its inception, America’s Promise Alliance targeted at-risk youth with its goal to make five promises: (1) caring adults, (2) safe places, (3) healthy start, (4) effective education, and (5) opportunity to help others. The thought is that if children receive the five promises, they will be more successful and lead healthier and more productive lives. The mission statement reads, “The America’s Promise Alliance is the nation’s largest multi-sector collaborative dedicated to the well-being of children and youth. Our Alliance partners dedicate themselves to working together for the success of our young people, using the Five Promises framework to shape their efforts and improve the odds for youth” (America’s Promise Alliance, 2009). Search Institute “Search Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge, and resources to promote healthy children, youth, and communities. To accomplish this mission, the institute generates and communicates new knowledge, and brings together community, state, and national leaders. At the heart of the institute’s work is the framework of 40 Developmental Assets, which are positive experiences and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy, caring, and responsible” (Search Institute, 2009a).

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With the efforts of both organizations over the past few years, communities are changing the lives of their youth. America’s Promise Alliance established a system of national recognition in which communities can become one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People.” Communities apply for this prestigious accolade, and only a small percentage of them are selected each year. Chapter 9 highlights some of the programs that contribute to communities being selected as one of the 100 Best Communities. Likewise, Search Institute hosts an annual conference, “Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth,” and invites community leaders to come and learn from organizations that are leading the charge in youth initiatives. Again, chapter 9 highlights some of these organizations and communities that are improving young lives by implementing the 40 Developmental Assets. Further, this book compares service-learning opportunities to these programs and explores how a community can achieve more success by melding the two. It also explains how the roots of some initiatives are planted in the soil of service-learning projects. These initiatives mature and grow as service-learning opportunities increase in classrooms.

ORGANIZATION EFFORTS For a long time national organizations have been formed to improve the lives of youth. These organizations were founded on principles that would not only serve youth, but turn them into stewards of service. Across the country, communities of all sizes started local chapters or branches of these organizations to provide opportunities for their youth to succeed. Over the course of time more national programs have come into existence; however, a few still stand out. Examples of a few of these remarkable programs are Scouts, 4-H, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Salvation Army, YMCA, and service clubs. Scouts Scouting, as known to millions of youth and adults, evolved during the early 1900s through the efforts of several men dedicated to bettering youth. The pioneers of the program conceived outdoor activities that developed skills in young boys and gave them a sense of enjoyment, fellowship, and a code of conduct for everyday living. Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is a program of fun outdoor activities, peer group leadership opportunities, and a personal exploration of career, hobby, and special interests, all designed to achieve the BSA’s objectives of strengthening character, personal fitness, and

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good citizenship. Boy Scout program membership as of December 31, 2005, was 943,426 Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts (Boy Scouts of America, 2009). Girl Scouts of the USA is the world’s preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls—all girls—where, in an accepting and nurturing environment, girls build character and skills for success in the real world. Today, there are 3.7 million Girl Scouts—2.7 million girl members and 928,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers (Girl Scouts, 2009). 4-H The 4-H organization is a community of young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills. The four Hs stand for heart, health, hands, and head. The National 4-H Council Mission is to advance the 4-H youth development movement to build a world in which youth and adults learn, grow, and work together as catalysts for positive change. (4-H, 2009). Big Brothers Big Sisters Big Brothers Big Sisters is the oldest, largest, and most effective youth mentoring organization in the United States. This organization has been the leader in one-to-one youth service for more than a century, developing positive relationships that have a direct and lasting impact on the lives of young people. The Big Brothers Big Sisters mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors who have a measurable impact on youth (Big Brothers Big Sisters, 2009). Salvation Army and YMCA Neither of these programs started off as youth-based initiatives. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) originated in London on June 6, 1844, in response to unhealthy social conditions arising in the big cities at the end of the industrial revolution (roughly 1750 to 1850). William Booth began the Salvation Army in July 1865 by preaching to a small congregation in the slums of London. Booth gave these people’s lives direction in both a spiritual and practical manner and put them to work to save others like themselves. Each organization began as a ministry for an underserved population. Yet over years of progress, each has made youth development, service, and recreation a priority in its organization’s mission. From cities to suburbs to small towns, YMCAs serve America’s children, families, and communities

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by “building healthy spirit, mind and body for all.” Statistics from 2006 show the YMCA served over 9.4 million youth under eighteen (YMCA, 2009). Likewise, the Salvation Army serves millions of youth across America through sports programs, after-school programs, mentorship opportunities, and leadership development (Salvation Army, 2009). Service Clubs Major contributors of sponsorship and sources of caring adults come from the national service clubs—Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions, Optimist, Elks, Moose Lodge, VFW, Knights of Columbus, and American Legion are examples. Several of these service clubs were born after World War II as a fellowship for ex-military personnel.

COMMUNITY EFFORTS From these initiatives it is evident that a strong national effort exists to improve the lives of youth. On a local level there are also programs, activities, and organizations geared to youth success. On a basic level these community elements include, but are not limited to, schools, recreation facilities, youth sports teams and leagues, and religious organizations. A majority of communities meet the basic needs of many youth through the aforementioned programs. However, if this is where communities stopped, they would neglect the needs of many young people. By expanding resources and opportunities for youth, communities become asset-rich. Good Communities Have the Essentials to Engage Youth Youth engagement is the initial stage that communities take to improve the quality of life for their young people. More than the basics—schools, churches, and parks and recreation—communities develop programs that meet the needs of youth. After-school programs, dance studios, Little League baseball, and theater clubs are just a few of these activities that engage youth and provide them with at least two of five Promises (caring adults and safe places) and several of the Developmental Assets. The primary focus of these programs is to keep youth involved in programming that can teach them life lessons, teamwork, skill development, and social interaction. However, these are not to be confused with the basics, because these activities are not typically funded by government and are not all present in all communities.

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Great Communities Have the Leadership to Mentor Youth A Chinese proverb says, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” The same holds true with the development of youth. Leadership opportunities and mentoring programs enable youth to learn how to take care of themselves. They can now step outside of the protection of the “safe places” discussed above and have the confidence and knowledge to make good decisions on their own. Statistics from Big Brothers Big Sisters point out that their mentored youth are 52 percent less likely to skip school and 46 percent less likely to use illegal drugs when compared to their at-risk youth counterpart (Big Brothers Big Sisters, 2009). When exposed to role models and steered toward healthy choices, youth succeed. Notice how both America’s Promise Alliance and Search Institute reinforce the importance of mentorship through the caring-adult promise and “support” category of the 40 Developmental Assets. When a community builds a strong network of individuals dedicated to leading by example, a strong march toward positive youth development follows behind. Before moving forward, understand that mentors do not necessarily have to be adults. High school youth helping elementary school children, or upperclassmen guiding freshman is just as effective. This peer mentoring can be crucial to the process of youth development because it provides a sense of familiarity and relevance. With some issues, youth turn to their peers for advice well before turning to a parent, guidance counselor, or other adult. The benefits of peer mentoring do not end here. In these scenarios the young mentor develops leadership skills, increases self-esteem, and most importantly acts as a role model for his or her peers. With peer mentoring, a wave of positive peer pressure can sweep through a student body or neighborhood. Model Communities Have the Attitude to Mobilize Youth For a community to become a model community, the attitudes of the community members must undergo a paradigm shift. Paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his influential 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to describe a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. Since the publication of the book, the idea of paradigm shift has appeared in discussions about several other realms of human experience, such as psychology (Barber, 1976), and was revisited by Kuhn in the first chapter of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 3rd Edition (Kuhn, 1996). Traditionally adults have decided “what is best” for their children. In some progressive communities, this thought process is shifting to include youth in

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the decision-making process more readily and focusing on their needs. In the next chapter this discussion continues and expands to explain how certain components of service-learning aid in the paradigm shift. For now, concentrate on the Model Community Diagram and dissect the pieces of figure 6.1.

MODEL COMMUNITY DIAGRAM Figure 6.1 highlights the different dimensions of a model community for youth. This diagram looks complicated but is easy to understand once you grasp all of its components. The best way to describe the model is to break it down. In the next section we simplify the Model Community Diagram by examining its parts (see figure 6.2). Cross Sections versus Cornerstones The cross sections represent programs and initiatives exemplified in the “good” and “great” communities. The cornerstones represent the four types of initiatives that truly distinguish communities. These cornerstones—empower, endorse, embrace, and enrich—bring communities closer to being model communities. Chapter 9 highlights communities that received national recognition and awards for their efforts with programs that fall into one of these four cornerstones. Service-Learning The square in the center of the diagram represents service learning. Service-Learning is at the center of a model community. As described in the first half of this book, service-learning creates a body of youth assets and

Figure 6.1. Dimensions of Model Community

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Figure 6.2. Cross Sections and Cornerstones of Model Communities

focuses community leaders on these young people. In order for a community to become a model community, young people need to move forward, and a community must be ready for change. The combination of both starts the glorious revolution for youth and communities. Second, service-learning projects are microcosms of community initiatives to eliminate community deficiencies. By exploring the issues on a small scale, service-learning teams learn the tools needed to lead community efforts to solve problems. The next chapters describe the connection between service-learning and the four cornerstones. Degrees of Shading Figure 6.3 represents three different types of communities. As you move from 1 to 2 to 3, the shading darkens. This represents a different degree of youth initiatives and programs in a particular community. The darker the shading, the more opportunities and resources are available to the youth. The

Figure 6.3. Explanation of Shading

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goal of communities is to work toward the “ideal,” or completely black, cross sections. Following this color scheme, a community that focuses poorly on youth would be without shading, whereas a great community would display the darkest shading. Therefore, in figure 6.3, 1 represents a deficient community, 2 a good community, and 3 a great community. White or Black or Gray To say one community is better than another is difficult, if only evaluating both communities on a particular program or facility. Community A may have a better school system than Community B. However, Community B has a multimillion-dollar recreation facility, whereas Community A has none (see figure 6.4). There are too many variables to consider. Therefore, a diagram can’t only be white and black, or even white, gray, and black. Instead, a diagram has continuous shading that becomes darker as a community implements more-effective youth programs. Note the word “effective” in the last sentence. A community that has more programs or serves more youth is not necessarily better. What makes it better is its ability to implement practices that achieve results. Cross Sections The cross sections include a majority of the youth focus in current communities, but not every community has the same programs. As a result, the cross sections are not broken into small sections. Also, recognize that the cross-section shading is a gradual darkening in all four sections. Finally, there is no specific part of the cross section where a project or program belongs. For example, in Community A’s diagram above, “Poor Athletic Facility” is independent of the cornerstones Embrace and Enrich.

Figure 6.4. Gradual Change in Shading

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The degree of shading indicates the degree of effective programs in a community. However, the degree of shading in itself does not indicate the extent to which a community is focused on its youth. Initiatives that shift the attitudes and behaviors of adults and increase responsibilities of youth by expanding into more nontraditional roles are cornerstones of a model community. These projects mobilize youth to take control of their well-being and invest in their community. Each of these projects falls into one or more of our four cornerstones. In the next two chapters we describe in detail each cornerstone.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Given the definition of community, how would you define your community? 2. Would you classify your community as good, great, or model? 3. Make a list of the major organizations, agencies, and programs in your community that make you “good” and “great.” 4. Are there other community efforts that have the potential to help your community become great? What limiting factors are preventing these efforts from improving your community? 5. Draw a model community diagram and shade in the cross-section pieces to represent your community. 6. Are there other national initiatives and/or organizational efforts you would add to our list? What are they? 7. How active is your community with service-learning? Who is involved in your service-learning projects?

Chapter 7 Four Cornerstones

Please read and reflect on the following definitions: Endorse—to approve openly; to express support or approval of publicly and definitely Embrace—to take in or include as a part, item, or element of a moreinclusive whole; to take up especially readily or gladly Enrich—to make rich or richer, especially by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient Empower—to promote the self-actualization or influence of; to enable; to take ownership of

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER Becoming a model community for youth should be a goal for all communities. As communities continue to strive to be better, it is impossible to become the ideal. Therefore model-community classification does not come from completely mastering the cross sections and all four cornerstones. Instead, exemplary communities actively incorporate the cornerstones into their strategic plan for youth. Below is the breakdown of each one of the cornerstones and description.

ENDORSE The psychologist B. F. Skinner’s research suggests that youth respond more proactively to incentives than punishment. In other words, youth behavior is better predicted if a child receives a reward for doing task A instead of being punished for not doing task A. This research suggests that youth respond better to endorsement of positive behavior than to receiving consequences for negative behavior. 73

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Obstacles “Eighteen-Year-Old Boy Guns Down Two Friends in the Parking Lot of His High School” “Fourteen-Year-Old Girl Gets Pregnant” “Drug Bust at High School Football Game Sends Four Students to Jail” Too often these are the headlines printed in newspapers and blanketing the news. As these stories unfold, they are commonly blown out of proportion and overshadow all other events happening in a community. Moreover, readers and viewers tend to generalize these behaviors to all teenagers. In psychology this is known as the availability heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973). A person perceives the truth based on the most available information. A typical example is when a plane crashes. People become hesitant to fly when the top headline for two days reads “Plane Crash Kills 100.” However, these people forget to realize how many planes have taken off and landed safely that day, month, or even the past year. “Studies have shown one would have to fly once a day every day for over 15,000 years in order to statistically be involved in an aircraft accident!” (Fear of Flying Help, 2009) Now think about how many articles or news stories discuss youth violence in schools and communities. Then think back to how many stories you remember about positive youth behavior. Is it reasonable to think young people could also begin to believe that their communities are unsafe or that their malicious behavior is typical, based on the information gathered on the news? This in turn can lead to more violence or bad decision-making. The best way to change public opinion is to change what information the public receives from the media. But to ask a newspaper or a television to sell stories that are not controversial or negative is like asking them to stop printing or broadcasting altogether. Sex, violence, and controversy sell. People feed off these stories and enjoy learning about the “mess” occurring everyday. If one media source reduced its controversial coverage, its viewers would tune in somewhere else. A media source could not take this financial hit. Solutions There is, however, the ability to incorporate more positive information being reported. Media outlets could expand their coverage to include a youth element. A news broadcast could have “Kids Corner” every Friday, at which time they highlight an outstanding youth. Newspapers could have a “Youth” section that describes positive youth activities or events. Moreover, the media could reduce the exposure of negative news stories in such grand detail.

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In addition, agencies, including local businesses, could reward youth for positive behavior. They could provide incentive-based discounts or opportunities to youth who are actively involved. Currently, religious agencies and service clubs (Optimist, Rotary, and Kiwanis) stand out for their scholarship opportunities for youth who excel through volunteerism and civic engagement. A business could pass out coupons to all youth who take part in a service project. In the late 1990s, the New York State Department of Health began to critically examine its youth-serving programs and the approaches they exemplified in communities across the state. Two major principles emerged. Of these two, one specifically related to the notion of endorsing youth-positive behavior instead of punishing negative. New York’s ACT for Youth (ACT for Youth, 2009) found that “The most effective youth-serving programs take a positive approach to youth, promoting strengths and potential rather than focusing primarily on risky behavior.” America’s Promise Alliance and Search Institute are leading the national charge to highlight and reward communities that are making serious efforts to improve the lives of all their young people. Chapter 9 presents examples of communities and programs that are changing lives. Paradigm Shift Communities as a whole need to improve their reinforcement of positive behavior. From the news media to local businesses, service agencies, neighborhoods, and schools, collectively the focus must shift to highlighting positive behavior. Now is the time to switch from “punishing” the teenage delinquents to “endorsing” youth making moral, sound decisions. As with all four cornerstones, this paradigm shift needs to include everybody, not just one of the aforementioned groups. Endorsing Service-Learning Community leaders’ endorsement of service-learning projects creates opportunities for youth-driven community initiatives. Positive youth behavior gains exposure when the community leaders (on the service-learning team) reinforce the young people’s efforts and share their success with colleagues. Effects may include: • More community members become aware of positive youth behavior and efforts • More community leaders view youth as assets

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• Youth and adult perceptions about young people change • Youth behavior changes Furthermore, positive reinforcement during the service-learning project creates a sense of accomplishment. Young people are motivated to continue with their efforts. Service-learning projects then extend beyond the classroom, providing more opportunities for young people to be involved. Additional opportunities to reinforce young people are therefore created.

EMBRACE Psychological studies show that the youngest member of a species is stronger, healthier, and more likely to survive if it has a nurturing environment, one that provides food, shelter, and love. Humans on this level are not much different from other mammals. Humans need care, love, and to know that they matter. From Maslow’s (1970) perspective these needs are hierarchical, in the shape of a pyramid. Only when the basic needs, physiological (at the pyramid’s base), then safety, and then social, are met can the growth needs of esteem and lastly self-actualization be motivated (at its apex). Most communities probably do a good job of satisfying the physiological and safety needs of their youth. Yet child abuse, neglect, and poverty affect large populations of youth, and many are uninsured for basic health care (First Focus, 2008, p. 2). Moreover, “In 2006, for the first time since 1983, social welfare spending by state and local governments dropped” (Gais and Dadayan, 2008, p.1). In their analysis, social welfare spending included cash assistance, medical assistance, and nonhealth social services. Both medical and cash assistance declined, whereas nonhealth social services were essentially unchanged. Thus even for those communities that provide the basic needs of youth, many still fall short in their efforts to meet the social and growth needs of their young people. Obstacles Recent studies demonstrate that there are over 9.6 million single mothers in the United States. Likewise, 4.1 million mothers never married. Statistics from 2002 showed that 23 percent of children under eighteen are living with a mother only. Many youth today are lost to the idea of two caring parents raising them together. Moreover, many of these young people are not replacing this void with other caring adults, who are nonexistent in their lives.

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Substance abuse, gang-related affiliation, and other negative behaviors often fill this void. Statistics indicate that “fatherless homes account for 63% of youth suicides, 90% of homeless/runaway children, 85% of children with behavior problems, 71% of high school dropouts, 85% of youth in prison, well over 50% of teen mothers” (Divorce Magazine, 2009). A mayor, a county council, a governor, or anyone else who approves budgets has many tough decisions to make. Deciding where tax dollars should be spent is challenging. It is difficult to meet everyone’s needs, and regardless of what is decided, public officials will always be criticized. Also, most often these people are voted into office. So when making tough decisions, many officials support the shareholders’ views over the silent voice. In this case the silent voice is youth, the only population unable to vote. Without the ability of youth to vote or lobby effectively, it is no wonder youth initiatives and programs are underbudgeted or dismissed readily. Youth fail to see how they belong to this process and continue to feel undervalued. Solutions Many communities currently have in place an after-school program, daycare program, and some sort of a mentoring program, if not several. Some of these programs are quite beneficial and can fill the parenting/caring adult void in struggling youth. One drawback with these programs is the parameters established for them. Many programs have restrictions such as age, race, or socioeconomic status. Not every youth can be part of every program. Some youth fall into the cracks between available programs. Therefore, adults are responsible for providing a nurturing and caring environment for all the community’s youth. The popular phrase that embodies this notion is, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The whole community is responsible for ensuring that their children are prosperous and loved. Legislative budgets are not easy to create. More money is needed than is available. The general public typically rejects raising taxes to produce greater revenue. Governing bodies tend to allocate a small portion of their budgets to youth initiatives. Arguably, budget allocations to preserve important youth programs should be increased. For example, spending on children in the federal non-defense budget in 2008 was only 10 percent of the entire budget (First Focus, 2008, p. 19). Moreover, all new legislation affecting youth should first gain their input. Before passing a bill, the community needs to answer the question “How will this affect our youth?” or ask the youth directly. If the common youth position strongly opposes the terms of the bill, the legislation should be modified

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before passing. This accommodation is a vital part in becoming a model community. Youth are the group of people most vulnerable to government policy because they typically are limited in their ability to influence legislation. Youth cannot vote on bills or vote officials into office. Community leaders should bring forth the “informal” youth voice to the “official” stage. However, this change is not only limited to governments. School policy, law enforcement, public media, and recreation programming need to embrace youth ideas. When funds concerning youth are allocated, youth should have a voice. Paradigm Shift For youth to feel that they belong to a community, the community needs to represent and embrace them. They need multiple caring adults present in their lives in order to feel loved. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs indicates that before children are able to develop strong self-esteem, they must first have their social needs met. The statistics mentioned previously in this section are alarming. To reduce these percentages, the whole community needs to work together to embrace youth and their ideas. If only a few people reach out and change their own mind-set, some positive change might occur, but the community will continue to fall short, and most positive outcomes will be temporary. Embracing Service-Learning When the service-learning team of young people, teacher, and community leaders embraces a service-learning project, all participants witness firsthand dedication to solving a community problem. Students do not perceive it as a classroom assignment. Educators teach skills beyond math and reading. Community leaders commit to their young people to invest in community and change. Each team member feeds off the group energy and becomes inspired to do more. The “heart” or reason behind each service project commands the attention of all community members. These service-learning teams are now champions of change. Community leaders are probably not often exposed to young people and their abilities. By becoming part of the service-learning team and embracing young people, community leaders are better equipped to work with their youth on future community initiatives because they perceive youth as assets. Likewise, young people are now comfortable discussing issues with community leaders and no longer shy away from the conversation.

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ENRICH The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.

Lyndon B. Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, nails it with this quote. There is more to life than the quantity of goods. Children’s test scores are not as important as the opportunities afforded to them to enrich their minds. Obstacles In chapter 1, No Child Left Behind was discussed. Recall that schools are obligated to maintain high test scores to keep in good standing for federal funding. Some people think the pitfall of this style of teaching is that it precludes “fun” in learning. This teaching framework makes its extremely difficult for teachers to add flair and innovative approaches to certain subject matter. The curriculum narrows the focus to reading and math. Field trips, science projects, class plays, and several more “extra” curriculum components disappear from lesson plans. Moreover, funding for these enrichment activities continues to decrease. From 2004 to 2008, federal dollars allocated for State Grants for Career and Technical Education dropped 13.7 percent, and funding for National Science Foundation K–12 programs dropped 32.3 percent (First Focus, 2008, pp. 28–29). Since “A Nation at Risk” was published in 1981, the federal government increased its rate of spending on incarceration more than on education. Specifically, “During the last 20 years, corrections [prison] spending increased by 127 percent on top of inflation, while spending on higher education increased only 21 percent” (Inside Higher Ed, 2009). Anthony Kennedy, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, commented on this alarming trend in an address to the American Bar Association: The cost of housing, feeding and caring for the inmate population in the United States is over $40 billion per year. In the State of California alone, the cost of maintaining each inmate in the correctional system is about $26,000 per year. And despite the high expenditures in prison, there remain urgent, unmet needs in the prison system.

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To compare prison costs with the cost of educating school children is, to some extent, to compare apples with oranges, because the State must assume the full burden of housing, subsistence, and medical care for prisoners. Yet the statistics are troubling. When it costs so much more to incarcerate a prisoner than to educate a child, we should take special care to ensure that we are not incarcerating too many persons for too long. (Kennedy, August 9, 2003)

Kennedy’s speech supports the contention that incarceration is more expensive than education. Based on these statistics and statements, the government is unable to address this imbalance in spending, even following a national summit focused primarily on youth education. Change is needed. To echo this problem, the first items usually cut from a county or city education budget are extracurricular activities. Schools don’t remove textbooks, but they eliminate the science fairs and film festivals. When it comes to education, learning the basics—reading, writing, and arithmetic—is a must. Fine arts programs tend to be overshadowed. If budget cuts are necessary, math, English, science, and history are usually not significantly cut; these are the basics of classroom education. The schools, however, may be left with little opportunity for creativity and exploration into the fine arts. What is the result of these measures? They may initiate the beginning stages of the school system’s erasing a child’s potential to dream big. The system is not necessarily telling a student not to dream, but effectively discouraging an atmosphere in which he or she can think about dream careers. So what is the answer?

Solutions As previously mentioned, the flow of money into the penal system and education is imbalanced. From 2004 to 2008, spending on child education at the federal level dropped 9.9 percent (First Focus, 2008, p.19). In 2008, America’s Promise Alliance switched its primary focus to the national dropout rate. Statistics show that high percentages of incarcerated youth are high school dropouts. Over the next five years America’s Promise Alliance plans to bring the Five Promises to 15 million at-risk youth. With these promises, the high school dropout rate will decrease. In 2008, the dropout rate was 1.1 million youth per year (Balfanz et al., February 2009). If this national agency understands the importance of combatting the dropout rate, so too should local school boards and administrations. Examining the issue from an economic standpoint, a community that keeps its young people in school would in turn keep them out of prison, reducing budget expenses on correctional facilities.

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Why not think progressively and allocate money into education now instead of spending it on the prison system in the future? With an increase of funds, schools and communities have the opportunity to be more creative with their money and provide more opportunities for their youth. Students learn in a more enriched atmosphere full of possibilities to grow beyond the basic core subjects. However, a school system is not solely responsible for providing youth with all the enrichment opportunities they need. Community initiatives need to exist that enrich young people’s lives and open doors that would otherwise be closed. The best answer is a collaborative effort by both parties—school system and community—to enrich their community’s young people. Increasing after-school options that explore the arts and sciences could be a start. Diversified programs, sporting options, and job opportunities for youth can lead to a better community atmosphere for youth development. Enriching Service-Learning Resources for classroom projects, including service-learning, are often limited. When community leaders join the service-learning team, they bring additional resources, expertise, and knowledge. Their enrichment of a servicelearning project can improve the service-learning experience and outcome. The success of the service-learning project may have more lasting effects on the community and participants. This type of impact is crucial when discussing community change and growth. A more fruitful service-learning project creates a better learning atmosphere, which leads to more developed higher-order thinking skills. Young people are even a stronger community asset after experiencing an enriched service project. With a troubled economy and the education system struggling to teach more than the basics, service-learning projects are the perfect opportunity to brighten school curriculum. School partnerships with businesses, local government, law enforcement, and other agencies create effective service projects and pave the way for successful community programs leading to a model community. Paradigm Shift Communities need to put on a new set of educational lenses that include more than just teaching the basics. Standardized test scores do not solely define the educational experience, nor can they be the only marker of a successful learning environment. Effective development radiates the colors of enrichment and creates an atmosphere full of possibilities. Administrators

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and community leaders need to shift the focus onto the child’s life, not his or her assessment scores. Youth are people, not numbers. When money is tight, the first budget cuts are never the limbs of the tree, but the fruits that they bear. Communities cannot rob our youth of these sources of nutrients and expect them to survive on the barren tree. Sacrifice and tough financial decisions along this new path have to be made. But to ensure a well-balanced and fruitful future for our youth, communities must enrich young people’s lives with the arts, the sciences, and the extracurricular activities that make them grow as individuals. The focus of community budgets needs to be on positive youth development, not on corrections. Communities that allocate their funds into education will decrease their number of incarcerated teenagers and young adults. If communities continually increase spending on the penal system, funds for enrichment opportunities will be reduced. Communities need to set priorities and focus on more healthy lifestyles for their youth, not only higher test scores. Test scores occur when youth feel comfortable and are engaged in an enriched atmosphere full of possibilities that appeal to their goals and dreams.

EMPOWERMENT Of the four, this cornerstone is the most difficult to implement, as discussed previously. The concept of youth empowerment has been around for several years; however, its application is limited in many communities. The idea of giving youth “power” and decision-making opportunities is risky. The popular paradigm is that parents know what is best for their children, or simply, adults know what is best for young people. With years of experience and extensive knowledge on subjects, adults feel that they are better equipped to make decisions for the community. Unfortunately, when dealing with policies that affect youth, it is imperative that youth have a voice. This doesn’t mean merely voicing their opinion, but having a voice that is taken seriously and holds equal weight. The next chapter discusses in detail the need for youth empowerment, while highlighting specific efforts to empower youth and the positive impact on their community.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. What efforts is your community putting forth to endorse youth? 2. In which ways can your community improve its endorsement of youth?

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3. Is your community embracing youth and their ideas? Explain. 4. In which ways can your community better embrace youth and their initiatives? 5. How is your community enriching the lives of its youth? 6. In which ways can your community better enrich the lives of its youth?

Chapter 8 Youth Empowerment

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As stated in the previous chapter, empowerment is the most underutilized cornerstone. Youth behavior and their effectiveness toward building a stronger community are often misconstrued. This chapter highlights where communities have fallen short over the years and how they can improve their efforts toward engaging and empowering their youth. It also briefly discusses the empowerment models that communities are currently implementing. But first, we will review the stages of cognitive development and at which stage people can make reasonable decisions.

ROLE OF YOUTH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Over the past century the role of youth has changed dramatically from submissive to active. The 15th-century proverb “Children should be seen and not heard” still had a strong following in the early 20th century. The proverb originally pertained to young women but expanded to include all youth. An indication of the powerful grip of this proverb is that youth did not gain constitutional protection through child labor laws until the secondary effects of the Great Depression ended child labor nationwide. Until the Fair Standards Labor Act of 1938 that Franklin Roosevelt set in place, there had been several failed attempts in the early 1900s to control the harsh working conditions children faced on the job. Florence King (1989) reflected accurately the intent of this proverb. She wrote, “America is not a democracy; it’s an absolute monarchy ruled by King Kid” (p. 30). She then concluded, “If we want to regain the respect of the world, we should begin by announcing that children have no business

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expressing opinions on anything except, ‘Do you have enough room in the toes?’” (p. 33) From early on in childhood development, youth were told what to do and when to do it. As they grew into adolescence, their ability to think abstractly and reason logically increased, but they were still left out of the decisionmaking process. Theories on cognitive development can shed some light on the consequences of this omission.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH Piaget provides one theoretical viewpoint to understand cognitive development. His theory of cognitive development (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958) is broken into four categories: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. The third stage, concrete operations, (six to eleven years old) is when youth develop the mastery of logic and rational thinking. The final stage, formal operations (eleven and up), is when youth develop abstract and hypothetical reasoning. As youth go through the stages of adolescence, they experience a variety of situations that develop this special type of thinking. In general, many psychologists agree with Piaget and recognize this as the formal operational stage for human cognition (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). This theory suggests that eleven-years-olds have the ability to think along the same lines as people who are older. The major difference is that adults have a lot more situational experiences and opportunities to use abstract reasoning than do youth. Schaie (1977/1978) argues that cognitive development beyond Piaget’s formal operational stage shifts from acquiring knowledge to using it. Specifically, human cognition expands with the ever-growing situational diversity. He separates human cognition into four stages: acquisitive stage, achieving stage, responsibility stage, and reintegrative stage. The acquisitive stage lumps childhood and adolescence into one stage that is largely devoted to knowledge acquisition. In the achieving stage, or early adulthood, individuals must begin to concentrate their cognitive skills on profound situations that are crucial to achieving lifelong goals. These situations may include marriage, employment, or child rearing. The responsibility stage, or middle adulthood, is the stage where adults begin to expand their responsibilities to others and expanding social obligations. This juggling act creates what Schaie sees as a substage called the executive stage. This stage is considered the most advanced form of thinking at the responsibility stage because it is specific to people whose responsibilities have become highly complex. In the reintegrative stage, or

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late adulthood, people reexamine their interests, attitudes, and values to maximize their quality of life. Doubts of Youth Ability Analysis of Piaget’s and Schaie’s theories of cognitive development supports the idea that there is no developmental difference in acquiring knowledge once a child reaches adolescence. However, there is a large difference in exposure to situations, general and specific, that creates a more diverse, but also concentrated thought process. On the surface, it is easy to say that a person operating at the executive stage would have a better understanding of problems and implement stronger reasoning in finding solutions rather than a teenager operating in the acquisitive stage. From this assumption, it is not surprising that community task forces, committees, boards, and governments are almost exclusively made up of adults operating in the executive stage. As a whole, communities are more comfortable with experienced people making most of a community’s decisions. As a result, when the proposal arises to add a youth representative to these decision-making bodies, adults often criticize this suggestion. This criticism takes us back to the early 1900s, when the youth voice was silenced or disregarded. From a Different Angle However, an analysis of Piaget’s and Schaie’s theories from a different angle underscores the importance and need to empower youth. Piaget states that from early adolescence youth have the same level of cognitive development as adults. Schaie agrees, but says that adults reason in more diverse settings. Therefore, why not provide youth with the experience? By providing opportunities early on, youth can begin to expand their cognitive skills in diverse ways and begin to rival adults’ ability to make decisions. Bring the teenagers to the table as youth representatives, or help them create their own decision-making body (e.g., a youth council). Piaget and Schaie agree that once individuals reach formal operational thinking, they have the ability to reason like anyone else in this stage. Given the opportunity to make important decisions and exposed to the different realms within a community, adolescent voices could be just as valuable as those of middle-aged adults. Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby, 2009) once said: “If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.”

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YOUTH EMPOWERMENT DEFINED In chapter 7, empowerment was defined as follows: “to promote the selfactualization or influence of; enable; to take ownership of.” Maslow (1970, p. 46) defines self-actualization as “man’s desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially . . . to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” (Maslow’s statement should be inclusive of men and women.) From this definition, empowerment is a means for an individual or young person to achieve his or her full potential. Youth empowerment is a compilation of responsibility, voice, investment, obligation, ownership, leadership, acceptance, and collaboration. Presently, there are several models with youth empowerment at the core. For example, Search Institute dedicates four assets (numbers 7 through 10) of its forty Developmental Assets to empowerment. In its model, empowerment is one-fifth of the external assets. “External assets focus on external structures, relationships, and activities that create a positive environment for young people.” Specifically, the four assets include (7) Community Values Youth, (8) Youth as Resources, (9) Service to Others, and (10) Safety (Search Institute, 2009a). Another example is the Hampton Youth Civic Engagement model, which a partnership of youth and adults from the city of Hampton, Virginia, and Alternatives Inc. created (Carlson, 2006). This model is a pyramid that represents a hierarchy of three pathways to youth engagement. Service-learning and other projects are at the base of the pyramid. These types of activities then lead to youth input and consultation, which then lead to shared leadership at the pyramid’s apex.

EMPOWERMENT MODEL Figure 8.1 is a new model of empowerment, with its impact on the individual and community. Previous models from the Search Institute and Hampton Youth Civic Engagement do not delineate the specific contributions of the individual and community with respect to empowerment and its impact. Both individual and community contributions are crucial to the empowerment process. The foundation of our youth empowerment model is decision-making. To be empowered, an individual must participate in a process that defines a problem and develops the solution. Either independently or as part of a group, he or she must be able to decide the next course of action. Once committed, the young person begins to understand his or her full potential and have the ability to make an impact on the community.

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Figure 8.1. Empowerment Model: Decision-Making Process

This model demonstrates the requirement of a commitment from both the individual and the community. Both commitments are vital to the decision-making process. Furthermore, both commitments result in an impact on the individual and the community at large. To achieve total empowerment, individual and community commitment are needed. Each piece of the model is explained in detail below. Individual Commitment Taking ownership of a situation, problem, or issue is the first step toward empowerment. Young people are motivated to take ownership through a service-learning experience. As a result, youth feel connected intrinsically to the task and then feel responsible for taking action. Passionate young people who have the ability and choose to take charge have embraced the issue at hand. These young people believe they are partly responsible for the issue and therefore part of the solution. This enthusiasm and this understanding drive them to voice their concern. The youth voice is the most crucial part of empowerment. Being heard and recognized for their opinion heightens their sense of worth. These youth now believe in the causes, have dedicated themselves to making a decision, and have verbalized their opinion. They are now engaged in the decision-making

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process because their beliefs have been recognized by community leaders and peers in a formal setting. They are ready to act. Community Commitment Likewise, before a decision can be made, a community’s leaders and its policy makers need to make commitments. First, the community must see the value of investing in youth. To empower youth, leaders have to sacrifice time and share power. This can appear costly if the community does not view youth development as an investment in the community’s present and future. Further, a community and its leaders need to understand their obligation to their youth. To breed future leaders, current leaders need to dedicate themselves to this objective and see it as part of their responsibility. Next, the community and youth need to collaborate. The community must view the new relationship as a partnership in which all parties openly discuss the issue. This is not when the community leaders tell the youth, “This is how we are going to do things; do you agree?” If traditional decision-makers do not have youth as a primary focus, youth empowerment will not occur communitywide. Finally, community leaders and policy makers need to accept the views and opinions of their youth. When a youth representative voices an opinion, it cannot fall upon deaf ears. This acceptance enables youth to become fully engaged in the decision-making process. Impact on the Individual A youth who collaborates with community leaders to make important decisions has engaged in a process that significantly impacts his or her life. Young people who have been responsible for improving their community have increased self-confidence. They become leaders among their peers and influence them. This influence may come in the form of service-learning projects, community involvement, or community pride. The challenge of leadership no longer falls solely on the shoulders of adults. Throughout this process, youth gain political literacy. That is, they gain knowledge of government processes and experience a formal decisionmaking process. This is a building block for future collaborative efforts. As these opportunities continue, a community will have a strong contingent of confident youth who are able to make tough decisions. These youth practice leading discussions, taking initiative, and being held accountable for their actions and words. These are all pieces of leadership in which these youth involve themselves throughout the decision-making pro-

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cess. When the decisions are made, these empowered youth have improved their leadership skills. Impact on the Community The importance of youth empowerment is its impact on the community. By empowering youth, a community grows closer to becoming a model for others. A specific effect of youth empowerment may be new legislation. Having a new voice in the discussion typically brings about change. New policies or amendments to current polices may take effect. With the youth voice formally represented, more legislation favoring that population will be introduced. Likewise, this body of youth leaders emerges as additional assets to the community. Community leaders can utilize these young people in community development, outreach, and on potential youth councils or commissions. These empowered youth will shift from being the problem to being the solution. This broader range of assets will increase the effectiveness of youth programming and initiatives. As youth engage in the decision-making process and then participate in creating solutions, an immediate increase in civic engagement occurs. Young people who were never before invested in their neighborhoods, schools, or communities now surface as active participants. A new dynamic unfolds to strengthen community pride. All these impacts—new legislation, additional assets, and increased civic engagement—elicit a better quality of life. As individual youth shift their behavior and beliefs and communities embrace these changes and challenge youth to become leaders, youth crime and delinquency decrease. More funds are allocated to enrichment initiatives rather than punishment and security. Community leaders readily endorse youth behavior and highlight the positive impact. An abundance of young role models forces the media to cover these stories. Ultimately, the overall impact on the community is newly formed relationships between adults and young people, between community leaders and young leaders, and between the old ways and the new ideals.

IMPORTANCE OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT “We must become the change we want to see.” Mahatma Gandhi understood the importance of giving people control of their own future. For youth to fully grasp their potential as well as serve their community, they must have the ability to be decision makers. These young people must be heard and heralded as leaders in order for there to be social change among youth.

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A positive impact on a struggling community will not come from the government, but from its people, young and old joined together as one. A community that mobilizes its youth and their assets begins to notice a shift from apathetic to engaged youth. Once impartial young people are now rallying their friends and peers toward positive change. “You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” Here, Gandhi is really addressing the hesitant leaders who are uneasy about giving youth power or control. This voice may create disruption and chaos. However, the second half of the quote emphasizes the importance of action. The one thing that is certain is that if nothing is done, there will be no change. In a community that is plagued with gang violence, high dropout rates, or teen pregnancy, avoiding youth engagement only intensifies the issues. Giving ownership of these problems to the at-risk youth and empowering them to take action against these pitfalls only strengthens a community. Empowering Service-Learning Service-learning projects serve as the initial stage of youth empowerment. When designed correctly, these projects require commitment from all service-learning team members. The teacher, student, and community leaders need to the follow the empowerment model in figure 8.1. Then there is an impact on the individuals involved and the community as a whole. Like the other three cornerstones, service-learning projects serve as an opportunity for youth and community leaders to work together, leading them closer to a model community. When students engage in service-learning projects, they are empowered to make decisions. Therefore, service-learning projects are the best opportunities for paradigm shift in a community. Paradigm Shift People in power make decisions. Communities must look to the models that have forged ahead and empowered their youth as leaders and community representatives. The only way to shift the mentality of the youth is to first shift adults’ perspective on the role of youth. This is not an easy task and will face resistance. Giving youth a voice in the community is important. Enable youth to take initiative, give them the platform to speak, and most of all listen to their honest words. Or, as the best-selling author Stephen Covey (1992, p. 212) states: “An empowered organization [e.g., a community] is one in which

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individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success [e.g., a model community].”

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Does your community understand the benefits of youth empowerment? 2. Is there a serious movement in your community to empower youth? Is there complete community support or only a subgroup of hard workers? 3. Which sectors of the community are supporting youth empowerment? Which sectors are hesitant or resistant? 4. What are the steps your community must take to make a paradigm shift toward youth empowerment? 5. Have any of your legislators proposed any new legislation for youth? If they have, what is it? If they have not, why do you think they have not? 6. Interview a youth in your community who is empowered. Does what he says correspond with the model? Why or why not?

Chapter 9 Community Examples

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER This chapter highlights communities with youth initiatives that fall into at least one of the cornerstones. Each community initiative includes a brief history, the program itself, and how the program affects the community. The selected communities are three-time winners of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” award sponsored by America’s Promise Alliance, or have presented at Search Institute’s national conference. Many exemplary communities could be cited here. This selection is a diverse variety of communities to highlight the four cornerstones. Also mentioned are some national organizations whose purpose and efforts fall into one or more of the cornerstones. Details of each agency’s purpose are described. Once again, a select group of communities are highlighted to create a diverse subset.

ENDORSING COMMUNITIES Think about a community that endorses its youth, and imagine a place where positive youth efforts and success are highlighted beyond the basic praise. “Kid of the Week,” scholarship monies, honors or awards, special privileges, and “fifteen minutes of fame” are just a few ways communities have taken endorsement of their youth to the next level. Salisbury/Wicomico County, Maryland In the local newspaper and news broadcasts, the typical headline about youth was not capturing the positive behavior. Tired of the same negative slant on youth activity, a small group of people and the local public access channel developed a television show to capture the positive youth. “Hometown 95

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Heroes” is a program that interviews youth and highlights their service to their community. Moreover, this community created a bimonthly magazine publication called Delmarva Youth, which is dedicated to emphasizing youth programs and focusing on the positive impact youth are making locally. Initiatives like these two increased public awareness of positive youth behavior. Somerville, Massachusetts When budgets get tight and cuts need to be made, do not expect Somerville to make drastic cuts to its youth programs. This community allocates a third of its municipal budget to endorsing and supporting youth-related activities. From a quality school system to a youth center that houses a myriad of programs, this community understands the value of youth investment and support. Also, Somerville celebrates its diversity. This community of 77,000 people is one of the most diverse and densely populated cities in the nation (National Civic League, 2008). Richmond, Indiana KIDFEST is collaboration among several teachers, Discovery School, the mayor’s office, the Wayne County Historical Museum, Earlham College, Richmond State Hospital, and a broad variety of interested citizens and parents, is a monthlong, visible celebration of kids and their efforts. The month kicks off with a community parade. In the 2008 parade, which was a moonlight parade, there were 90 units, with over 2,000 participants. Several community members volunteered to organize and staff the event, and people came from all around the county to watch and to celebrate. Hundreds of young people participated, making KIDFEST a quantitative success. In addition, this project led to interesting and unexpected qualitative results. The KIDFEST emphasis on youth as entrepreneurs led to the development of a magnet elementary school, the Elizabeth Starr Academy for Young Entrepreneurs (National Civic League, 2009). Exchange: The National Exchange Club The National Exchange Club’s Youth of the Month program provides Exchange Clubs with the opportunity to honor outstanding students in the community who have exhibited excellence in academics and leadership. This program not only enhances career opportunities for those honored, but also promotes, to other young adults in the community, good citizenship, a desire

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for greater scholastic achievement, and the development of well-rounded personalities. The project’s human-interest appeal generates communitywide attention and media coverage for the Exchange Club. This proven program not only rewards outstanding young people, but also provides an incentive for other youngsters to strive for equally high levels of achievement (National Exchange Club, 2009).

EMBRACING COMMUNITIES A community that embraces its youth is not only a group of people protecting its youth from the dangers that surround them, but also embracing their views and ideas. With regard to America’s Promise Alliance’s “five promises,” one of these communities exhibits signs of all of the promises. Also, these communities will be rich in assets, possessing many of the “40 Developmental Assets.” Solano County, California “Children Are Our Bottom Line.” This tagline found on First 5 Solano’s web page embodies the beliefs of Solano County, California. Their vision is “All Solano County children are loved, healthy, confident, eager to learn, and nurtured by their families, caregivers, and the community, and enter school ready to learn.” The First 5 Solano Children and Families Commission is dedicated to promoting, supporting, and improving early childhood development by creating, fostering, and partnering with community resources and programs that support healthy and safe children, families, and communities. They embrace creative, emotional, social, cognitive, and physical development as key ingredients to healthy children becoming successful adults (Solano County, 2009). Bellevue, Washington Partnerships between youth and adults are a trademark of Bellevue, Washington. For nearly a decade youth and adults have partnered in the 24-Hour Relay Challenge that takes place around the downtown park. This event not only creates community spirit, but also raises funds for Bellevue-area youth projects and programs. In 2007, at the city’s ninth annual 24-Hour Relay Challenge, 1,500 teens and adults, 133 community sponsors/organizations,

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and representatives from every sector of the community came together to strengthen adult-teen relationships (City of Bellevue, 2009). Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage Alaska is a city rich not only in oil, but in its five promises and 40 Developmental Assets. The Anchorage Youth Development Coalition (AYDC) provides leadership and coordinates resources and efforts to ensure that all Anchorage youth thrive. AYDC works to increase protective factors and reduce substance abuse and other risk factors through the Developmental Assets framework and other research-based prevention strategies. This coalition is made up of more than fifty youth-serving organizations and invested individuals who are committed to the cause (Anchorage Youth Development Coalition, 2009). Part of Anchorage’s promise is the KidsDay 2008 initiative. This is a day of celebration for all community young people and is centered on fun-filled, youth-oriented programs and activities, including opportunities for local youth and youth groups to display their special talents. The Forum for Youth Investment The Forum for Youth Investment is a nonprofit, nonpartisan “action tank” dedicated to helping communities and the nation make sure all young people are “Ready by 21”: ready for college, work, and life. Informed by rigorous research and practical experience, the forum forges innovative ideas, strategies, and partners to strengthen solutions for young people and those who care about them. A trusted resource for policy makers, advocates, researchers, and program professionals, the Forum for Youth Investment provides youth and adult leaders with the information, connections, and tools they need to create greater opportunities and outcomes for young people. The forum’s mission is to create opportunities and incentives for youth and adult leaders to think differently, act differently, and act together. One of the forum’s new initiatives is the “Ready by 21 Challenge,” which calls on states and communities to change the odds for children and youth by changing the way states and communities do business. The Ready by 21 “Big Picture Approach” helps leaders—from young people to parents, program directors to policy makers—bring precision to their passion, ensuring that all young people are ready by twenty-one years of age—ready for college, work, and life (Forum for Youth Investment, 2009).

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ENRICHING COMMUNITIES A community focused on enriching the lives of its youth is one with an expanded learning environment and an increased allocation of funds to extracurricular activities. These enrichments may include a dedication to the arts, entrepreneurship, or possibly media. An enriched community focuses on more than the core curriculum. With a more balanced approach to learning and wider exposure to subject matter, youth can explore personal interests. St. Louis Park, Minnesota With the growing tendency for schools to teach toward the test, school art programs continue to suffer cutbacks. Yet St. Louis Park, Minnesota, has not forgotten about the importance of the art experience. In 2008, eight organization and artists will receive $26,000 in grants to create or produce public art projects in the city (St. Louis Park, 2009). The Lake Forest neighborhood’s Art Crawl raised scholarship funds for young people and sponsored family art programs. The Lutheran Church works with all local young artists, giving them a place to perform and present art projects. In this community, the people understand that education is more than textbooks and that expression is vital to enriching young people’s lives. Houston, Texas In Houston, Texas, where the average temperature on a summer day is in the high nineties, a refreshing glass of lemonade sounds like a great idea. In 2006, one daughter’s desire to sell lemonade sparked a father’s desire to begin one of the largest youth events in Houston. Lemonade Day is a citywide educational event designed to teach youth how to start, own, and operate their very own lemonade business. Companies, schools, neighborhoods, community organizations, places of worship, and individuals all join together to help children become the most successful while having fun and making their own money. On Lemonade Day, thousands of budding entrepreneurs set up lemonade stands, providing an opportunity for businesses and families to partner together to train the next generation of entrepreneurs through a fun, family activity. Some donations from this event go to local after-school programs sponsored by Prepared 4 Life. The young people operating the lemonade stands keep what they earn, minus expenses. From here they will learn how to open a savings account so the money they earn can continue to grow (Lemonade Day, 2009).

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Milford, Connecticut Sometimes all that at-risk youth need to be successful is someone who cares, and direction. In Milford, Connecticut, leaders created “Project Graduation” to help guide this population of youth. This new and innovative program targets at-risk high school students and assigns them to a local business mentor. This relationship provides a caring adult, as well as an opportunity to shadow a specific job. The intention of the program is to help establish a potential career path as well as increase the self-esteem, accountability, and attitude of the at-risk students (National Civic League, 2008). Communities in School Communities in Schools (CIS) is the nation’s largest dropout-prevention organization. The mission of Communities in Schools is to champion the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. By bringing caring adults into the schools to address children’s unmet needs, CIS provides the link between educators and the community (Community in Schools, 2009). During the 2003–2004 school year, Communities in Schools served over 24,000 students. Of those who received intensive case management services, 99 percent remained in school and 88 percent improved their grades, attendance, or behavior. This number increased to over 100,000 students in 2005–2006.

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES A complete model community for youth is one that makes efforts to empower its youth. Through youth council, commissions, or committee boards, the decision-making process requires youth representation. A youth voice must be present for the youth to make a change in their community. When the youth are engaged and in control of their own programs and initiatives, they will have a more vested interest in the progress and outcome of their efforts. Hampton Roads, Virginia Paving the way for other communities to follow, Hampton Roads, Virginia, is a model community for youth empowerment. This community offers several opportunities that empower young people to make a decision, to serve on boards, and to lead their own programs.

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One program, Youth Entertainment Studios (YES), empowers inner-city youth to become leaders of character, vision, and action in their communities by challenging their creativity and equipping them with practical, confidencebuilding media production and marketing skills. This program was born in 1991 when youth leaders challenged a group of teens from a public housing community to work together to make a music video with a positive message. They did. The teens’ music video, “Steppin’ into the Light,” was so powerful that it aired on Black Entertainment Television, the Family Channel, and other national networks. Shortly after this, YES was born (Youth Entertainment Studios, 2009). Today, through digital multimedia studios and summer camps, teens have a way off the streets. And it’s working! Tempe, Arizona Like many communities, Tempe was struggling as a place for youth to succeed. Faced with many temptations, peer pressure, and boredom, youth in Tempe became victim to negative enticements. To combat teen violence, pregnancy, substance abuse, depression, and the lack of recreational opportunities, Tempe established the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission (MYAC) in 1980. The Tempe Mayor’s Youth Advisory Commission is believed to be the oldest such commission in the country. Tempe recognized the importance of youth input and created an advisory commission consisting entirely of youth. This commission’s goal is to increase youth involvement in community activities and decision-making by offering a forum for youth to express their views and interests. Also, the commission initiates and coordinates youth activities and provides opportunities for youth to develop leadership qualities (Tempe, 2009). Manatee County, Florida The home of the ManaTEENs, Manatee County, Florida, is a prime example of a community focused on youth empowerment and services. Created in 1994, the ManaTEENs have over 14,000 active members who not only assist 572 local agencies with volunteer needs, but create, implement, evaluate, sustain, and replicate 92 signature service programs. ManaTEENs’ purpose is to mobilize youth and resources to identify and address local needs through volunteerism, leadership, and voice. Currently, they are the largest locally based teen volunteer initiative in the nation, with

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thousands of teen volunteers contributing in excess of 1.7 million hours of service annually in southwest Florida! (Volunteer Manatee, 2009) Michigan: Community Foundations Youth Project Not specific to one particular location, the Michigan Community Foundations’ Youth Project (MCFYP) is a collaborative effort between several Michigan community foundations. This project has grown to sixty-five affiliate foundations across the state. There are at least eighty-five youth-endowed community foundation funds spearheaded by eighty-five Youth Advisory Committees comprised of 1,500 youth. A recent article indicated that these Youth Advisory Committees have awarded over 6,600 grants totaling in excess of $12.5 million. Since 1990 over 8,000 Michigan youth have been involved in this grant process. The Michigan Community Foundations’ Youth Project stands as a model to other communities, states and even nations (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2009). This model, like the ones above, allows youth to oversee projects and become decision-makers. By empowering youth in this process, it enables them to become more invested in their communities. The MCFYP has guided youth into new career choices and increased levels of civic engagement. National Organization for Youth Safety The National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) is a collaborative network of national organizations and federal agencies that serve youth and focus on youth safety and health. Through this network, NOYS influences more than 80 million young people ages five to twenty-four and adult advisors and supervisors. The mission of NOYS is to promote youth empowerment and leadership and build partnerships that save lives, prevent injuries, and enhance safe and healthy lifestyles among all youth. One example of youth empowerment is “Speak Out and Make NOYS,” which is a health and safety awareness project planner that can be used to address a specific need in the community. There is no other organization like NOYS. It is the premier, longest-operating coalition of youth-serving and youth-membership organizations in America (National Organizations for Youth Safety, 2009).

SERVICE-LEARNING COMMUNITIES Each of these programs and initiatives above grew from a community need. Whether these needs existed for years or were newly created, there came a

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point where leaders took charge and made change. These exemplars are components of model communities. Their origins are scattered, but their purpose are all the same—to improve the lives of young people. When evaluating service-learning projects and their connection to model communities, many of the same elements exist. The desire to overcome, to change, to learn, and to lead is at the core of each. Therefore, by integrating service-learning into school curriculum, communities are shifting closer to model community status. As service-learning teams pour through your school systems, community change is inevitable.

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT 1. Does your community have any program similar to the ones mentioned in this chapter? Research the program. Describe the similarities and differences (e.g., funding, staffing, served population, or size). 2. Could any of the community programs highlighted in this chapter be used as a model for your community? 3. Are any of the national agencies highlighted in this chapter represented in your community? Who are they? How would you contact them? 4. Discuss whether or not collaborative efforts exist among agencies within your community. 5. Is there currently a collaborative effort between your community and other communities? How would you describe this as a partnership? 6. Is your community quick to reinvent the wheel? Or is there an effort to piggyback on existing programs or initiatives?

Chapter 10 Before You Shift

You know why you need to be a model community for youth. You have knowledge of the four Cornerstones necessary for making this change. You have been given several examples of communities that are shifting.

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER From the research discussed in the previous chapters, evidence points to the growing need for local legislations and budgets to have youth initiatives as a keystone instead of an expendable line item. Currently, many youth programs are established from grant monies that dry up after a couple of years or cannot sustain themselves after staff turnover. These programs prove to be quite effective and beneficial for their short life. Occasionally, a larger corporation continues to fund a program and sustain it for the life of the program. Also, some youth programs raise enough funds each year to stay afloat. Unfortunately, both of these means of financial support have their limitations. The first alternative usually is in short supply and a very selective process. The average youth program is highly unlikely to make this partnership. The second alternative can be quite stressful to the typical program director. The issue is that several programs fight for the same money from the same local businesses with the hope of being the winner of the largess. Further, there is the likely chance that additional programs, youth focused or not, will form and cut into this fundraising pot of money. This whole process can consume a majority of the director’s time and energy. These limitations make it imperative for local government to incorporate youth initiatives into their budgets and allow a youth voice in their forum. Additionally, the community needs to focus and strategize on how to be more effective with its youth programming. The question then becomes, How do they do this? 105

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READY FOR CHANGE No community is ready for a radical shift in policy making and budget amendments. However, every community is capable of a shift in current legislation. Slight modification to current spending and decision-making will ease communities into a new paradigm, one in which youth are stakeholders in their own future. The previous chapter highlighted several examples of effective programming that are being embraced and endorsed by the community, thereby enriching the lives of all involved and empowering youth to take control of their lives. When the community’s attitude changes, youth are able to mobilize around a common cause, moral decision, and so forth. This unified body creates a youth focus that truly changes a community. The time for change is now and each community has room for change. The question remains: “What needs to change and to what degree?” Unfortunately, this book will not provide your community with the answer to this question; each community is unique and the answer for one community may not be the answer for another. However, the remainder of this chapter will pose some questions and discuss strategies that your community may find beneficial. These strategies should spark thoughts and ideas that will enable you to determine what are the next steps specific to your community. Remember, there is no set recipe, but there is a recipe. Below are some of the potential ingredients. The amounts and the mixture are up to you.

COMMUNITY DECISIONS Business Community Dynamic What is your business community dynamic? Does it consist of corporate headquarters, small businesses, franchises, or large industrial parks? Or is it primarily an agricultural or fishing community? Many nonprofits and youth programs finance their operations with sponsorship, donations, and other money obtained through fundraisers. A large portion of this financial support comes from business. For this reason, it is important for communities to evaluate their business sector. When a community seeks to start a new program or host an outreach event, it typically asks local business for support unless it has a grant. If this resource is not available, a community must adjust. For example, a small farming community in Nebraska may not have access to the same corporate sponsorship as DeKalb County, Georgia (where the city of Atlanta is located). Therefore,

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the Nebraska community may not be able to build a multimillion dollar community center from local sponsorships and donations. Size of Community How many people would you consider to be part of your community? The population size of your community is a factor when deciding which programs to implement and who will be served. Metropolitan areas tend to have huge populations that require services, while rural communities have a small group of people. The suburbs fall in between these two groups. The size of the community matters because determining how many people benefit from a program can help community developers/leaders establish a game plan that is specific to their community. Community Facilities Does your community currently have the facilities necessary to implement and support change? If the goal of your community is to have a place for youth to plan activities, hang out, socialize, and have a positive experience, does you community have a building to accommodate this need? Or will your community need to build a recreation center or community center? Building projects are expensive. An alternative would be to take an existing building and use it for multiple activities. For instance, your community may use a high school after hours as a youth recreation facility. Also, consider how your community could incorporate a hospital, university, airport, semipro/pro sports team, or any other resource unique to your hometown. Partnerships and collaborative efforts can fuel an initiative better than solo efforts. Shape of Community—Location and Geography Is your community an island, landlocked by mountains, 100 miles from a large city, or a heartland of skyscrapers? The physical shape of a community is important to consider when developing new initiatives. If a community has limited access points or trade routes, this could limit its potential for substantial business development. A community that is on an island or tucked on a mountain side probably has some restriction to some types of growth potential due to natural land restrictions. Also, areas that are in marsh lands or have desert climates will face limitations as to expansion and land usage. If your community is all cement and blacktop, it will be difficult to construct a beautiful community park.

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Diversity What is the socioeconomic background? What is the ethnic make up of the community? Does your community cater to specific needs? An important consideration is the diversity of the community. Knowing the socioeconomic background, the ethnicity, and ages of the people will determine which programs will be feasible and beneficial. The needs of a poor family, a Hispanic woman, a young professional, or a retired couple could be very different. A free youth recreation center may meet the need in one community, whereas another is looking to have a cultural center. Also, if your community is primarily a tourist attraction, perhaps a beach community, the needs may depend upon the season. This is true for college towns, also. Or your community may be heavily populated with retired citizens with specific wants and lifestyle choices. Current Trends in Government Policy Is your mayor more liberal or conservative? Is your governor a Democrat or Republican? Are elections coming up soon? Knowing the recent trend in policy and the shelf life of current legislation may impact which programs can be initiated. The paradigm shift that your community will make needs the support of local and state officials. Budget cuts and laws may prevent certain action steps from occurring. As a community, you will need to figure out how to get around these obstacles or pick another path. In some cases, referendums to policy need to occur and community leaders need to be changed. Either way, to be effective, new initiatives need government support. If your community is in the middle of having huge budget cuts to statefunded social programs, piggybacking your new ideas onto an existing program in this category may be a lost cause. Conversely, if new funds become available from the state, strategically tapping into this pot of money could greatly subsidize program start up costs. Current Effective Programming Are we reinventing the wheel? Don’t we already do this? Can we partner with a national organization? Before starting a new program, you need to make sure it does not exist. One of the most common mistakes communities or organizations make is duplication, not expansion. Too often a person or group of people wants to put their “individual” touch on a new program. This may not be the best idea. More than likely, this “unique” idea exists. It may not exist in your commu-

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nity, but twenty-first-century technology allows us to find these programs on the Internet. When creating a program, it is far better to expand upon an existing program or make improvements. The framework exists, funding generally exists, and an experienced staff exists. Innovation is a good thing but sometimes not very cost efficient. Starting from scratch can cost an organization or community a lot of start up money and time. Also, there could be turf issues. One program may find that your idea is in direct competition with their program. Collaboration would be more beneficial for the whole but can become very complicated. In the process egos may be bruised, but that is permissible. Today there is a national organization for almost anything. Your community may benefit more by starting a local chapter of an existing national program than creating its own similar program. This eliminates several of the initial questions with a program, such as mission statement, goals, objectives, website, literature, branding, and generally some additional allocation of funds. The Money Tree Is money currently available? Are we looking for investments or donations? Which agencies or foundations have grants available? Fundraising is a nightmare at times. It would be helpful to find a wealthy donor. Such a philanthropist might like to have his or her name inscribed on a building. These individuals may be hard to find. They may already be committed to a cause and have a building named after them. However, in a community there probably is a person or group of people who could and would be willing to finance a part of the program, if not the whole thing. And who knows, a person may want to have his or her name on more than one building! The other option is creating a partnership with a funder. Many people look for free money. The key is giving back to the funder so that they see it as an investment, not a donation. Projects that people invest in tend to be more successful than those to which people only donate their time and money. Shift Leaders Who will lead the charge? These new initiatives will need central leadership. This team of people must have the desire and the ability to push these programs forward. The passion of the leaders will rally a strong following. The “know how” will ensure the success of the program. With a dedicated team focused on its mission,

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the paradigm shift will occur and your community will be one step close to becoming a model community for youth.

SUCCESSFUL SERVICE-LEARNING There is no standard for the content of a service-learning project. There is also no standard to be a model community. Classrooms and communities across the nation continue to work on initiatives and projects that directly impact their community. Communities are all different because they have different concerns and issues. However, there are a few questions to think about and answer when integrating service learning into the curriculum. • What effect will this have on my classroom, school community, neighborhood, town, and so on? • How feasible is it to create a complete service-learning team? • What is the likelihood of this service-learning project become something more? • Does my service-learning team understand the connection between model community and our classroom project? These questions are important when guiding the service-learning team toward a final project. The impact of each project on the individual participants and community at large should be strongly considered. To best utilize service-learning experience the goal of the service-learning team needs to be improvement to self, teammates, and community. This may take on several forms, but all three pieces must see change.

CALLING ALL COMMUNITIES The necessity for youth focus is more prevalent today then ever before. Communities across the nation continue to fight for federal dollars to initiate youth programs with the youth voice being at the forefront. Now is the time for the local government, business community, school systems, and neighborhoods to join this movement. For far too long, nonprofit sectors and religious organizations have led this charge with a limited following. Without complete citizen engagement in youth initiatives, communities continue to waste money and efforts on moderately effective programs. The final chapter lays out the call to action.

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CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT CHAPTER CONTENT In this chapter each section had a couple of questions to consider. Here we want you to give us your answers. 1. Business Community Dynamic What is you business community dynamic? Is it made up of corporate headquarters, small business, franchises, large industrial parks, or primarily an agricultural or fishing community? How do you think this affects the likelihood of empowering youth? 2. Size of Community How many people would you consider to be part of your community? How densely populated is your community? How do you think that this affects the likelihood of empowering youth? 3. Community Facilities Does your community currently have the facilities necessary to implement and support change? How do you think that this affects the likelihood of empowering youth? 4. Shape of Community—Location and Geography Is your community an island, landlocked by mountains, 100 miles from a large city, or the heartland of skyscrapers? How do you think that this affects the likelihood of empowering youth? 5. Diversity What is the socioeconomic background? What is the ethnic make up of the community? Does your community cater to specific needs? How do you think that this affects the likelihood of empowering youth? 6. Current Trends in Government Policy What is the political affiliation of your governing body? Do you think political parties make a difference? Do they make a difference toward empowering youth? 7. Current Effective Programming Are we reinventing the wheel? Are our efforts duplicative? Can we partner with a national organization? 8. The Money Tree Is money currently available? Are we looking for investments or donations? 9. Shift Leaders Who will lead the charge in your community? Explain your answer.

Chapter 11 Call to Action

Please read and reflect on the following quotations: Well done is better than well said.—Benjamin Franklin What I have done will endure, not what I have said or written.—Mahatma Gandhi Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.—Mother Teresa

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER As you read and reflected on these quotations from three leaders, you no doubt noticed the one word they have in common—action. As you also reflect on the previous chapters of the book you will recall that service-learning teaches students information literacy, problem solving, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Because young people have acquired these skills, communities should include them in the decision-making process as they strive to become model communities. If you agree with these arguments, then what should you do if the youth in your community are not engaged, enriched, endorsed, and/or empowered? If this process has begun, how do you expand on existing efforts? To answer these questions recall the three types of service: direct, indirect, and advocacy. From this perspective the answer to the questions is easy: Young people should go advocate! This chapter explains the advocacy process, techniques of persuasion, and mobilizing the community.

ADVOCACY Mobilizing youth is one of the five action strategies Search Institute (2009a) offers for creating positive change. The other four are: engaging adults, 113

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activating sectors, invigorating programs, and influencing civic decisions. Service-learning mobilizes youth to take action. Community members can become the students’ champions because they have been a part of the servicelearning team. To advocate for a position, young people lobby, speak, and work to eliminate the causes of a problem or inform the public about the issue. When advocating, students learn to persevere, to articulate a concern and suggest solutions, to persuade people to act in a new way, and to appreciate the political process.

ADVOCACY PROCESS From the perspective of The National PTA, advocacy is focused persuasion! They have outlined the advocacy process with ten items: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

What is the issue? What is the goal? What information is needed and where is it found? Who will help? Who will do what tasks? When must each task be done? Who are the decision makers and when and where are they available? What solutions can be proposed? What are the outcomes in terms of the goal? What are the next steps?

The answer to each of these questions follows. 1. The issue is that youth have been educated through service-learning and other programs to assume leadership roles in the community and do not have a seat at the table, or much of a seat at the table. 2. The goal is to create a model community as discussed in chapter 8. Youth and their communities should consider a range of opportunities for young people, such as becoming recognized partners in the community development process, serving on advisory councils, making funding decisions, and serving on a board of directors. They also may want to work with existing programs that serve youth to increase their assets.

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3. Students should use their information literacy skills to learn what organizations and governmental bodies exist in their community. They can use the information in this book to make the case for their inclusion. 4. Students need to know if there is a strong constituency for creating a model community. Groups to approach include youth-focused organizations, such as the PTA and Scouts. Any organization or person who is excited about working with youth is approachable. These groups could then in turn help mobilize other sectors of the community, such as businesses and congregations. 5. Once students have formed a group, they need to determine which members of the group need to accomplish what tasks. For example, the group would want to decide who in an organization needs to be contacted and who will make the contact. Someone needs to make the contact. Some group members need to work on the presentation. And, some group members need to make the presentation. This is an opportunity to use their problem solving, critical thinking, and technology skills. The presentation should emphasize how youth enrichment, engagement, endorsement, and empowerment benefit the community. Remember this is not a one-person crusade. 6. Students should create a grid. On it, they should indicate the task that needs to be accomplished, who is assigned the task, and the date to accomplish the task. Changing a paradigm is not something that happens easily or immediately. Repeated contacts will be necessary. 7. Students need to know who in an organization is responsible for what. For example, if students want to have a voice on a county council, do they approach the president of the council or the county executive? If students want to sit on a board or subcommittee of a nonprofit organization, do they approach the board chair or the organization’s executive director? If students want more power in the school system decision-making, do they contact the board of education chair or the superintendent? 8. Students need to think through a number of options. As noted in item 2, student engagement, enrichment, endorsement, and empowerment in a community can take many forms. Perhaps becoming a voting member of a school board is not an option. But perhaps asking the superintendent to create a student advisory council is an option. Here is where students need to use their creative thinking skills as they think about various options. 9. As a result of the above process, students need to assess their successes and failures. What did they learn?

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10. If students experience some success, they may want to think how they can build on it. Are there other organizations that they can approach with their message of youth engagement, enrichment, endorsement, and empowerment? If they experience failure, they need to determine why. Was it the group they approached? Was their presentation weak? As a result of their answers to such questions, they may want to try their message on the same group or another group.

OUTCOMES FOR YOUTH As a result of the advocacy process young people’s internal assets are strengthened. In this regard Search Institute (2009b) enumerates four internal assets: commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity. Clearly through the advocacy process young people learn the positive values of integrity, honesty, and responsibility. They also learn the social competencies of planning and decision-making and peaceful conflict resolution. The advocacy process also enhances a positive identity. Students have personal power, enhanced self-esteem, sense of purpose, and a positive view of personal future.

THE PERSUASIVE MESSAGE In thinking about the presentation described above in item 5 of the advocacy process, students probably realize that they are trying to change attitudes. As such they need to know some attitude change principles. The elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) suggests several that are relevant to advocacy. This model and how to implement it are presented in the following paragraphs. First, the persuader needs to know whether the issue is important to the person he or she is trying to persuade. This determines whether the persuader uses the central or peripheral route to persuasion. Second, if the issue is important to the person being persuaded, the persuader uses the central route. In this case, the persuader focuses on the strength, number, and repetition of arguments in the communication. Third, if the issue is unimportant to the person being persuaded, the persuader uses the peripheral route. In this case, the persuader focuses on cues or heuristics (see chapters 4 and 6) that might persuade the person. Such heuristics include: high credibility-strong arguments; low credibility-weak

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arguments; people generally agree with people they like; depending on what others think accept or reject the message. If the persuader argues through the central route, a strong message is one containing arguments to which people generate favorable thoughts when they think about the message. On the other hand, a weak message is one containing arguments to which people generate unfavorable thoughts when they think about the message. With respect to advocating youth engagement, enrichment, endorsement, and empowerment, a strong message probably would include arguments about its positive impact on the local economy, school retention, youth crime, and youth addictions. In this example there are four basic arguments. A persuader wants to use several strong arguments and repeat the message several times. If the persuader is arguing through the peripheral route, a high credible source probably would include famous endorsers of youth involvement in decision-making, such as Richard Lerner and Peter Benson. A likable source could be a famous athlete or movie star. The persuader may want to provide information about how many other communities engage, enrich, endorse, and empower youth.

OTHER PERSUASION TECHNIQUES Persuaders want to think about how they want to empower youth. This decision could impact other strategies the persuader could use. For example, the foot-in-the-door technique (Freedman and Fraser, 1966) suggests that the persuader initially may want to ask for youth empowerment with a small request (e.g., serving on an advisory committee), followed up with a larger request (e.g., serving on a board of directors). Research suggests they are more likely to get the larger request using this strategy than starting out with the larger request. The door-in-the-face technique suggests that the persuader may initially start with the larger request (Cialdini, 2001). If this request is rejected, then the persuader wants to follow up with the smaller request. Using this strategy, they are more likely to get the smaller request. Another strategy may be equal-status contact. This strategy may be particularly useful if people have stereotypes suggesting that young people should be seen and not heard or some other negative thoughts. To demonstrate how equal-status contact might work, consider as an example the planning of a service-learning project.

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Adults and young people are working together to plan the service project. If both adults and young people are assigned similar tasks, they will have equal status as they work toward a joint goal (i.e., the service project). The norms of the planning group should foster group equality and egalitarian intergroup association and allow the adults to get to know the young people as individuals. Young people should use this opportunity to disconfirm negative stereotypes of young people. Perhaps older people also want to use this opportunity to disconfirm negative stereotypes of older people. This scenario meets the five conditions Cook (1985) proposes are necessary to create a favorable change in attitude. These are: 1. The status of the participants from the two social groups must be equal in the situation in which the contact occurs. 2. Attributes of the disliked group that become apparent during the contact must be such as to disconfirm the prevailing stereotypes believed about this group. 3. The contact situation must encourage, or perhaps require, a mutually interdependent relationship, that is, cooperation in the achievement of a joint goal. 4. The contact situation must have high acquaintance potential, that is, it must promote association of a sort that reveals enough detail about members of the disliked group to encourage seeing them as individuals rather than as persons with stereotyped group characteristics. 5. The social norms of the contact situation must favor the concept of group equality and egalitarian intergroup association.

PUBLIC COMMITMENT If young people have succeeded and the group they approached has embraced, endorsed, engaged, and empowered them, the young people will want the group or its chair to make a public commitment regarding how they have supported the four Es. Research suggests that once people have made a public commitment, they are more likely to follow through on it (Kiesler, 1971). This public commitment could take many forms but might include an op-ed article in the local paper and/or a press conference and/or a presentation at a civic organization. The group will also want to provide periodic updates on their success with the four Es. For example, in chapter 9 a public access television show that embraces youth, was highlighted. As a result of this show, other groups in the community may then want to jump on the bandwagon and support the four Es with their own television show.

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WHO ELSE CAN BEGIN THE ADVOCACY PROCESS? To this point the advocacy process was presented in terms of what students can do. Recall that advocacy is a type of service-learning. Of course, young people should not be the only advocates. Community members who served on the service-learning team can become the students’ champions. Students can also spark the interest of other adults and sectors of the community. For example, students in Los Angeles, California, led a campaign to redirect $153 million away from paying for swimming pool filters at wealthy schools toward improving school facilities in the South Central area of that city (From youth activities to youth action, 2004). Nonetheless, adults and other sectors of the community could begin the advocacy process because of an interest in young people and their community. A youth charter (Damon, 1997) exemplifies an adult led effort which is discussed in the next section.

THE YOUTH CHARTER For Damon (1997, p. 43) “a youth charter is a coherent set of standards and expectations for youth behavior, shared by all important people in a young person’s life. The charter can include moral standards such as honesty, compassion, decency, fairness, respect, and responsibility. It can include workrelated standards such as excellence in academic studies or in the vocational crafts. It can include standards of physical safety and fitness, hygiene habits, or acquiring athletic prowess. It can include expectations of service to family, friends, and community. And it can include spiritual goals such as the pursuit of transcendent purposes above and beyond the self.” The initiator of Damon’s youth charter is the adults in a community. The initiators should be adults and young people. Together they must decide on the role of young people in the community. The skills that young people learn from service-learning equip them to become active participants in this process.

THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION Why title this book, A Glorious Revolution for Youth and Communities? Vallance (2007) argued that the Glorious Revolution of 1688 was indeed a revolution for four reasons: the involvement of the English people; the enshrinement of Parliamentary government; cultural change; and limitations placed

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on the monarchy. As a result the relationship between the king of England and his people became a kind of contract, giving people greater power. Today, authority figures and community leaders need to work toward a new contract with young people. Communities need to engage, enrich, endorse, and empower their youth. They also need to decide what they want to call the new contract and what form it takes. Youth and adults need to decide on that together. This new contract and the process of creating it is one more step on our road to becoming a truly democratic nation. Let communities begin!

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About the Authors

George I. Whitehead III has a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. He is professor of psychology at Salisbury University. He is a past member and president of the Wicomico County Board of Education. For his board service he received the 2004 Charles W. Willis Award from Maryland Association of Boards of Education. He is a member of the District Leadership Network for Education Commission on States. He currently serves on several other boards. Dr. Whitehead is coauthor of a number of research articles in social psychology. For example, “Competence and Excuse-Making as Self-presentation Strategies” is included in Public Self and Private Self, edited by R. F. Baumeister. He is also coauthor of Serve and Learn: Implementing and Evaluating Service-Learning in Middle and High Schools. He and coauthor Andrew Kitzrow have worked together on positive youth development in Wicomico County including the Youth Leadership Academy and Hometown Heroes. They presented these projects at psychological conferences. They also founded Uandgeo, LLC and are working on several other projects. Dr. Whitehead is married with two children and three grandchildren. Andrew Kitzrow is a 2005 Johnston Scholar graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. He currently works in youth recreation programming and advocacy in Wicomico County, Maryland, and is cofounder of Uandgeo, LLC. Over the past three years he has helped represent Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury at two national conferences: 100 Best Communities for Youth and the All-American Cities. He currently is the host and cocreator of a local television show, Hometown Heroes that highlights youth serving in their community. The summer of 2010 will be the fourth year in a row that Mr. Kitzrow has helped organize a Youth Leadership Academy for middle and high school youth on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. This is Mr. Kitzrow’s first book publication and he looks forward to helping communities implement the ideas and models discussed herein. 129