Kimberley Manning

Kimberley Manning
Political Science
University of Washington, Seattle Campus

Integrating a Service Learning Course

How do you structure a course where your students are going to have drastically different learning experiences? In Spring 2003, Kimberley Manning, a Teaching Assistant in Political Science, found herself in that position. Her course was built around service learning, but not all of her students participated in service learning projects. How could she bridge the learning gap between her nine students who volunteered with local organizations and the five who choose to conduct research instead? How could the students who didn't participate in the service learning projects benefit from the experiences of those who did?

Her solution was to create "citizen clusters" where each of her students shared their findings with each other. Each cluster contained both students who participated in service learning and those who did not. They used the Portfolio tool to keep journals and learn about each other's experiences.

Using Portfolio for Service Learning

Manning posted weekly questions using Portfolio to encourage the service learning students to reflect on their projects,

as well as to connect what they were reading in class with their service learning work. Students wrote at least once a week in a "learning journal" that they uploaded into their individual portfolios. They also wrote two response papers during the course.

Manning gave detailed responses to individual students through the comments section of the Portfolio tool. She was able to monitor student progress in their reflection and research and offer timely feedback to them. She also integrated what they wrote into the class discussion.

The students in each cluster read each other's Portfolio entries to learn about the variety of service projects and research and the differences therein. Each cluster of students met weekly to reflect on their learning, to model different ways of making decisions, and to create and give a final presentation.

Reactions and Recommendations

Manning found that her use of Portfolio for a service learning class was time intensive as she spent two to four hours per week giving detailed feedback to students. She also found it challenging to push students to broaden their thinking and question their assumptions. However, students mentioned that Manning's responses were the most helpful aspect of the class, along with their own reflection on their work.

In retrospect, she would have created more structured assignments aimed at a final research paper for the students who were conducting research projects. She also would have liked to see the use of different types of artifacts, such as video clips from interviews, sound files, and more.

Overall, Manning feels that Portfolio is the ideal tool for teaching small service learning classes. In her evaluation of the course, Manning felt Portfolio's ability to give immediate feedback to students contributed significantly to her course's success. Her students also said that the portfolio tool was very useful for integrating the class.