The Importance of Reflection in Service Learning
"Reflection can maximize learning if teachers understand reflective practices and know how to model them for students."
Cathryn Berger Kaye, Principal Leadership Magazine, February 2014
Reflection happens before, during and after your service experience to encourage you to evaluate personal, social and civic issues related to your world and its connections to public policy and civic life.
Reflection is simply another word for learning. What distinguishes it from some other forms of learning is that reflection grows out of experience.
Critical reflection provides you with the opportunity to examine and question your beliefs, opinions, and values. It involves observation, asking questions, and putting facts, ideas, and experiences together to derive new meaning and new knowledge.
Reflection is a process designed to promote the examination and interpretation of experience and the promotion of cognitive learning. It is the process of looking back on the implications of actions taken - good and bad - determining what has been gained, lost, or achieved, and connecting these conclusions to future actions and larger societal contexts.
Reflection is an essential process for transforming experiences - gained from the service activities and the course materials - into genuine learning.
Sources:
Post-Service Reflection (Chicago Public Schools)
Service Learning Reflection Form (Guilford County Schools)
Service Learning Activity Hours Verification and Reflection Form
(Baltimore County Public Schools)
Service Reflection Toolkit (Northwest Service Academy, Portland, Oregon)
The Complete Guide to Service Learning, Cathryn Berger Kaye, Free Spirit Publishing, 2004
Cathryn Berger Kaye, Principal Leadership Magazine, February 2014
Reflection happens before, during and after your service experience to encourage you to evaluate personal, social and civic issues related to your world and its connections to public policy and civic life.
Reflection is simply another word for learning. What distinguishes it from some other forms of learning is that reflection grows out of experience.
Critical reflection provides you with the opportunity to examine and question your beliefs, opinions, and values. It involves observation, asking questions, and putting facts, ideas, and experiences together to derive new meaning and new knowledge.
Reflection is a process designed to promote the examination and interpretation of experience and the promotion of cognitive learning. It is the process of looking back on the implications of actions taken - good and bad - determining what has been gained, lost, or achieved, and connecting these conclusions to future actions and larger societal contexts.
Reflection is an essential process for transforming experiences - gained from the service activities and the course materials - into genuine learning.
Sources:
Post-Service Reflection (Chicago Public Schools)
Service Learning Reflection Form (Guilford County Schools)
Service Learning Activity Hours Verification and Reflection Form
(Baltimore County Public Schools)
Service Reflection Toolkit (Northwest Service Academy, Portland, Oregon)
The Complete Guide to Service Learning, Cathryn Berger Kaye, Free Spirit Publishing, 2004
Lincoln Student Service Learning Reflection Booklet
This booklet was designed to be filled out by Lincoln Students after Service Learning Week.
Should be printed on A3 size paper, double-sided.
Should be printed on A3 size paper, double-sided.
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Student Reflections from Service Learning Week 2015
The following student reflections were taken from the "Service Learning Reflective Booklet" designed for Lincoln students.
This experience helped me better understand many subjects, from math, by sorting out donations, to psychology, talking with kids and teenagers. Once you put these subjects to practice, they can really make a difference in the outcome of the situation.
Julia Celoria
Service Learning Week taught me to actively consider my responsibility to help and challenge myself and face my fears, even the greatest and hardest to deal with.
Claudia Colliva
This trip allowed me to think about my place in this world because now I see that with all the privileges life has given me, I can use that to push entire communities to help others. I can create projects to help people.
Paola Ieger Gaeski
Another challenge for me was to talk in Spanish all the time. I am so used to talking in English in school and I don't even talk a lot in Spanish class. Although I couldn't use all the grammar correctly, I am very glad that I can interact with little kids and even bigger kids and learn about their culture.
Analia Veronica Wu
My experience helped me come face to face with abject poverty, blatant corruption in the government, and deeply manifested social and economic polarity - all topics I had discussed in history and global politics class but never truly experienced or understood to the same extent.
Allie Pitchon
This experience taught me that rounding is not the same as precise measurements. I learned this in chemistry class and understood better through construction.
Bruno Tojeiro
During this experience I developed teamwork and unity, as well as equality. I used to believe that teamwork caused only a distraction.
Bruno Tojeiro
This experience helped me better understand what it really means to have vast inequality in a population. The Millenium Development Goals and their statistics became far more vivid to me.
Alegria Ruseler-Smith
This experience helped me better understand many subjects, from math, by sorting out donations, to psychology, talking with kids and teenagers. Once you put these subjects to practice, they can really make a difference in the outcome of the situation.
Julia Celoria
Service Learning Week taught me to actively consider my responsibility to help and challenge myself and face my fears, even the greatest and hardest to deal with.
Claudia Colliva
This trip allowed me to think about my place in this world because now I see that with all the privileges life has given me, I can use that to push entire communities to help others. I can create projects to help people.
Paola Ieger Gaeski
Another challenge for me was to talk in Spanish all the time. I am so used to talking in English in school and I don't even talk a lot in Spanish class. Although I couldn't use all the grammar correctly, I am very glad that I can interact with little kids and even bigger kids and learn about their culture.
Analia Veronica Wu
My experience helped me come face to face with abject poverty, blatant corruption in the government, and deeply manifested social and economic polarity - all topics I had discussed in history and global politics class but never truly experienced or understood to the same extent.
Allie Pitchon
This experience taught me that rounding is not the same as precise measurements. I learned this in chemistry class and understood better through construction.
Bruno Tojeiro
During this experience I developed teamwork and unity, as well as equality. I used to believe that teamwork caused only a distraction.
Bruno Tojeiro
This experience helped me better understand what it really means to have vast inequality in a population. The Millenium Development Goals and their statistics became far more vivid to me.
Alegria Ruseler-Smith