COMPLEX MODEL2 & AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

LEARNING SCENARIO BASED ON Service learning

In the service learning, learners use their knowledge and skills acquired in their learning in the real environment such as local communities. By experiencing service learning, learners can benefit as follows.

The benefit of learners (Vandelbilt University, 2017)

Improves their ability to apply what they have learned in “the real world”
Have a greater sense of personal efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth, and moral development
Have a greater interpersonal development, particularly the ability to work well with others, and build leadership and communication skills
Have a reduced stereotypes and greater inter-cultural understanding
Improves social responsibility and citizenship skills
Have connections with professionals and community members for learning and career opportunities

Not only learners, communities which learners engage as a service learning can have valuable human resources needed to achieve community goals. Furthermore, they can get a new energy, enthusiasm and perspectives applied to community work, and enhanced community-university relations.

Recently, I am interested in the topic “how to attract foreign travelers to local areas”. Therefore, I would like to employ service learning and the learning scenario is as follows. I used the similar scenario in the page “complex learning scenario1: PBL”.

Prof. Yang, who teaches sociology in Matsue University and is a coordinator of the class “how to contribute to the local community”, wants to set a theme “how to attract foreign travelers to Matsue city”. He decided to make a learning scenario as follows. Furthermore, Students are required to make portfolio to collect deliverables and reflect at the end of this class.

Steps of the class "How to attract foreign travelers to Matsue city" based on service learning

Students learn the basic knowledge and skills regarding current situation of foreign travelers in Matsue from staffs in tourism offices.
Students make groups, research how the other cities attract foreign travelers, and make a proposal to attract them.
Students visit some local communities such as tourist information office which relates their proposal and ask to work voluntarily for 2 weeks.
Students work in the related local communities and implement their proposal while getting practical information from staffs.
Students go back school and make presentation to Prof. Yang and the other students.

The related learning theory is constructivism. Students can acquire basic knowledge and skills by researching related information, but the meaning of each information varies between students.

THE AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT USING PORTFOLIO

The complex learning project to assess the learning scenario above is basically worked on ePortfolio because we cannot evaluate them using multiple choice tests. To assess the process and the results of students in service learning, students submit their ePortfolio in the capstones below.

Student's task on ePortfolio

Students proposal to the local communities and related knowledge and skills learned beforehand.
Students experience on how their proposal processed when they are working in the local communities.
Students reflection by answering questions below.
Could you work cooperatively with staffs in local communities? What is the cause of your success and fail?
Could you use knowledge and skills learned beforehand in the local community? What is the cause of your success and fail?

After students finished filling in a portfolio, they need to peer-review each portfolio based on a rubric. Students are provided rubric beforehand they start their work in local communities.

REFLECTING MY LEARNING EXPERIENCE BASED ON service learning

★ Please check my learning experience page before reading this paragraph.

Regarding service learning, I have never experienced. For example, what I learned in the google digital workshop will be benefit in some divisions in the university which administer websites, but I did not have a chance to work there. If I could, I could reflect my knowledge and skills acquire in the workshop and discriminate the importance of each contents in the real working situation. Furthermore, I can relearn or take another course to learn insufficient points which I faced in the service learning.

Vanderbilt University (2017). What is Service Learning or Community Engagement?. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-through-community-engagement/

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