Service to the community is a key component of a Notre Dame education and a big part of the school’s central mission. Two summers ago, NDP students joined other students from southeast Michigan to help beautify Detroit for a week as part of Summer in the City, a two-month season of service in which young people from the city and suburbs get together to paint, plant and play together. The students spent eight weeks painting murals, planting community gardens and mentoring children in the neighborhoods of Detroit. Cathryn Berger Kaye is a noted author and educator.
Service learning becomes ever more important as universities and employers increasingly seek evidence of service learning experience in the young people that they attract. Fortunately, Berger Kaye explains that the concept of service learning has been well developed so that there is now a reliable process to follow – The five stages of service learning. What is significant about the five stages—investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration—is that students already follow them during many other experiences, primarily for learning. But when the service element is added, the students benefit from real world applications of their academic learning.
The five stages are embedded in the community project in the Middle Years Program (MYP) and in the new guide to Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) in the Diploma Program (DP). Service can also be found in the Primary Years Program (PYP) under the essential element of “action.”
(From International Baccalaureate's "IB in Practice" Volume 2, Issue 5, 2014)
The five stages of service learning
Cathryn Berger Kaye is a noted author and educator.
By Cathryn Berger Kaye
Investigation:
Students participate in social analysis of a selected issue, with identification and confirmation of a community need, often with the designated community partner. Having an inventory of interests, skills, talents and areas for personal growth, students are able to make choices based on their priorities and abilities and the designated need.
Preparation:
Students design a service plan appropriate to the identified need, with clarification of roles and responsibilities, resource requirements, and timelines to successfully implement the plan. Any community partners are likely to be consulted. Students also acquire and develop the knowledge and skills needed for the experience.
Action:
Students implement the plan through direct service, indirect service, advocacy, or research. Their service may be a combination of one or more of these types of service. Students may work individually, with partners, or in groups.
Reflection:
Students examine their thoughts, feelings and actions applied to the context of self, community and the world. With service learning, reflection often occurs with greater frequency as students identify significant moments generated by new situations and insights.
Demonstration:
Students make explicit what and how they learned and what they have accomplished, for example, by sharing their service experience with others in an informal or formal manner. Through demonstration and communication, students solidify their understanding and evoke response from others.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.