Service Learning in Psychology
Service learning allows psychology undergraduates to improve their academic, personal, civic, and preprofessional outcomes through civic engagement. Students hone knowledge and skills from the classroom by collaborating with community organizations and residents in community-based activities. Community service that is integrated into a psychology course might include tutoring children, developing informational brochures, promoting social change, or conducting participatory community action research.
This book reviews the theory, research, and practice behind service learning, establishing it as an effective pedagogy that can help psychology departments meet the five key learning goals outlined in the Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major:
- knowledge base in psychology
- scientific inquiry and critical thinking
- ethical and social responsibility in a diverse world
- communication
- professional development
Chapters provide clear guidelines for designing service learning courses and integrating them into the undergraduate psychology curriculum. Specific implementation strategies — including sample project designs and reflection assignments — are applied to introductory, major, and capstone courses in a wide variety of popular subjects. Bringle and colleagues also examine faculty development, assessment, and scholarship, providing useful blueprints for department-wide civic engagement.
Foreword
Thomas McGovern
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Psychology and Civic Engagement
- Psychologically Literate Citizens: Civic Learning for the Public Good
- Service Learning, Civic Engagement, and Science
II. Pedagogical Approaches
- Designing a Service Learning Course
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Introductory Psychology
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Abnormal, Health, and Community Psychology
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Personality, Social, and Cultural Psychology
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Developmental Psychology
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Cognition, Learning, and Behavioral Neuroscience
- Integrating Service Learning Into the Curriculum: Statistics, Research Methods, and Research Capstone
- Future Directions: Incorporating Service Learning in Learning Communities, Interdisciplinary Courses, Online Courses, Civic Internships, and Study Abroad
III. Faculty Engagement
- Faculty Development for Service Learning
- The Engaged Psychology Department
- Assessment, Research, and Scholarship on Service Learning
Appendix A: American Psychological Association Learning Goals and Outcomes Indicators
Appendix B: American Psychological Association Learning Goals and Inferred Attributes
Appendix C: Reflection Map
References
Index
About the Authors
Robert G. Bringle, PhD, received his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
He is the Kulynych/Cline Visiting Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State University; Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Philanthropic Studies, and Senior Scholar, Center for Service and Learning at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). From 1994 to 2012, he served as executive director of the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning.
He has published With Service in Mind: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Psychology (with D. Duffy), The Measure of Service Learning (with M. Phillips & M. Hudson), International Service Learning (with J. Hatcher & S. Jones), and Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment. Vol. 2A: Students and Faculty, and Vol. 2B: Communities, Institutions, and Partnerships (with P. H. Clayton & J. A. Hatcher).
Dr. Bringle received the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning, the IUPUI Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Legacy of Service Award from Indiana Campus Compact. In 2004, he was recognized at the International Service-Learning Research Conference for his outstanding contributions to the service learning research field. The University of the Free State, South Africa, awarded him an honorary doctorate for his scholarly work on civic engagement and service learning.
Roger N. Reeb, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
He is a professor of psychology and Roesch Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences at University of Dayton. At this institution, he served as Director of Graduate Programs in Psychology (2006–2014), received awards (Alumni Award in Teaching, 2012; Outstanding Faculty Service-Learning Award, 1997; Service-Learning Faculty Research Award, 1998), and was nominated for the national Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning (1998). From APA, he received the Dissertation Award (1991) and the Springer Award for Excellence in Research in Rehabilitation Psychology (Division 22; 1994).
Dr. Reeb's research focuses on homelessness, psychopathology, and service learning outcomes for students and community. With approximately 30 publications and 80 conference presentations, he published Community Action Research: Benefits to Community Members and Service Providers (2006), edited a service learning research section for American Journal of Community Psychology (2010), and developed the Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale. He serves on numerous editorial boards (e.g., Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning).
As a licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Reeb serves on the Homeless Solutions Board and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Board (Montgomery County, Ohio).
Margaret A. Brown, PhD, received her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Washington.
She is a professor of psychology at Seattle Pacific University. She is an experienced service learning practitioner and has won multiple awards for excellence in teaching, including the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Washington and the endowed Patricia M. Bentz Teacher of the Year Award from Seattle Pacific University.
She was recently nominated by her institution for the CASE/Carnegie Foundation's U.S. Professor of the Year Award. In addition, she is the recipient of a National Science Foundation fellowship.
Dr. Brown's research interests are self-psychology and the intersection of prosocial behavior and intergroup relations. She is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters and has coauthored a text on self-psychology.
Dr. Brown has conducted rigorous theory-based, experimental research on service learning. Her examinations of service learning as a form of counternormative helping behavior have revealed its impact on social justice attitudes. This line of research has also identified multiple mediators and moderators of this relationship, such as empathy, generosity, and intergroup contact.
Ana I. Ruiz, PhD, received her doctorate in developmental psychology from Cornell University.
She is a professor of psychology at Alvernia University. Her publications include the book Service-Learning Code of Ethics, chapters and articles on ethical issues in international service learning and research on international service learning, the impact of service on alumni career development, and teaching ethics to undergraduate psychology students.
Dr. Ruiz is the cocreator of the online resource "Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Psychology Studentsopens in new window." Her scholarship has been funded by grants from Campus Compact, the Association for Psychological Science (Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science), and APA (Division 2, Instructional Resource Award from Society for the Teaching of Psychology). She has presented at numerous national and international conferences.
Dr. Ruiz has successfully completed service learning projects in several undergraduate psychology courses, served on several ethics boards, and consulted on adoption and implementation of service learning.
Very highly recommended for academic library Contemporary Psychology reference collection and supplemental studies reading lists.
—Midwest Book Review
