Developmental education is a vital component to the transition from secondary to post-secondary education and has been the subject of much discussion related to current challenges faced in the changing academic environment. Through examination of three successful movements in higher education, the service-learning, Open Educational Resources (OER) and sustainability movements, attributes of effective reform will be discussed and analyzed. Levers for transformative change in post-secondary education will be discussed and applied to developmental education in an attempt to resituate developmental education and provide proactive suggestions for reform. / text

This study examined the role service learning might play in increasing students’ public speaking self-efficacy in a required public speaking course. By increasing students’ public speaking mastery experiences with real world audiences and by providing them with additional feedback from community professionals in the audience, a service learning approach might potentially raise students’ perceptions of public speaking selfefficacy beyond what is gained from a public speaking course taught in a traditional way. A repeated measures, quasi-experimental study design with a comparison group was utilized in this study. Participants included 274 students enrolled in service learning public speaking courses and 328 students enrolled in traditionally taught public speaking courses at the University of Kentucky during the fall 2010 semester. Students enrolled in the service learning sections participated in at least 10 hours of service at a local nonprofit agency in lieu of classroom “seat time” over the course of the semester and developed their speech assignments around the experiences they had at the agency. First, this study attempted to provide support for a new measure of public speaking selfefficacy. In addition, it examined the relationship between students’ public speaking selfefficacy and their public speaking skill, as well as whether students enrolled in the service learning sections experienced different levels of public speaking self-efficacy than their non-service learning counterparts. This study also aimed to discover which sources of self-efficacy are most influential for students in developing their public speaking self-efficacy. Finally, this study compared speech performance ratings (including overall speech performance generally and delivery, structure, and content specifically) of students enrolled in service learning sections and students enrolled in traditional sections. Overall, results provided support for a new public speaking selfefficacy scale. In addition, public speaking self-efficacy and skill were weakly correlated. Next, service-learning and non-service learning students did not differ significantly on measures of public speaking self-efficacy or skill. Finally, mastery experiences seemed to have a larger impact on public speaking self-efficacy for servicelearning students than for non-service learning students.

Our educational system has long claimed that preparing students to be active citizens is one of its main goals. With high-stakes testing pressures, schools with high minority enrollment have been found to cut back social studies programs and/or implement a drill and practice fragmented teaching style. (Center on Education Policy, 2007; McNeil and Valenzuela, 2000). This research project seeks to understand how civic engagement opportunities were provided for, the impact of these opportunities on students and community members in Corpus Christi, Texas, during the last 15 years, and the ways in which these opportunities may serve to maximize civic engagement for today’s Latino/a student. Using oral histories and archival data as a means to uncover the history of civic-minded organizations in Corpus Christi, Texas, on high school youth and their community, this research project will investigate the founding of the organizations, the people involved in them, and the impact of these organizations as it is perceived by alumni and those with direct experience of the organizations. While a study of this type may not be highly generalizable, it will provide new insights into promising civic education and engagement for previously marginalized groups of students. The findings of this research should add to the educational and social science literature by providing a nuanced understanding of how civic engagement opportunities may be tailored to fit into the learning environment of the high school civics classroom and beyond. / text

In this project, I theorize public pedagogy in rhetoric and composition by examining a series of case studies within the writing programs and departments of the University of Arizona, Syracuse University, and Oberlin College. This cross-institutional study employs comparative analysis of historical, pedagogical, and institutional documents, as well as interviews I conducted with 19 faculty, administrators, and graduate teaching assistants. First, I draw on archival data to construct institutional histories that trace "town and gown" relations and institutional commitments to equality, social justice, religious and moral education, and the ideals of a land-grant mission. Then, building on these histories, I identify administrative practices that offer sustainable models for long-term public pedagogies. This research employs stakeholder theory to examine what is at stake for students and instructors engaging in public pedagogies. More specifically, I use transformative learning theory to discuss the potential rewards for students who "go public" with their writing and experiences. Finally, I examine classroom practices of instructors and argue for a theory of public pedagogy that is rhetorical, transformative, and located. I offer a model that suggests how writing program administrators might locate public pedagogies within their institution, program, and/or classrooms. I also provide instructors of rhetoric and composition with a series of questions and a graphic for usage when developing public pedagogies within their courses. This study contributes to current scholarly conversations about public writing, community outreach, and civic engagement by examining how programs and pedagogies function across different institutional contexts.

This practicum is an exploration of the role of the “visionary community designer” described by Randolph Hester in his recommended participatory design process “a refrain with a view.” The question of this practicum is simply this: what lessons can be learned about how to function as Hester’s visionary community designer while conducting a participatory design process as a service learning project? This practicum is both pragmatic and transformative in philosophy. It uses a subjectivist research strategy in which research outcomes are qualitative and the knowledge generated is subjective. This practicum includes a case study comparison of seminal approaches to the participatory design of public spaces in the United States; records a brief participatory design process conducted as a service learning research project in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia; and culminates with lessons learned during the participatory design process with regard to acting as Hester’s visionary community designer. / May 2017

Purpose: In 2011, Clinical Service-Learning (DENS 762) became a formal university-designated course required to all senior dental students at VCU School of Dentistry. The interest of this study was to measure students' experience in treating pediatric patients and to determine the effect the course had on students' self-perceived confidence in treating the pediatric population. Methods: This was an observational study of the VCU class of 2012 who were enrolled in the clinical service-learning class. Following their service-learning rotations, fourth-year dental students were surveyed about their experiences on their service-learning rotation. Out of 105 students, 76 completed the survey. Results: The majority of students (55%) who completed the survey felt more confident in treating the pediatric dental population. Increase in confidence was not associated with demographic factors of the students. Placement of sealants (p-value = 0.0022) and experience in local anesthesia (p-value = 0.0008) were the two factors most strongly associated with students’ increase in confidence. Compared to their school-based pediatric rotation, students received more experience in pulp therapy, extractions and treating children 0-3 years old during service-learning rotation. Conclusion: This study concludes that greater exposure to pediatric dental experiences during a service-learning rotation increased students’ confidence in treating the pediatric population at VCU School of Dentistry. Service-learning rotation can be a good supplement for the school’s pediatric dental rotation and has the potential to increase dental students' willingness to treat the pediatric population once they graduate.

The following question and sub-question guide this thesis project: 1) How does a service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology? 2.) What are some barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers? A positive service-learning experience provides good learning models which have the potential to address the barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers by influencing their self-efficacy. Included in this thesis is a unit plan which responds to these research questions. There are many barriers to teaching technology for teachers including lack of funds, availability and quality of computer hardware and software, teaching models for using computer technology in instruction, time to learn to use computer technology, and teacher attitude (Rogers, 2000). A service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course could increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology by addressing these needs, the most important of which is providing pre-service teachers with a model for using computer technology in their instruction. Computer hardware and software availability is a problem which the teacher educator can address through writing a grant for funds, computer hardware and software, introducing the pre-service teachers to free and open source software, and negotiating with the partner school's administration and classroom teachers. Equally important is discussing this process with the pre-service teachers so they may learn from that experience. A positive experience teaching using computer technology has the potential to change pre-service teacher attitude about the ability of a teacher to influence students and their personal ability as a teacher (Wade, 1995; Root & Furco, 2001). Through service-learning, K-12 students and pre-service teachers have the opportunity to teach each other about digital art. It is through these unit plans that a mutual relationship is formed, which enables learning to occur on both ends. Throughout the unit plan, pre-service teachers are given time to reflect on their learning experiences and discuss what they are learning by working with the students. When teaching digital art to pre-service teachers, while it is important to give goals, guidelines and some basic instruction to lay the ground work for future discoveries, pre-service teachers and students alike need the opportunity to find the solutions to their own technical and artistic problems. The curricular ideas and unit plans contained within this thesis may serve as idea-generators for teacher educators interested in enriching their computer technology curriculum for pre-service teachers by incorporating service-learning into their practice. The big ideas were chosen to emphasize the idea of a learning community. Students and pre-service teachers develop a relationship over the course of teaching in which both learn from each other through the pre-service teachers' lessons and how the lessons are interpreted by the students. In effect, these unit plans are a beginning for future projects which integrate service-learning and the digital arts.

College completion is an issue of great concern in the United States, where only 50% of students who start college as freshmen complete a bachelor's degree at that institution within six years. Researchers have studied a variety of factors to understand their relationship to student persistence. Not surprisingly, student characteristics, particularly their academic background prior to entering college, have a tremendous influence on college success. Colleges and universities have little control over student characteristics unless they screen out lesser qualified students during the admissions process, but selectivity is contrary to the push for increased accessibility for under-served groups. As a result, institutions need to better understand the factors that they can control. High-impact educational practices have been shown to improve retention and persistence through increased student engagement. Service-learning, a pedagogical approach that blends meaningful community service and reflection with course content, is a practice that is increasing in popularity, and it has proven beneficial at increasing student learning and engagement. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether participation in service-learning has any influence in the likelihood of degree completion or time to degree and, secondarily, to compare different methods of analysis to determine whether use of more complex models provides better information or more accurate prediction. The population for this study was a large public urban research institution in the mid-Atlantic region, and the sample was the cohort of students who started as first-time, full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking undergraduates in the fall of 2005. Data included demographic and academic characteristics upon matriculation, as well as financial need and aid, academic major, and progress indicators for each of the first six years of enrollment. Cumulative data were analyzed using logistic regression, and year-to-year data were analyzed using discrete-time survival analysis in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Parameter estimates and odds ratios for the predictors in each model were compared. Some similarities were found in the variables that predict degree completion, but there were also some striking differences. The strongest predictors for degree completion were pre-college academic characteristics and strength of academic progress while in college (credits earned and GPA). When analyzed using logistic regression and cross-sectional data, service-learning participation was not a significant predictor for completion, but it did have an effect on completion time for those students who earned a degree within six years. When analyzed longitudinally using discrete-time survival analysis, however, service-learning participation is strongly predictive of degree completion, particularly when credits are earned in the third, fourth, and sixth years of enrollment. In the survival analysis model, service-learning credits earned were also more significant for predicting degree completion than other credits earned. In terms of data analysis, logistic regression was effective at predicting completion, but survival analysis seems to provide a more robust method for studying specific variables that may vary by time.

Thesis advisor: James M. O'Toole / This dissertation examines the development of youth volunteer service in the United States through a constellation of religious, private, and government programs. It explores how this larger impulse, which includes “service trips,” service–learning courses, and postgraduate programs like the Peace Corps, became a normative and ubiquitous opportunity for middle class, and consequently largely white, Americans. This study weaves together multiple programs, and a rich array of ideas and events such as social gospel concerns, pacifism, William James’ arguments for a “moral alternative to war,” gender and class anxieties, Great Depression and Cold War–specific exigencies, the Catholic Lay Apostolate, 1960s student activism, and the War on Poverty. The dissertation further demonstrates the religious roots of this phenomenon, as seen through Protestant and Catholic programs in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Further, it shows that this paradigm of volunteer has always been twofold in its aim; it has focused both on the growth and education of the volunteer as they served others. It also shows that impulse has always been a limited agent for large–scale social change. Service programs were by their nature short–term projects meant to expose and educate volunteers to more entrenched social problems. Finally, while adult organizers often made service opportunities a possibility, it was the desire of many young women and men to “do more” with their time and abilities outside of traditional educational or professional options was the engine that truly drove and grew this movement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: Sharlene Hesse-Biber / Service-learning is an experiential form of education that moves students outside of the walls of academe to meet community-identified needs through the application and renegotiation of a set of theoretical and methodological skills. It is simultaneously a teaching strategy, an epistemological framework, and an educational reform movement. This research takes the form of multi-methodological case studies of service-learning classrooms and service-learning partnerships, examining the translation of feminist pedagogy to the service-learning experience. The voices of students, faculty, pioneers, administrators, and community partners articulate the common and uncommon struggles of teaching a new generation of students to learn and serve in agencies while simultaneously recognizing their own capacity for agency. This work provides evidence that applying feminist pedagogical principles to service-learning initiatives creates more meaningful transformations for our students, faculty, and communities. The interdependent Feminist Service-Learning Process posited here is an innovative framework for moving our students across the civic borders necessary for community engagement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.