Information Literacy related assignments in Service-Learning Courses
In the UH 202-203 course in which I was embedded librarian, the faculty members, at my suggestion, required the students to use a scholarly article in one of their reflection essays. The faculty asked the students to: Find a scholarly article related to your service experience. Compare and contrast one of your service experiences, what you witnessed "in the field," with what the author(s) of the article describe or document.
- Our hypothesis was that this would help students "deepen" their reflections. Often in service-learning courses, instructors are disappointed by the students' reflections because they write what they think the instructor wants to hear. Our attempt was successful in some ways; however, I also suspect that some students just picked the easiest article they could find and that made the decision for them as far as which experience to write about. Many students used the same article. I'll be thinking of ways to improve this idea/assignment.