Overview
Service Learning challenges you to reflect on and understand the principles of equity and social justice that underpin contemporary social policy through active participation in a sustained period of service to communities characterised by diversity and disadvantage. The unit uses inquiry-based instruction methods and experiential learning to promote your understanding of the concept of "hidden curriculum" and the social, economic and environmental injustices and personal biases that affect your own teaching practice and implementation of the curriculum in diverse classroom settings. You will engage in action research to investigate, identify and collaborate in partnership with community organisations that have the potential for promoting understanding of the social realities of communities, families and students in primary school settings. You will actively participate in service appropriate to your level of skill development. and reflect on your experiences; your own previous understandings of teaching and learning; and your preconceived notions about students from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Through personal critique and evaluation of the service learning experience, pre-service teachers are equipped with strategies for involving parents and communities in the educative process and are positioned to acknowledge, appreciate and respond to the "funds of knowledge" and diverse characteristics that students bring to educational settings.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student survey
Timing of placement
Flexibility of placement has been considered
Feedback from Student survey
Student support
Consider additional student support options for Term 3 study
- Use relevant standards, codes of conduct and/or codes of ethics to reflect on professional roles and responsibilities in relation to principles of equity and social justice
- Conduct self-assessment to identify professional attributes, dispositions, skills and strategies for responding to communities and taking informed social action
- Propose a viable plan for community engagement with the aim of developing knowledge and understanding of the strengths and needs of social contexts experienced by diverse groups and families
- Critically reflect on a sustained period of organised service to draw implications for professional practice
- Evaluate the impact of service on personal and professional learning and the development of skills for successful participation in communities and contexts characterised by diversity and disadvantage.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs
6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
| 2 - Professional Practice Placement - 0% | |||||
| 3 - Practical and Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||||
| 5 - Team Work | |||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Professional Practice Placement - 0% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Practical and Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
m.elsmore@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Topic 1A:
What is Service Learning?
Topic 1B:
How can Service Learning contribute to professional learning?
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 2A:
Understanding community organisations
Topic 2B:
Developing a Service Learning Plan
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 3A:
Self assessment of personal and professional skills
Topic 3B:
Legislative and organisational responsibilities in planning for Service Learning
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 4A:
Learning through the Service Learning experience
Topic 4B:
Meeting your goals through the Service Learning experience
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Topic 5A:
The Art of Reflection
Topic 5B:
Reflection on, for, and in Service Learning
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Perspectives of Service Learning
The Zoom Session this week will review the requirements of the Service Learning Placement and Assessment Task 1.
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
No Zoom sessions are scheduled for this week with assessment task 1 due.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Critical Reflection
The Zoom session this week will review progress with Service Learning Placement and Assessment Task 3.
Chapter
Readings embedded within unit and in eReading List
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Drop in Sessions will be held in Week 9, 10 and 11 to check in with how you are progressing with your service learning placement and review assessment requirements. Check Moodle for scheduled times.
Chapter
Refer to the documentation provided to support the Service Learning placement and the guides and materials within Moodle for Assessment Task 3.
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
Assessment Task 1: Service Learning Plan (2000 - 2500 words)
This assessment task builds deep understanding of the strengths and needs of the local communities in which your professional work might be enacted. The task provides opportunities for you to:
- identify sources of professional knowledge that support your future work;
- engage with external professional bodies and local community groups; and
- support the needs of diverse groups/individuals within your community.
After investigating the needs of your local community, choose a community based organisation/context through which you can complete 20 hours of service learning. Remember that the idea is that you move beyond the normal scope of your professional understandings. If you are a Bachelor of Education student for example, you should look beyond the educational setting for your placement. Source your own placement with the organisation of your choice. Once this is done, you can start documenting a Service Learning Plan that shows evidence of your:
- developing knowledge about service learning and its reciprocity value to community and to you as a participant;
- reflection on ethical practices and professional responsibilities for enacting a service learning plan;
- investigation through documented research into the goals and activities of the community organisation/context and the needs of the local community;
- self-assessment of your current personal and professional skills, attributes and dispositions that might support you to meet your goals for the service learning placement; and
- personal competence and accuracy in communicating a clear action plan for service learning.
Your completed Service Learning Plan must also include a signed copy of your Confirmation of Service Learning document. Please refer to the Assessment Block for further information.
Please note that you may undertake your 20 hours of service learning placement AFTER you have submitted Assessment Task 1 (Service Learning Plan). The completion of the Service Learning Plan however relies on you having CONFIRMATION of the PLACEMENT with your chosen organisation.
Guidance will be provided within Zoom Session and Moodle materials to create your Service Learning Plan.
Word Count: 2000 - 2500 words maximum
The word count is considered from the first word of the Introduction to the last word of the Conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence agents (Gen AI)
Within this assessment, the use of Gen AI agents is as follows:
- No GEN AI use at any point during this assessment.
Week 7 Friday (20 Dec 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Online submission is required. Upload the assignment through the Moodle link for Assessment Task 1 in the assessment block.
Assessment task 1 will be returned to students in a timely way that facilitates feedback for the completion of Assessment Task 3.
- demonstrated knowledge and understanding about service learning and its reciprocity value to community and to the participant both personally and professionally;
- research and identify the strengths and diverse needs of wider community and explain how these align with the chosen community organisation's goals and activities in response to equity and social justice;
- propose a viable service learning plan for community engagement that identifies ethical and professional roles and responsibilities when working with diverse groups and families with a community;
- evidence of self-assessment that identifies and reflects personal and professional skills and attributes that inform goal setting relevant to enacting a service learning placement;
- personal written competencies in communicating a service learning plan that demonstrates use of unit materials, professional policy documents and academic practices and conventions.
- evidence of Confirmation of Service Learning arrangements
- Use relevant standards, codes of conduct and/or codes of ethics to reflect on professional roles and responsibilities in relation to principles of equity and social justice
- Conduct self-assessment to identify professional attributes, dispositions, skills and strategies for responding to communities and taking informed social action
- Propose a viable plan for community engagement with the aim of developing knowledge and understanding of the strengths and needs of social contexts experienced by diverse groups and families
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
2 Professional Practice Placement
Assessment Task 2: Service Learning: 20 hrs engaged service
This is a non-graded but compulsory participation component of this unit. You MUST COMPLETE 20hrs of service learning in a community organisation/context of your choice, but must be undertaken out of the education/schooling context if you are enrolled in the Bachelor of Education course.
This is an opportunity for you to move beyond and away from your usual work and study context and to engage with a specific organisation within your local community. The purpose of service learning is to assist you to develop an understanding about the diverse community members whom the organisation serves and supports. This heightens your awareness about the diverse backgrounds and circumstances of community; socio-economic, cultural, religious, physical, social and intellectual.
PLEASE NOTE: A SIGNED Checklist for Completion of Service Learning MUST be submitted as evidence of successful completion of the service learning.
The Checklist for Completion of Service Learning must be submitted with the documentation that supports the final assessment item, Assessment Task 3, to be eligible to pass this unit. A failure to complete the required 20 hrs of service learning will result in a failed grade overall for the unit.
The service learning placement must be completed within timeframes that support the completion of Assessment Task 3 requirements.
There is no feedback on the placement itself. Feedback on the final assessment task will be provided following moderation.
This component is not formally assessed. Rather, a Checklist for Completion of Service Learning is to be submitted as part of Assessment Task 3 as evidence of successful participation in, and completion of, the service learning.
No submission method provided.
- Critically reflect on a sustained period of organised service to draw implications for professional practice
- Communication
- Team Work
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Practical and Written Assessment
Assessment Task 3: Critical reflection on, for and in Service Learning
This individual written assessment task provides an opportunity for critical reflection on, for and in the service learning placement experience; a critical reflection on your service learning experience (approx 2500 words). The focus for your reflection is on the diverse backgrounds and circumstances of those in the community and the ways in which your experience and your learning through that experience, can contribute to your professional future work.
This reflection reviews, evaluates and discusses:
- the achievement of your own set personal and professional learning goals met through the service learning placement; and
- the influences of your service learning experiences on your personal and professional views/values with respect to engaging with and responding to, a range of diverse stakeholders within your professional context.
Guidance will be provided within Zoom Sessions and Moodle materials to critically reflect on your Service Learning experience.
Word Count: 2500 words
The word count is considered from the first word of the Introduction to the last word of the Conclusion. It excludes the cover page, abstract, contents page, reference page and appendices. It includes in-text references and direct quotations.
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence agents (Gen AI)
Within this assessment, the use of Gen AI agents is as follows:
- No GEN AI use at any point during this assessment.
Week 11 Friday (31 Jan 2025) 11:45 pm AEST
Online submission is required through the link on the Moodle site for Assessment Task 3 in the assessment block.
Feedback on the final assessment task will be provided following moderation.
- critical reflection that identifies and discusses the diverse nature of community, stakeholder needs and meaningful community service;
- reflection that evaluates and discusses the ways in which personal and professional views/values have been influenced by engaging with a range of diverse stakeholders;
- reflection that reviews, evaluates and discusses the ways in which personal learning goals have been met through the service learning placement;
- reflection that reviews, evaluates and discusses the ways in which professional learning goals have been met, with particular reference to the application of learning to a professional context;
- personal written competencies in communicating ideas accurately, that demonstrates the use of relevant literature, unit materials and service learning experience to support reflection while highlighting the value of the reflective process and using academic conventions.
- evidence of Completion of Service Learning placement
- Use relevant standards, codes of conduct and/or codes of ethics to reflect on professional roles and responsibilities in relation to principles of equity and social justice
- Critically reflect on a sustained period of organised service to draw implications for professional practice
- Evaluate the impact of service on personal and professional learning and the development of skills for successful participation in communities and contexts characterised by diversity and disadvantage.
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
