Service Learning Subsite

Service Learning

News and Events

Docs inspire global studies better than essays February 2011
Students in ACS402 (Introduction to Global studies) are participating in a Service Learning Project in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch. They shared their experience in an article in the Ryersonian: http://www.ryersonian.ca/article/12403/
Dr. Paul Moore and Dr. Andrea Noack were amongst the 2010 Teaching Excellence Award Recipients and received the Provost's Experiential Teaching Award. 2010

Paul Moore and Andrea Noack have developed experiential service learning as key components of the methodology and capstone courses in the Sociology B.A. curriculum. Through their efforts, experiential learning is fully integrated into the foundation of the program. Their courses incorporate first-hand experience, learning through trial and error and community engagement, as well as reflection and judgment, a rare approach to teaching research methods and statistics. Their collaborative efforts have led Sociology students to experience personal, applied activities as fundamental to learning.

“…Service Learning opportunities that allow students to link their learning of quantitative analysis to everyday experience and practical problems … Each of these Service Learning elements is ongoing, but together they have already become an integral part of the Sociology curriculum. For all students, experiential learning is enriched through collaborating on real life, real time decision-making and research-based problem solving.”
Dr. Robert Teigrob, a participating faculty in service learning for three years also received the Dean's Teaching Award 2010 2010

“…. Finally, over the past two years I have liaised with Ryerson's Service Learning office to create community-based service opportunities for students enrolled in ACS 402, Introduction to Global Studies. I consider this experience one of the most rewarding of my professional career, as it demonstrates to participants the connections between international relations theory and practice, and provides students with an opportunity to confront some of the many challenges that are raised in class (global poverty, disease, war, etc.). Thus far we have partnered with child-focused development agency Plan Canada, as well as World University Service of Canada, an agency that brings university-aged residents of refugee camps to Canada so that they can complete their degrees. The community partners have reported high levels of satisfaction regarding the students' contribution, and the students have responded with unbridled enthusiasm to these projects, in some cases continuing their partnership with these agencies beyond the school term. I now consider Service Learning to be a permanent and vital component of ACS 402, and am considering ways to introduce SL into the other courses that I teach as well. To me, the program is the perfect embodiment of the Ryerson mission, and I and the student participants are grateful that the university has made room for such an opportunity to connect learning with practical and positive action.”
Service Learning Offers Students Hands-On Experience June 2010
Duncan MacLellan, Assistant Professor in Ryerson's Department of Politics and Public Administration, publishes article on Linking University and High School Students: Exploring the Academic Value of Service Learning. (The International Journal of Learning, Volume 16, Number 7, 2009, Common Ground Publishing - www.CommonGroundPublishing.com)