Community Engaged Learning as a pedagogical practice has significant overlap with the concepts of open pedagogy including the emphasis on learning that extends beyond the classroom and affording students the experience of real-world engagement and connected problem-solving. Open pedagogy is well poised to transform community engaged learning by increasing student agency, participation, and engagement.
Traditionally, community engaged learning has emphasized experiential service as a means to enhance conventional learning goals through purposeful action, connection, and purposive reflection. By pairing academically relevant community service activities with course concepts and engaged reflection, community engaged learning provides avenues for application of the course material to real-life scenarios and to assist in addressing community needs. Community engaged learning has become a widely accepted practice with research highlighting its potential to positively impact students' academic success, social responsibility, and capacity for critical thinking.
Open pedagogy, with its emphasis on learner driven education, can shift the praxis of community engaged learning, to emphasize student partnership in construction of community engagement activities, shared learning practices, and authentic engagement in the reflection process. Further, open pedagogy can enhance the role of social justice in the community engagement process and allow students opportunities to collaborate with one another on the creation of solutions to community needs.
This presentation explores the results of a research study that compared project-based community engagement when employed using open pedagogy versus when it was fully curated by the course instructor. This study specifically explored student perceptions of the community engagement assignment in these different pedagogical iterations as well as the influence of project design and outcomes, renewable versus disposable, on student perspectives and overall satisfaction with the assignment.
By attending this session, attendees will be able to:- Identify how community engaged learning can be enhanced by open pedagogical practices
- Integrate innovative elements of an open pedagogy into community engaged classes and activities
- Understand student perspectives on open pedagogical practices and community engaged learning including renewable assignments
Open Zoom
