Academic Service Learning Using Affinity Groups outside the Box of Business: A Pedagogy Model for Community College Business Students
2017; Volume: 23; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1081-9428
Autores Tópico(s)Service-Learning and Community Engagement
ResumoThis article presents a pedagogy growth model using affinity-based groups completing consulting projects for academic service learning sites with community college students. Contemporary requires soft skills in collaboration, networking, and teamwork. The model shows how students gain real-world marketing experience with nonprofit organizations based on theory learned in the classroom, while contributing to civil society and social responsibility. It moves the student learning paradigm from individual meritocracy to collective dialogue, resulting in value-added benefits to a community organization. Collaborative mentoring and adjudication by the professor and client builds a collegial bridge between the college classroom and neighborhood site. Keywords: service learning, collaboration, groups, business, community college Modern requires collaboration, networking, and team-based approaches to work (Wellman, Boase, & Chen, 2002; Senge, 2006). Students believe that coursework is not sufficient to be competitive in the global market because they cannot apply it, seeking added values to their education to make them more employable (Tomlinson, 2008). courses in community colleges often do not offer these collective skills, focusing on individual hard-skill acquisition such as accounting, law, and human resources compliance. This article shows how Affinity Groups (AGs) are used with students in Academic Service Learning (ASL), helping them understand the role of networked relationships and cooperation. It answers the problem of leaders criticizing academia for not training students in soft skills with a growth pedagogy using collaborative learning with nonprofit organizations (Andrews & Higson, 2008; Anthony & Garner, 2016). This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in collaborative learning, systems thinking, group affinity, and community service learning, with a particular interest in practical application in a environment, but is also appropriate in other courses in community college teaching. Background and Context In the last 20 years the rise of partnerships and collaboration has arisen in the global transnational economy requiring practical skills in dialogue, networking, and working in cohort teams (Wellman, Boase, &. Chen, 2002; Senge, 2006). Flat leadership and heterarchy, where leaders operate in strategic alliances rather than top-down command-and-control, is the new world of (Stark, 2009). Senge (2006) argues that through dialogue with others and recognizing the collective nature of thinking together in building shared vision (p. 12), is crucial for companies to accomplish their mission in this day and age. Becket (1984) notes how art emerges from a collectivity of tasks from the painter, to the person who makes the paint and paintbrush, to the art critic, to the gallery that displays it, to the patron who commissions the work. The act of painting is contained in a broader community. Because of this, leaders stress the need to develop students or future leaders that know how to work together in collective groups (Corbin, 2002; Lash, 2012; Holmes, 2014). Expanding Education in the Box of Business The box of business as it is used in the title of this article, is a narrow --boxed-in--worldview that everything has a winning bottom line, pushing the student to concentrate on competition at the expense of collegially. Driven by this meritocratic culture, students can overcompensate on individual tests, not integrating their expertise and knowledge with others (Farias, Farias, & Fairfield, 2010). There are many psychologists who have worked to develop social constructivist learning theories (CLTs) that emphasize the importance of social experience and active participation of individuals in the group learning process in the construction of knowledge (Piaget, 1959; Dewey, 1960; Vygotsky, 1962). …
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