Service Learning Faculty Development Funding & Requests for Proposals
The Office for Civic Engagement at The University of Montana, with funding assistance from the President’s Office, will support up to ten proposals to develop service learning courses in collaboration with the Flagship after school program to be taught in academic year 2011/2012. All current faculty are eligible to apply for these grants. To access the Request for Proposals click here.
Service Learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students, faculty and community partners work together to enhance student learning by applying academic knowledge in a community-based setting. Student work addresses the needs of the community, as identified through collaboration with community or tribal partners, while meeting instructional objectives through faculty-structured service work and critical reflection meant to prepare students to be civically responsible members of the community. At its best, service learning enhances and deepens students’ understanding of an academic discipline by facilitating the integration of theory and practice, while providing them with experience that develops life skills and engages them in critical reflection about individual, institutional, and social ethics. Courses based upon the service learning instructional method are designated as Service Learning courses in each semester’s Schedule of Classes beginning Fall 2008.
Funding will be limited to service learning courses which target collaborations between UM students/faculty and K-12 schools participating in the Missoula Flagship Program (funded by private, federal, and local dollars) which include Hawthorne Elementary School, Franklin Elementary School, Lowell Elementary, C.S. Porter Middle School, Washington Middle School, Meadow Hill Middle School, Big Sky High School, Hellgate High School, and the Willard Alternative High School.
In order to qualify for funding, the course must have the UM Service Learning Course Designation or be in the process of applying for the designation. Within one year of receiving the service learning funding the course must receive UM Service Learning Course Designation or funding will not be renewed. For more information about the designation see http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/curriculum/forms.aspx
Appropriate collaborations may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- UM students working with gifted K-12 students to provide higher level learning challenges;
- UM students/faculty developing specific educational units for existing K-12 curriculum, e.g. science, environmental education, physical education, foreign language, Native American Studies, etc.; and,
- UM students working with K-12 students in after-school programs and activities.
Preference will be given to innovative learning projects that involve UM students and faculty directly serving and working with students at the identified schools. If the proposal is approved, funding will be transferred from the Office for Civic Engagement at UM to the faculty member’s home department on campus. Funds for approved costs must be spent from the UM department account and not given directly to the Flagship program/school. Proposals should be written by a UM faculty member in consultation with the Flagship program coordinator.
