serving those who served for us: training service dogs for veterans

Integrative Teaching and Deep Learning through Participation in a Service-Learning Project Involving

Retrieving Freedom Inc. (RFI)

Dr. William J. Soesbe IIIMr. Scott Dewey

Menomonie, WisconsinFriday, June 13th, 2014

@3:25-4:25

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

• Assistant Professor of Education

• Leadership Fellow

• Iowa Campus Compact Engaged Scholar Faculty Fellow

• Former Director for the Office of Student Field Experiences and School

Partnerships Coordinator at Wartburg College

• Served as a middle school science teacher within the Waverly-Shell Rock CSD

Dr. William J. Soesbe III

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

• President of RFI• Owner of Rock Run Retrievers

– Trained dogs for AKC field trials

Mr. Scott Dewey

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Participants will understand and appreciate the value of service dogs in the lives of Veterans and children with autism

Participants will possess a better understanding of how to develop or enhance a reciprocal service-learning initiative.

Participants will be able to better assess and evaluate an experiential learning initiative.

Participants will be able to implement a variety of strategies to strengthen existing college-community partnerships.

Participants will have brainstormed ways to enhance a current community engagement project or have generated ideas for a new project.

Goals and Objectives

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Name, Institution, Position, Role(s)?

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

1. Why did you attend this particular presentation?

AND

2. What do you hope/need to gain from the presentation?

Two Questions…

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

What did you take away from the Ted Talk?

So Why Are We Presenting to You?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHfo17ikSpY

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Further informed by: Soesbe’s Conceptual Framework of Leadership Development

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Attempting to achieve deep and integrative learning as part of a Leadership Theories and Practices (ID 315) course that involves a significant service-learning experience with RFI.

Looking beyond the visible light spectrum…

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

What Do We Want/Need our Students to Experience and Accomplish? Deep and Integrative learning

We are not doing enough for our students and we need to. Deep and integrative learning is not the only answer, but is ONE of the answers.

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Deep Learning AAC&U LEAP/Kuh High Impact Practices

• Work closely with faculty and staff• Common intellectual experiences• Learning communities• Writing intensive courses• Collaborative assignments• Service-learning• Capstone courses that integrate and apply

previous learning

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Deep Learning: Effective Conditions and Practices

• Academic challenge• Active and collaborative learning• Student-faculty interaction• Supportive campus environment• Enriching educational experiences

Civic engagement Co-curricular leadership Experiential learning

• Shared responsibility for educational quality

Kuh, G., Kinzie, J. Schuh, J. Whitt, E. (2005). Student success in college; Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Deep vs. Surface LearningDeep  Learning Surface  Learning

Focus is on “what is signified”  Focus is on the “signs” (or on the learning as a signifier of something else)

Relates previous knowledge to new knowledge 

Focus on unrelated parts of the task 

Relates knowledge from different courses  Information for assessment is simply memorized 

Relates theoretical ideas to everyday experience 

Facts and concepts are associated unreflectively 

Relates and distinguishes evidence and argument 

Principles are not distinguished from examples 

Organizes and structures content into coherent whole 

Task is treated as an external imposition 

Emphasis is internal, from within the student 

Emphasis is external, from demands of assessment 

http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/deepsurf.htm

How Do We Accomplish D & I Learning?

Partly through the pedagogy and idea of triangulated learning

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Triangulated Learning

Traditional

Pee

r

Experiential

Tabb, M. (2011). The Sacred Acre: The Ed Thomas Story. Zondervan: Michigan.Heifetz, R. and Linsky, M. (2002). Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading. Harvard Business School Press: Massachusetts.

Dis

cuss

ion,

refle

ctio

n,

pres

enta

tions

Leadership on the Line & The Sacred Acre ,

worksheets

Com

munity B

uilders or

Retrieving Freedom

Inc.

Deep and Integrativ

e Learning

Traditional Learning

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Peer (Collaborative) Learning

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Experiential Learning (Service-learning)

http://www.wartburg.edu/cb/

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

What are Ways That D & I Learning can be Attained?

Reciprocal, significant, and meaningful partnerships

Civic engagement

Service-learning experiences

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Retrieving Freedom, Inc. is an organization that trains service dogs for veterans and children with autism.

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

“Freedom isn’t Free”

“Where Some See Limitations, We Bring Opportunities”

503(c) organization Based out of two locations (Waverly, IA & Senatobia, MS)Train and provide service dogs to veterans and children with autismAccredited with Assistance Dogs International (ADI)

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Philosophy of RFI Organization of RFI Process of selecting recipients - Application and cost share, Process of raising and training a dog- Resources, donor families, training, training facility

Process of placing a dog with a recipient

*Demand for dogs outpaces the supply

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

ID 315’s involvement with RFI: Meet 12 times over the course of the semester Students are trained how to work with the dogs

- Operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, & disciplineStudents are paired with a dog at various stages of its trainingStudents train and work with the dogsStudents also perform other responsibilities associated with the dog and RFI Inc.

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Service Projects with ID 315

• Fundraising and promoting for RFI• W-SR Elementary School Reading project• Wheelchair Basketball event• Christmas on Main event

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Fundraising and Promoting RFI•Grilling out at football games

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

W-SR Reading Reward Program

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

RFI Wheelchair Basketball Game

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Christmas on Main

Future of RFI • 5,500 square foot facility • Training center• Rooms for Veterans

receiving dogs• Classrooms• Working towards

fundraising

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Ongoing research associated with the RFI partnership:

Trying to determine the change in civic attitudes, skills, and dispositions of participants

- Moely, McFarland, Miron, Mercer, Illustre (Fall 2002, Michigan Journal of Community Service

Learning)- Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ)

- Pre-test, post-test, and post/pre-test - Interviews with participants

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Arrange yourself into three or four diverse groups.

Let’s Create Groups

Do not open until 5/20/2013

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

1. What are you currently doing in your position/role to help foster and improve partnerships?

2. What do you want/need to do to further develop service-learning opportunities?

3. What partnerships or S-L experiences currently exist or are you working on to meet the needs of your students, community, and institution?

Peer Learning Experience

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Questions and

Comments?

2014 Upper Midwest Civic Engagement Summit

Thank you for your attention, insight, and questions.

Bill Soesbe bill.soesbe@wartburg.edu