Thriving in the Undergraduate Community Psychology Classroom: Experiential Learning

Symposium presented to the 2013 SCRA Biennial Conference

University of Miami, Miami, FL

Session Organizer: Suzanne M. Phillips, Gordon College ()

Session Chair: Michèle M. Schlehofer, Salisbury University ()

Welcome! Our session entails poster presentations of several experiential learning activities for the undergraduate Community Psychology classroom. We encourage you to peruse the various activities presented on the boards in this room and the adjoining room. Presentations are referenced by number. This document provides an overview of each activity.

  1. The Praxis Assignment: Experiential Learning in a Large Social-Community Psychology Class

Authors: Irene Cruz and Danielle Kohfeldt (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Synopsis: Summarizes a “Day of Social Justice Praxis Assignment” as a form of experiential learning in a 120-person social-community psychology course. [LARGE CLASS, SERVICE LEARNING]
  1. Community-Partnered Needs Assessment: A Strategy to Teach College Students about Health Disparities

Authors: Farrah Jacquez and Stephanie Ghantous (University of Cincinnati)
Synopsis: Summarizes how undergraduates partnered with a public K-8 school to conduct a participatory needs assessment. College students worked directly with teachers, parents, public school students, and key stakeholders to identify and prioritize health needs, and they awarded the partnership school a grant to address physical activity and bullying. [SERVICE LEARNING, PUBLIC SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP]
  1. Experiencing Community Psychology through Community-Based Learning Class Projects: Reflections from an American University in the Middle East

Authors: Mona M. Amer and Salma Mohamed (The American University in Cairo); Vincent Ganzon (Wake Forest University)
Synopsis: Presents a model for community-based learning (CBL) in which the entire class collaborates on an experiential project that promotes community action. Practical guidelines for how to structure and implement CBL are provided. [EGYPT, SERVICE LEARNING]
  1. Experiential Teaching in an Adult Development Course: Promoting an Understanding of Intergenerational Interactions

Authors: Stephanie Wilsey, Nate’ Y. Arnold, Marcia M. Criado, and Alexandra Mykita (Carlow University)
Synopsis: Describes an undergraduate service-learning project with two groups of elders in an urban setting. The project illustrates the advantages of experiential teaching in promoting interactions and understanding between diverse age groups. [SERVICE LEARNING, ELDERS]
  1. Photovoice as a Pedagogical Tool in the Community Psychology Classroom

Author: Lauren Lichty (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Synopsis:Shows how Photovoice can be used as a pedagogical tool to situate students as observers of their own community and to create space for them to engage in participatory, community-focused meaning-making activities. By employing strategically crafted framing questions, students generated Photovoice data that served as a powerful jumping off point for discussing key community psychology concepts. [IN-CLASS ACTIVITY, DISCUSSION QUESTIONS]
  1. Promoting Learning and Critical Reflexivity Through an Organizational Case Study Project

Authors: Krithika Malhotra, Andrea Headley, and Scot Evans (University of Miami)
Synopsis: Developed a community-based project that has students working in groups to study local human service organizations. Students interview organizational staff, observe operations, and review documents to identify perceived organizational strengths and challenges and offer humble solutions based on course material and outside research. A key component of the course is a critically reflexive journal. [ORGANIZATIONS, JOURNAL]
  1. Star Power: An Experiential Learning Exercise to Foster Ecological Perspectives on Power, Privilege, and Oppression

Authors: Nkiru Nnawulezi, Christina Campbell, Kalleigh Landstra, & Cortney Vandegrift (Michigan State Univ.)
Synopsis:Presents StarPower, a simulation trading and lawmaking game which illustrates systems of power, privilege, and oppression while fostering an ecological perspective of power differentials in society. The use of StarPower as an experiential learning exercise in a community psychology undergraduate course is described. [IN-CLASS ACTIVITY, MID-SIZED CLASS]
  1. Pedagogy of the Logic Model: Teaching Undergraduates to Work Together to Change Their Communities

Authors: Lindsey Zimmerman (University of Washington School of Medicine), Zohra Kamal and Hannah Kim (Georgia State University)
Synopsis: Describes how logic models can help undergraduate students learn course content by “doing.” Students work with peers to define a problem, develop an intervention, and plan an evaluation focused on an issue of concern to them. [GROUP PROJECT, IN-CLASS ACTIVITY]
  1. Two Approaches, One Course: An Experience in Experiential Learning

Authors: Ashlee Lien and Sharon Hakim (Wichita State University)
Synopsis:Addresses instructor uncertainty about how to manage student experiences in the community, given that a significant number of students react with skepticism toward experiential learning, as well as concern about their instructor’s expectations for (and evaluation of ) their performance. This poster highlights the parallel learning processes that occur over the semester, for students and instructors. [NEW INSTRUCTORS, ATTITUDES TOWARD EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING]