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


• President of RFI• Owner of Rock Run Retrievers

– Trained dogs for AKC field trials

Mr. Scott Dewey


http://retrievingfreedom.org/index.shtml

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


Name, Institution, Position, Role(s)?


1. Why did you attend this particular presentation?

AND

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

Two Questions…


What did you take away from the Ted Talk?

So Why Are We Presenting to You?

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




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


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…


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.


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


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

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

How Do We Accomplish D & I Learning?

Partly through the pedagogy and idea of triangulated learning


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


Peer (Collaborative) Learning


Experiential Learning (Service-learning)

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


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

http://www.tufts.edu/talloiresnetwork/?pid=312


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

Reciprocal, significant, and meaningful partnerships

Civic engagement

Service-learning experiences


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




“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)


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


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.


Service Projects with ID 315

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


Fundraising and Promoting RFI•Grilling out at football games



W-SR Reading Reward Program



RFI Wheelchair Basketball Game



Christmas on Main

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

receiving dogs• Classrooms• Working towards

fundraising


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


Arrange yourself into three or four diverse groups.

Let’s Create Groups

Do not open until 5/20/2013


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


Questions and

Comments?


Thank you for your attention, insight, and questions.

Bill Soesbe [email protected]