EL Teaching Resources
The ExCEL Resource Library is now available.
See a complete listing of our in-office resources, click here.
"Making the Connection : Critical Thinking and Reflection Activities to Connect Theory and Practice in Experiential Learning"
The toolkit is a collection of resources to assist educators with two important aspects of teaching an experiential course: guiding students to make the cognitive connections between the concepts covered in the course and the concrete experiences; and assessing what students are learning from the experiential components in order to build on or clarify points.
The connecting activities are drawn from Brandeis faculty as well as literature on experiential learning and how to assess results. The activities are selected for their versatility and the potential for adaptation in multiple kinds of courses and areas of study. As the program grows and educators review the toolkit, the goal is to develop an ongoing exchange of resources and a collection will expand to incorporate the new ideas in dynamic, comprehensive educator's kit.
Download the toolkit (doc)
"Facilitating Reflection: A Manual for Leaders and Educators"
Written and compiled by Julie Reed & Christopher Koliba
What is reflection? (An excerpt)
Most people who are involved in community service and service learning programs are familiar with the term "reflection." In fact, we are all familiar with reflection... Every time we look in the mirror. The term "reflection" is derived from the Latin term reflectere -- meaning "to bend back." A mirror does precisely this, bend back the light, making visible what is apparent to others, but a mystery to us -- namely, what our faces look like.
In service learning, we look to develop processes that allow the people doing service to bend the metaphorical light of their experiences back onto their minds -- to make careful considerations about what their experience were all about: what did they see, who did they meet, why is there a need for such services in the first place, etc. The act of reflection, therefore, becomes crucial to their education. It serves as the bridge between experiences and learning.
Read the full Manual