Service-Learning

I have attended a service learning workshop today. This is another program that I have signed up with Touch Youth Services besides the Crush Program. The workshop is very enriching and inspiring, hence I find an urge to write in the blog. Probably I would split it into 2 parts. First part is the activity and the second is my thought.

In the beginning, we were playing an introductory activity: "Have you ever...?" It is an interactive activity, formed seating in a circle. Everybody would have a chance to ask "Have you ever (some experience)?" and if anyone ever have this experience, he will move to his right and sit on it, even if there is a person siting on the chair. The activity ends when anyone returned to his seat. We get to know one another better in this activity.

After that, we get to know what is Service-Learning and realised how powerful it is compared to other community service projects. Through service and learning at the same time, we are able to internalise the experience and move forward with a better understanding of what we can learn from the service and what can be done to improve the service. A productive cycle afterall!
Shortly after that, we played another game: "Human Traffic Jam". It was an activity in which we were seated in 2 rows with an empty chair. We were supposed to move to the other side using the empty chair with these rules (1. Can only move forward 2. Can shift 1 seat forward if it is empty 3. Can jump over to the alternate seat if there is a person from the opposite row seatng in front of you). We came up with some methods and slowly able to generalise the method to play the game. We got a challenge further that we are not allowed to speak. We consolidated our thoughts again but we are still unable to complete it after a few tries. Through this, we drew up a few learning points from this Experimental Learning.

We were taught a few theories after that such as 6 Generations of facilitation, 3 key components of a S-L project and 7 Competencies of a facilitator. Well, although this part of the lesson is quite dry and technical, it is very useful for us.

Following this, we had an inspiring game: "Pace of Life (Or similar to it)". To me, this is the most enriching game. We were told to walk around in circle, and in the midst of it, "outcasts" would be selected and be told to leave the room. The rest of us have to continue walking in this circle. It is very tiring and the activity stopped after about half of the people were outcasts and we were told to share our feelings.

Throughout the day, the trainers were willing to share their experience with us and we found them very inspiring. At the end of the day, we consolidated our learning for the day and called it a day.


"Have you ever...?"

An activity to share our experience. Well, usually I don't like Ice-braking game but this activity is quite subtle. We need to come up with an unique experience so that only the person would move and return to the seat earlier. Well, according to the trainer, it is a game to test our energy level and boundary (whether we dare to sit on ppl lap).. Hmm, it could be, but it was quite subtle for me.

What is Service-Learning

Through this, we get to know what is so unique about S-L. It is not so much of community service and it has a larger benefit to the volunteers and the society at large. I view it as a productive cycle instead of a weighing scale (because of the equal emphasis). For instance, we do a community service and consolidate the learning from it. And through the learning, we will perform better community service to the public and at the same time, we learn some useful skills in the process. This is the power of S-L that I perceive and it is based on Experimental Learning, which is more interactive for people to establish the learning.

"Human Traffic Jam"

It is an inspiring activity in which we discover for ourselves a method to solve a problem. In the process, we refine it further so that we can do it better. It is very much like the WIT course I have attended but I found that it was more meaningful, in the sense that we discovered for ourselves whether "have we learnt it now?" whereas WIT is more of how to improve the process. Well, we understand what is Experimental Learning from this activity and one major takeaway is that we must make sure everyone in the group must know what is going on!
Pace of Life Wow! This is a very powerful philosophical activity! Most of us were "traumatised" by it and we really reflected on what we were doing and how we actually felt now. It is built on the basis of "Framing the experience" in which it forms an analogy to the pace of the society now. Most often then not, we would neglect all the "outcasts" and continue on our pace aimlessly, in a circle. Some of us might worry for the "outcasts" but usually, for our survival instinct (Safety as they called it), we would continue our pace. On the other hand, the "outcasts" wanted to join in the society pace and couldn't do so because they would be "out of the frequency". Some of them were chosen randomly and they did not want it either.

After this activity, the trainer has asked us some questions. "Is there anybody that you have left out in your life?" "What are we going to do next?" Well... surely there are people whom we would leave out in our life without ourselves knowing. However, we would like to help sometime but we were struggling ourselves. At the same time, we would be wondering why were we following the pace of the society so aimlessly... After the session, I still couldn't find an answer to it. But at least I understand it now and am aware it. yes... Understand because people told me before about the rat race but this activity helped me visualise it vividly.

After each activity, we were brought in the concept of S-L so that we would understand it better. After attending the course for a day, I am inspired of the whole framework of Service-Learning. I wouldn't say that I understand it totally but I find that I have already gained a lot of it in a day. Looking forward to the workshop tommorrow!