VOCATION AND SERVICE LEARNING: FOSTERING
REFLECTION AND CITIZENSHIP IN AN INFORMATICS
CURRICULUM
Nathaniel J. Brown, Anji E. Wall, John P. Buerck
Saint Louis University
This paper proposes a new definition of vocation that honors the
concept’s ancient roots, is consistent with how the term is used in modern contexts, and also expands the concept for greater versatility. We discuss the centrality of service in the concept of vocation locating it as part
of the bridge between a student’s core values and their embodiment in
community life. The commitment to one’s profession begins before independent status as a practitioner of that profession. It begins in training
during which service-learning is a laudable and increasingly popular way
to connect to the charitable aspects of professionalism. We further discuss how the concept of vocation is especially appropriate in the context
of citizenship. Citizenship is a way of belonging to a community. It is a
relationship that requires giving and taking. Service-learning is an ideal
way to practice good citizenship on a local scale, and prepare future professionals for understanding their communities and commitments more
broadly. We discuss how these concepts are being emphasized in the
medical informatics master’s degree program at Saint Louis University
through the incorporation of a service-learning module. We describe the
module, discussing how it can be applied to curricula at other institutions
and modified for inclusion in other types of courses.
VOCATION
Vocation is best understood as a broad concept applicable to all
walks of life. It is part of how we identify our roles in the communities
we inhabit. Understanding vocation more broadly can influence our
views of citizenship by helping us grapple with what it means to contribute to a community. The usual use of the term vocation is narrow: it is
generally used to describe religious orders and some of the more ancient
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Teaching Ethics, Spring 2010
professions, such as law and medicine. The word vocation comes to English from Latin where it originates in the verb vocare, which means ‘to
call.’ Traditionally, God was understood to be the one doing the calling,
and He called entire peoples (e.g. the Israelites) as well as individuals
(Schuurman). The contemporary understanding of vocation, on the
other hand, is almost entirely focused on individuals-on personal vocation, the feeling a person has of being called to perform a certain task or
fill a certain position. Because of the religious nature of situating God as
the one who calls, vocation has come, in contemporary parlance, to be
commonly associated with religious orders: if one has a vocation, it is to
priestly or monastic office, or perhaps to missionary or charitable work
(Alphonso). Though religious life is perhaps the most common understanding of vocation, it is not the only one. When not thought of as
strictly religious, vocation refers to certain professions such as counseling
and medicine (Loxterkamp). These professions have some similar attributes to ministerial work, most significantly a devotion to serving others.
The concept of service unites these specific understandings of vocation.
In the past few decades, vocation has taken on an even broader
meaning. Most importantly, it has come to include the idea of devotion to
a pursuit that is especially loved. This cherished pursuit might be a job, or
a hobby, or something else one does outside of work. Another important
difference is that vocation is not only thought of as a calling from God
(Kincaid). The source of the calling is often left purposely vague. These
changes in the concept of vocation broaden its usefulness especially for
medicine and other non-religious professions. It makes the concept more
inclusive, not only of various jobs but also of activities that individuals
engage in outside of work.
With this brief historical backdrop in mind, we offer a new definition of vocation consistent with how the term is coming to be used in
modern contexts and also honoring the concept’s ancient roots. On this
new understanding, vocation is more than a calling; it is a way of integrating deeply considered life-values with what one does in day-to-day life. In
our new definition, vocation means “pursuing one’s life in a way that
honors one’s values as holistically conceived and embodied in community
life.” There are three important concepts in this definition: core values,
holism, and community life. Core values are arrived at through reflection.
They are revisable, and always applicable to what one is doing. Holism
refers to the application or integration of these values into what one is
doing. Community life refers to relationships with others that refine and
Brown, Wall, Buerck: Vocation & Service-Learning: Fostering Reflection and Citizenship
39
test our values and ultimately, through this process, tell us who we really
are.
On this understanding, vocation is more than something one tries to
discern when deciding what to job to pursue. It is a continuing process
that can be started at any time, and that can enrich our lives at any point
in their trajectory. It can help us define and modify our goals, and it can
help us know when we are on the right track. It also guides us in interactions with our communities. Communities test our values and are the
framework in which we define our core values. Vocation is thus more
than how we see ourselves individually; it is how we see ourselves as part
of something larger and also how others see us and our contributions.
This concept of vocation leads to a commitment to bettering community
life, since the success of the community is integral to the success of its
individual members. An excellent way for students to begin exploring
their vocation is to interact with their communities through servicelearning.
SERVICE-LEARNING
Service-learning has gained significant attention in higher education
as an important addition to traditional curricula. According to Jacoby et
al., “service-learning is a form of experiential education in which students
engage in activities that address human and community needs together
with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student
learning and development.”(5) Because service-learning has the explicit
goal of student learning and development, it goes beyond simple community service. The two essential elements of service-learning that differentiate it from community service are reflection and reciprocity (Jacoby
et al.). Reflection in the setting of service-leaning occurs before, during,
and after the service activity, and is part of what makes service-learning a
perfect activity for students to explore their understanding of vocation
through action. It can take many forms: written, oral, within a group, or
individually. The key concept in reflection is to engage in a conversation
about core values and how they should be applied to the world around
us. Before the activity, the focus of reflection is on the goals of the activity and what students hope to learn from it. During the activity, the focus
of reflection is on what is being learned and how this activity is helping
the community. Finally, after the activity, the focus of reflection is on
whether or not the goals were reached and what students learned from
the activity. The concept of reciprocity in service-learning emphasizes the
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Teaching Ethics, Spring 2010
role of the people being served in the determination of what the service
project should be. By actively engaging members of the community in
the determination of the project, participants in the service-learning
experience ensure that the needs of the community are defining the services that will be performed.
Signon describes five critical elements of thoughtful community service that should be incorporated into every service-learning experience:
(1) community voice; (2) orientation and training; (3) meaningful action;
(4) reflection; and (5) evaluation. The voice of the community is elicited
through the exercise of reciprocity: the solicitation of ideas about what
service should be done from community members. The orientation and
training is focused on students, giving them information about the community, organization, or agency in which they will be serving. This element is essential in that it provides students with background knowledge
that gives them a better understanding of why the project is important
and how to define the goals with respect to the individuals being served.
The element of meaningful action emphasizes the importance of the service being both necessary and valuable for the community itself. By
emphasizing the community voice and orienting the students to the
needs of the community, it should follow that the service will be meaningful to the community. Reflection, as discussed above, is an element
that should be incorporated into all aspects of the experience. It is essential in moving the project beyond community service to service-learning.
The final element, evaluation, should be executed by students and the
agencies, organizations or communities that were served. This allows the
students to determine how effective the project was in furthering their
knowledge, and the agencies, organizations or communities to determine
how effective the project was in serving their identified needs.
Service-learning allows students to engage in thoughtful community
service that puts the concept of vocation into action. Through productive interaction with their communities, students engaged in servicelearning are given the opportunity to reflect upon and revise their core
values. The service that students provide to their communities puts core
values into action, thereby demonstrating to students how to act holistically. Because service-learning requires students to interact with members
of their communities, they learn how to refine and revise their core values through relationships with those around them. Ultimately, servicelearning, when approached though the lens of vocation, encourages students to become engaged and productive citizens.
Brown, Wall, Buerck: Vocation & Service-Learning: Fostering Reflection and Citizenship
41
Active citizenship is essential for the maintenance of a strong
democracy, and a central aspect of active citizenship is civil engagement
(Morgan and Streb). Service-learning encourages students to take an
active leadership role in creating projects that engage and involve the surrounding community. By actively engaging students in the community,
service-learning fosters the development of students as engaged citizens,
both during their college years and beyond.
COURSE CONCEPT
While in college, many students take advantage of the opportunity
to interact with their communities through campus organizations, campus ministry, and national organizations. The service activities that they
participate in encourage them to become engaged citizens as they move
into their professional lives. Service-learning creates an additional avenue
to allow students to serve their communities, while at the same time gaining valuable knowledge. In order to provide students with an opportunity
to interact with their community in an environment of mutual learning,
we designed an in-class module for an introduction to informatics class.
Before describing the module, the following section describes what the
field of informatics involves.
INFORMATICS
Informatics is the multidimensional use of technology to support
knowledge discovery and dissemination, assisting the decision maker
across a variety of academic disciplines and professional fields. It incorporates the way data is collected, organized, analyzed, represented, filtered and managed. Figure 1 graphically presents the process that
informatics uses to combine the interaction of technology with the
human and organizational structures to support knowledge discovery,
management and dissemination.
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Teaching Ethics, Spring 2010
Health Informatics specifically aims towards improving the utilization of health care-related data, information, and knowledge in order to
support health care research, education, and practice. It was the betterment of medical practice that spurred the development of the field of
medical informatics. From its inception its purpose has been to integrate
data in the service of patients by giving physicians the information they
need to make and improve treatment decisions.
IF500 - INFORMATICS FOUNDATION COURSE CONTENT
IF500 - Informatics Foundations was developed as a primer course
for graduate level students entering the professional master’s degree program in Health Informatics. The purpose of the course is to introduce
students to a survey of technology topics, organizational topics and the
social aspects of informatics relationship to today’s environment. The
course provides a multidisciplinary-based introduction to the informatics
principles that support knowledge discovery and dissemination - the
ways data is collected, organized, analyzed, represented, managed, filtered
and communicated. Selected topics include basic information representation, processing and analysis; organizational informatics; current applications and trends in informatics; legal issues in informatics; the roles and
responsibilities of informatics professionals; and informatics impact on
the evolution of society.
Brown, Wall, Buerck: Vocation & Service-Learning: Fostering Reflection and Citizenship
43
IN-CLASS MODULE
The in-class module that we designed begins with an interactive lecture. This lecture has two components. The first is an introduction to the
concept of vocation and how it ties into medical informatics. Much of
the material covered in the beginning of this paper is included in this lecture. The lectures are designed to be interactive so as to engage students
in critically assessing the concept, and thereby increasing the effectiveness of the learning experience. The lecture on vocation concludes with
an introduction to ethical case analysis. These cases are a way to apply the
concept of vocation specifically to medical informatics. The cases involve
dilemmas that medical informatics professionals could realistically
encounter in their careers. The values that clash in these cases are presented as core values and thus directly related to vocation.
The second part of the lecture is an introduction to service-learning.
It describes service-learning, differentiating it from community service
and discussing the essential elements it entails. It then situates the concept of service-learning within the mission of Saint Louis University and
the five dimensions of the Saint Louis University experience: (1) scholarship and knowledge, (2) intellectual inquiry and communication; (3) community building; (4) leadership and service; and (5) spirituality and values
(“Five Dimensions”). In the lecture, students are asked to reflect on how
service-learning can be a part of each dimension of the Saint Louis University experience. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the service-learning proposal assignment. By using an example service-learning
project that incorporates medical informatics and community service, it
illustrates the specific goal of the proposal as the development of a service-learning project that uses the skills of the medical informatics professional to respond to the needs of the community and engage in active
citizenship.
ON-LINE RESOURCES
The in-class lectures on vocation and service-learning became independent modules by recording them using Wimba. Wimba is a complete
collaborative learning system that includes the ability to stream live,
record, archive and publish traditional classroom lectures, discussions
and demonstrations. The recorded lectures were then made available online via BlackBoard to students for review and reference purposes. In
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addition, the recorded Wimba lectures will be incorporated into future
sections of the Informatics Foundations course.
SERVICE-LEARNING ASSIGNMENT
As part of the vocation and service-learning module, students were
divided into groups of 3 to 5 and asked to develop a service-learning proposal. This proposal was designed to have students reflect on their personal and professional values, and develop a plan for how to integrate
them into their communities through service related to the profession of
medical informatics. The seven questions that students answered in their
proposals are shown in Table 1, along with guidance questions that
directed students in each section of the proposal.
Describe the proposed service-learning project.
•What is the mission of the organization you will be partnering
with?
•How does the project reflect this mission?
•What are the needs of the community and how were they identified?
•How does this project serve the needs of the community?
What service or service-learning projects does the organization
currently participate in and what will be different with the
implementation of the proposed project?
•Does it meet a different community need?
•Does is meet a community need differently?.
How does the proposed service-learning project embody the
concepts, goals or priorities of the course and of Saint Louis
University?
•How does it incorporate the essential elements of service-learning?
•How does it integrate informatics and service-learning?
•Which of the five dimensions of the SLU experience does this
activity address?
•How does it address these dimensions?
Briefly describe the setting(s) in which the proposed servicelearning project will occur.
•Where will the project be done?
•Where will the project be implemented?
•How will the community and/or organization be involved, taking
into account the setting of the project?
Brown, Wall, Buerck: Vocation & Service-Learning: Fostering Reflection and Citizenship
45
Provide a timeline for the completion of and implementation of
the proposed service-learning project and discuss its feasibility.
•How much time does the group have to dedicate to the project?
•What does the group need from the organization and/or community and how much time is needed for this?
What expenses would there be for service-learning project and its
eventual implementation? Please explain thoroughly. Is this
project supported by any other resources? Please describe.
•Do you need to buy any materials for this project?
•Are there costs associated with implementing or maintaining the
project?
How will you evaluate the efficacy of this program?
•What are the goals?
•How will you determine if each goal has been met?
Table 1: Service-learning proposal questions. Questions in bold are
found on the proposal template. Bulleted questions are guides for students in answering the bolded questions.
VOCATION
AND
SERVICE-LEARNING
IN
HIGHER EDUCATION
Vocation can be put into action through service-learning in higher
education. While the course module described in this paper was
designed, for a health informatics course, these concepts are not specific
to health informatics, particularly the idea of vocation as a process of
reflection and value-integration and service-learning as a means to promoting active citizenship. The development of the understanding of
vocation explored in this paper applies across the academic disciplines.
We submit this new definition of vocation and its relation to service for
others to comment on, improve, and incorporate into different settings.
The addition of a broad concept of vocation into service-learning across
academic disciplines will challenge students to engage with their communities in new and fulfilling ways, becoming more active citizens.
Vocation and service-learning can be integrated into any curriculum,
as our module in the Saint Louis University health Informatics course
illustrates. Vocation, by the definition offered in this paper, is important
to any walk of life. Because school is a particularly good time to reflect
on values, especially as new ones are being learned, it is appropriate to
address vocation explicitly in the curriculum. One way to introduce and
foster a commitment to active citizenship is through service-learning
projects. . Because many universities are already equipped to facilitate ser-
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Teaching Ethics, Spring 2010
vice-learning experiences, service-learning is a practical and effective
method for exposing students to the idea of thoughtful community service, and fostering a commitment to active citizenship through service as
they move into their professional careers. This paper demonstrates that
service-learning can easily be incorporated into any course as a means of
encouraging students to engage in thoughtful interactions with their
communities, building and refining their values, and becoming engaged
citizens.
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Alphonso, Herbert. Discovering your personal vocation: the search for
meaning through the Spiritual exercises. New York: Paulist Press,
2001.
DuBois, James. “Framework for Analyzing Cases.” 25 Aug. 2009. <http:/
/www.EMHR.net>.
“Five Dimensions of the Saint Louis University Experience.” 25 Aug.
2009 <http://www.slu.edu/opdr//FiveDimensions.html>.
Jacoby, Barbara, et al. Service-learning in higher education: concepts and
practices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.
Kincaid, John. “The American Vocation and Its Contemporary Discontents.” Publius 1 (1971): 115-140.
Loxterkamp, David. “Hearing voices. How should doctors respond to
their calling?” New England Journal of Medicine 335 (1996): 19913.
Morgan, William, and Matthew Streb. (March 2001). Building citizenship:
how student voice in service-learning develops civic values. Social
Science Quarterly 82 (2001): 154-169.
Schuurman, Douglas James. Vocation: discerning our callings in life.
Grand Rapids.: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.
Sigmon, R. “Service-learning: three principles.” Synergist 8 (1979): 9-11.