This document discusses the benefits of situating undergraduate students as participant researchers in community-based practicum programs. It outlines that such programs help address students' desires for meaning, tangible skills applications, and community connections. Research shows these programs increase academic achievement, retention, participation, and civic engagement. The 5th Dimension model mentors students through interaction, reflection, research, and collaboration at community sites. This provides benefits to students through experiential learning and career exploration, and to community partners through research and manpower. Former students reported these courses as enriching and finding real-world relevance and significance in their experiences.

1. Situating undergraduates as
participant researchers in a
community-based practicum
program
LCHC 5th
Dimension Sites:

2. ● The top three reasons students give for dropping
out or changing academic programs:
1. Desire to find deeper meaning in higher
education
(earning potential is not enough)
2. Need for tangible applications of the skills they
are acquiring
3. Need to feel connected to community (in and out
of school)
● The NSSE, the NCES, the NTFMA, and others
report that students involved in practicum programs
Student Satisfaction and Retention

3. ● Increased academic achievement across the board
● Decreased dropout rates
● Increased in-class participation in all classes
● Increased ability to relate to culturally diverse groups
● Higher willingness to accept responsibility
● Greater likelihood of participating in political activity as an adult
● Development of the skills, values and understandings necessary for
committed, informed and responsible citizenship
● Stronger sense of community within schools
● Improved relationships between schools and their surrounding
communities
(The U.S. Department of Education Markus, Howard & King, 1993; Mullany,
2005; Pisano & Rust, 2007; Plann, 2002; Weigert, 1998; Wilson, 2005)
Extended benefits of Academic
Service Learning experience

4. Situating undergraduates as
ethnographers:
The 5th Dimension model
● Mentored interaction on site
● Mentored reflection
● Field notes & seminars
● Online fieldnote database & research
archive
● Theoretical tools for unpacking experience
● Selected readings and seminar
presentations
● Collaborative – activity planning, seminars, car
pools, Facebook, Twitter, commenting on
peers’ fieldnotes online, joint research
projects.
● Deeper contemplation: Reflection paper
● Relating experience to college major and to
future career possibilities – final research
paper

5. ● Benefits for Community Organizations
● Expertise and manpower to implement programs
● Highly skilled, motivated and energetic collaborators
● Narrowly targeted research
● Benefits for UCSD students
● Internship/Practicum experience
● Mentoring in “real life” application of learning
● A Social Science “lab class”
● Breathes life into on-campus learning
● Theoretical studies inform work at the site
University-Community
Partnerships

6. “CAT 124 and CAT 125 have been the most enriching
courses I have
taken at UCSD because it enhanced my analytical
capabilities,
challenged my perspectives, helped me explore my
passion for
psychology in more depth and ultimately advanced my
personal growth.” (Kimara, SP 2009)
Practicum success stories

7. “I didn‘t realize how much the program that I am
currently in is so relevant to the experience that I
had in your course …. I remember I had written a
paper on the families at the Town and Country
Learning Center and how socio-economic class
affected the family and the entitlements that
children have -- I still remember this paper
because it has become important supplementary
information for my future work with families with
these communities. If you are still teaching this
course, please send my word to the students that
this course may be the most significant course
they will ever take, as it was for me during my
entire time at UCSD! (Hatty, FA 2009)
A Student Remembers