Service-Learning

Nelle realtà vive della scuola italiana ci si interroga sulle vie migliori per superare quella frattura tra scuola e vita, i cui esiti sono leggibili da tempo da una pluralità di segnali, sistemici o esistenziali. Riconciliare la scuola con la vita non può avvenire se non con mutamenti dei curricoli, delle metodologie, delle forme di vita di una scuola, dei suoi ritmi e spazi per permettere un’esperienza diretta del reale, fondamentale alimento di ogni percorso educativo. La proposta pedagogica del Service-Learning tenta la strada di un umanesimo personalistico e comunitario, con cammini di continua relazione tra il “dentro” dell’aula e il “fuori” del mondo, attraverso esperienze solidali dove lo studente scopre di essere fatto di “legami”.

The task of schools, universities and educational institutions should be to support people in their growth by helping them to develop their potential and providing them with a wide range of skills for a successful integration in the society. This objective must be constantly adapted to the new challenges created by the ever-changing social and cultural scenario. Today, more than ever, we live in a complex society where everything evolves promptly, making previously indispensable knowledge and skills rapidly obsolete. The system of education must be transformed profoundly in order to pursue a vision of education that goes beyond the predominant utilitarian and economic one, to integrate the multiple dimensions of human existence and to promote the harmonious development of the person in relationship to the world. The Recommendations of the Council of the European Union of May 22, 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning make it clear that, in order to ensure resilience and the ability to adjust to change, the skills that are now required are entrepreneurial, social and civic skills. It should be noted that the competences mentioned by the Council of the European Union are meta-competences and personal skills. How can the educational system create the conditions for the development of the human being, his resilience and skills? Are there already educational approaches that can foster an integral growth? A pedagogical approach that places the development of the human being in all his dimensions at the center of its structure, valuing the empowerment of the subject who actively contributes to the construction of himself and the community in which he lives, can be identified in Service-Learning. In practical terms, it is a learning/teaching approach that combines Service (solidarity service to the community, citizenship) with Learning (the acquisition of professional, methodological, social and didactic skills) in order to help students develop knowledge and skills through a solidarity service offered to the community. Service-Learning, which has been developing around the world since the end of the 1960s, has its roots in the civic concern of the North American pedagogist John Dewey and in the South American educator and philosopher Paulo Freire's concept of transforming the world through reflection and action. Both are today the two main points of reference for the most pragmatic and critical currents of this pedagogical proposal, although they have never explicitly theorized it. The two scholars understood the "educational process as a bearer of action and reflection", insisting on the fact that theory and practice must complement each other as they both "build their philosophies around concepts related to experience, growth, communication, mediation and problem solving. Today, the Service-Learning approach has become a worldwide pedagogical movement, taking on its own characteristics in different cultural contexts.

El segundo capítulo, Origen, historia e institucionalización del Aprendizaje-Servicio, aborda un breve recorrido histórico del ApS que abarca desde sus antecedentes y orígenes, a principios del siglo xx, hasta el proceso de internacionalización en el presente siglo, pasando por la institucionalización llevada a cabo fundamentalmente en Estados Unidos. Un camino que ha transformado un conglomerado de experiencias educativas e iniciativas sociales, públicas y privadas, para promover la implicación social, en un movimiento pedagógico con bases científicas y académicas en el ámbito internacional, vertebrando y sistematizando el binomio del aprendizaje con el servicio.

Nell’A.A. 2020/2021 la Scuola di Alta Formazione “Educare all’Incontro e alla Solidarietà” EIS dell’Università LUMSA di Roma ha predisposto un percorso di PCTO attraverso la proposta pedagogica del Service-Learning a cui hanno aderito quattro scuole secondarie di secondo grado del territorio italiano, con il coinvolgimento attivo di circa cento studenti di diversi indirizzi.Vista la situazione pandemica le attività formative e di riflessione strutturata si sono svolte a distanza (in modalità sincrona) e hanno visto la realizzazione di azioni solidali anch’esse, per la maggior parte, in modalità virtuale. Nel presente contributo vengono presentati quattro progetti di e-Service-Learning realizzati all’interno del PCTO, seguiti da una riflessione sulle percezioni degli studenti in merito al valore dell’esperienza.

Globalisation is one of the most powerful worldwide forces transforming society. It dominates today's world as a major driver of change. Globalisation has brought about an agglomeration of cultures, where diverse cultures not only interact but also sometimes clash. It permeates through all spheres of life including the environment, politics, economy, prosperity, culture, religion, education, and human well-being in societies across the globe. The present "villagization" of the world has greatly affected many African countries in almost all aspects of life. It has done so in both positive and negative ways. With the emergence of a global society, social, cultural, economic, political, technological and environmental events in one part of the world quickly come to be significant for people in other parts of the world. This theoretical paper assesses the impact of globalisation for Africa and its implications to education.

In un’epoca di cambiamenti così radicali da infiltrarsi nella sfera dell’identità personale, diventa urgente rimettere al centro il dibattito circa la relazione fra educazione, uomo e società e trovare pratiche educative che permettano di realizzare in concreto quanto espresso nella teoria. Il presente contributo, partendo dalla visione filosofico-pedagogica di Paulo Freire, trova nella proposta educativa del Service- Learning una pedagogia innovatrice per promuovere una formazione identitaria e integrale dell’individuo.

Project Pericles is a not-for-profit organization that encourages and facilitates commitments by colleges and universities to include social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of their educational programs. In 2010, with generous support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, Project Pericles launched the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in which faculty leaders on 26 campuses received matching grants to create new Civic Engagement Courses (CECs), organize campus-wide civic engagement activities, and serve as civic education advocates and leaders. Each Periclean Faculty Leader—selected from participating Periclean institutions after a competitive application process aided by external review— agreed to develop, teach, and evaluate a CEC, to promote civic engagement on their campus and in the local community, to participate in reciprocal peer review, and to share associated research or pedagogical innovations with the scholarly community via publications or conference presentations.

The PFL Program promoted philanthropist Eugene M. Lang’s foundational vision of “educating for citizenship” in a range of related contexts: the three “C”s of classroom, campus, and community. It also expanded on that vision by adding a fourth “C”—the community of scholars and their professional discourse—which completes what we call the “Periclean Diamond.” By extending civic pedagogy to the campus, connecting undergraduate education with community input and engagement, and linking all of those projects with faculty development, professional interchanges, reciprocal peer review, and public scholarship, the PFL Program pioneered developed a promising, replicable, and sustainable model of civic education.

This White Paper, by Swarthmore professor Ben Berger and Project Pericles Executive Director Jan R. Liss, highlights the PFL Program’s background, philosophy, innovations, and implementation. The Periclean colleges and universities share a common commitment to what we term “High Engagement Learning”: intensive pedagogical techniques and faculty-student interaction involving extraordinary levels of attention and energy, whether inside or outside of the classroom. Project Pericles, first through its CEC Program and then through its PFL Program, has helped member institutions cultivate a particular kind of High Engagement Learning that focuses students’ attention and energies not only on traditional academic content but also on issues of social and civic concern. Whereas proponents of college-level civic education have often assumed that it would require Community-Based Learning or Service Learning, Periclean Faculty Leaders have demonstrated that successful civic education can operate along a broad spectrum of High Engagement Learning throughout the liberal arts curriculum. The PFL Program, by nurturing Social and Civic High Engagement Learning (SCHEL) in the humanities, the fine arts, social sciences, and natural sciences, has made the project of “educating for citizenship” not only replicable and sustainable but also broadly accessible.

The role of the universities in Malaysia is to prepare the youth towards educational transformation through higher learning education system, in parallel with the needs and challenges of the future. Through Malaysia Education Blue Print 2015-2025 (for Higher Education), the universities in Malaysia have been targeting to (i) produce holistic graduates who are entrepreneurial and balanced, (ii) improve students' learning experience, and (iii) expand collaboration between industries, government agencies and communities. Measures have implemented in curriculum and academic programmes by increasing experiential learning and Service-Learning. This article focuses on the practice and implementation of Service-Learning in four public universities in Malaysia. The study included queries on practice, implementation methods, evaluation, documentation, and impact of positive teaching learning by using the latest Service-Learning method. The study was designed to be an exploratory qualitative with the respondents consisting of the lecturers of the four universities. Data were gathered from structural interviews in focus-group discussion Maharam Mamat, Najah Nadiah Amran, Zainab Ismail, Maznah Ibrahim, Hamdi Ishak and Suria Baba http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp 2851 editor@iaeme.com and individually. Data were analysed using thematic approach. The findings uncovered that Service-Learning has been implemented in many public universities in Malaysia by means of "bottom-up" and "top-down." The implementation was made successful through the involvement of volunteers and the application of variety of methods of teaching including problem-based learning, project-based learning, community case study, as well as research or discipline-based project and capstone projects. Also, through sistematic monitoring and evaluation. Four impacts can be observed from the implementation of Service-Learning in Malaysian universities: impact on students, impact on lecturers, impact on university, and impact on community.

Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates community service with academic study, reflection, and analysis to enrich the learning experience of students, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. Research focusing on service-learning has increased considerably over the years, across the globe. In spite of the contribution of service-learning being widely recognised, there is remarkably little research that empirically looks at the question in Zimbabwe. From the research perspectives, my study explores service-learning in higher education in Zimbabwe using Arrupe College and its service-learning programme known as the Arrupe College Apostolate Programme as a case study. The purpose of my study was to examine the effect of the programme on student learning. The guiding research question was: “How does participation in the programme affect students?” The theoretical background for my study was developed around John Dewey’s (1859-1952) ideas on experience in education. His position that educational processes take place within experience forms the principal hypothesis of my study. 
By means of qualitative methodology, I investigated the experiences of students who participated in the programme. It was my intention to better understand how learning takes place in the context of community service and higher education in Zimbabwe. The study participants were twenty-nine including fourteen students, eight alumni, two faculty members, two college administrators, and three service community leaders. Participants were selected by purposive sampling based on the criteria of their professional role, expertise, or experience. Data were collected by means of focus group, in-depth interviews, e-mail correspondences, observation, and a review of documents provided by the participants. The issues of validity and reliability were addressed by bracketing, triangulation, and thick description. Data analysis was based on thematic coding guided by Grounded Theory and Dewey’s categories on experience and education. This was done by transcribing the data and coding the transcripts into categories and major themes.
The analysis reveals that the Arrupe College Apostolate Programme is an important tool that encourages students to participate in the learning process and in society.  My major finding is that the service-learning programme has a positive influence on students’ personal and cognitive development. It improves their academic competencies in terms of better appreciation of the relevance of course material, application of course content, active participation in philosophical discourse, and development of methodological competencies. It also enhances students’ moral and spiritual development and their interpersonal, intercultural, and civic competencies while challenging and shaping their career paths by bringing them in contact with real-life issues and with the people they would work with in future. The findings actualise and strengthen Dewey’s theory of experience and its connection to education. Students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organised service activities meeting the needs of communities. My study also found out that a number of students tend to care more about the service than about reflecting on it and viewing it as a learning experience. My recommendations include, on the one hand, that in service-learning, the aspect of reflection should be formally institutionalized, and, on the other hand, a replication of the current study from a broader perspective.

As the world we live in has become more digitalized, challenges are occurring left and right, especially in the education field. In gaining quality teachers, there is a need to train future educators to have the ability to adapt to the ever-changing technology and global changes. However, pre-service teachers often seem unprepared and unable to adapt to changes. Hence, implementing service-learning in the teacher training program is vital as it provides the opportunity to engage and experience 21st-century real classroom lessons. Service-learning has also been proven to be an effective approach in training pre-service teachers. This paper aims to investigate the perceptions of pre-service teachers toward service-learning in terms of authentic learning experiences. It highlights how the implementation of service-learning approach in learning to teach writing in a second language context facilitates preservice teachers in terms of authentic experience. A qualitative method was conducted to investigate the authentic learning experiences among 54 pre-service teachers in a public university in Malaysia. Data were collected through open-ended questions. Based on this study, the findings showed that the preservice teachers could experience the real-life environment of teaching and learning and applying educational theories learned. They were also able to obtain hands-on experience in interacting with the students and marking their sample essays. It is hoped that future teachers and educational organizations can benefit from understanding the benefits of service-learning in teacher training programs. Future researchers could investigate the challenges of service-learning in teacher training programs.

Pedagogically, many teaching and learning experiences in Africa have been predominantly of a 'banking' nature, in which accumulation and reproduction of ideas has been emphasised. This calls for a paradigm shift to more active and innovative approaches to good education which can help learners develop their full potentials and be able to participate actively and responsibility in their local and global communities. Service-learning is one of the strategies that can help in the transformation of education in Africa. It is a teaching strategy that combines classroom learning and civic engagement. In a broader sense, service-learning approach means educating and encouraging learners to actively participate in society by engaging in activities which meets the needs of the community while reflecting upon the services and learning from these experiences. Its key components are service to community, reflective practice, and learning from experience. Service-learning approach is founded on the experiential model of education which emphasise learning from experience and linking the school to the community. The service mission has always been an important dimension of many African learning institutions but has remained a neglected aspect to the core mission of teaching and learning. This chapter proposes service-learning as a more hands-on, practical teaching and learning approach to improve learners' participation and abilities to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations. It argues that service-learning is a useful strategy that can enrich the learning experience and strengthen the local community while narrowing the gap between theory and practice and bridging the academia and community-based organisations. The focus is on fostering a good education which is a contributing partner to development for a sustainable economy and social welfare.

The complexity of pedagogical actions for initial
education teachers is not reduced to directing and giving guidelines from a pedestal; it is part of the class, it
requires a lot of tact and preparation. Every time, the
effort is greater to innovate and generate stimulating
and productive learning processes, however; at the
same time, the expectations of parents and society are
very high. Situation that calls for transforming pedagogical practices and responding to the social and learning
needs of children. The objectives of the study are: a) to
describe the beliefs of educators and parents regarding
the initiation of early literacy in children of 05 years of
age; and b) establish to what extent the family involvement model through the performance of fine motor
activities from home, favors the learning of graphomotor skills. The methodology used corresponds to the
mixed approach, descriptive-explanatory in scope. The
results show not only the impact of the family involvement model, based on the incorporation and exchange
of experiences and knowledge between classroom
teachers and parents, in the learning of early literacy;
Rather, they highlight that taking into account the beliefs
of teachers and parents are decisive to transform and
change the trajectory of the everyday and usual in the
educational culture.

El presente estudio tenía como objetivo explorar la eficacia del Aprendizaje-Servicio 100% online (APSv), implementado durante la pandemia COVID-19 en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios italianos. Los objetivos fueron: comprender, según la perspectiva de los y las estudiantes, ventajas y desventajas de hacer APSv (9 proyectos en total) y el valor atribuido a la experiencia; investigar la eficacia de APSv en el desarrollo de las competencias transversales de los y las estudiantes y el aumento de su percepción de la importancia de estas competencias en su futura actividad laboral. El estudio mostró que los y las estudiantes perciben dificultades relacionadas con: la complejidad del trabajo a distancia, la falta de contacto humano, la comprensión del impacto del proyecto, la descontextualización del servicio, y la falta de competencias digitales. Sin embargo, reconocieron que la esfera digital ofrece nuevas oportunidades para gestionar el trabajo, impactos potencialmente más amplios y nuevos enfoques para el diseño digital. Por último, los resultados proporcionaron información sobre los beneficios del APS 100% online para el desarrollo de competencias transversales (comunicación, habilidades analíticas, habilidades de procesamiento de información y datos digitales, y resolución de problemas digitales). El estudio aporta indicaciones para la práctica docente y la investigación futura.

As community engagement continues to be institutionalized within colleges and universities it is increasingly important it retain its founding mission to prepare engaged citizens to address societal issues and contribute to the public good. Unfortunately, dominant models of community engagement remain charity focused and thereby reinforce social hierarchies that undermine the public good mission of higher education. Though many studies have focused on critiquing charity focused models of community engagement few studies offer alternative approaches. Utilizing an intrinsic single-case study approach this study investigates what can be learned from the narratives of 12 students in a community engagement program that uses feminist pedagogy. The findings suggest that a feminist approach to community engagement can be a catalyst for students’ to development critical consciousness and social justice self-efficacy by addressing issues of privilege and oppression in community-engaged work in ways that current community engagement models have yet to operationalize.

While college access has been improved for Latina/o students, there is still the challenge of graduating Latina/o students with equitable academic outcomes (Bates et al., 2018). Hispanic-Serving Institutions are the sites that enroll the majority (67%) of Latina/o students in college; two out of three Latina/o students attend these broad-access, open-enrollment, minority-serving institutions known as HSIs (Excelencia, 2021). Universities across the United States are aware of the changing demographics of higher education but are slow to change policies and practices to become “student-ready” (McNair et al., 2016). Critical research on how Latina/o students experience higher education practices for student retention, more specifically, High-Impact Practices (HIPs) at HSIs, may hold the key to changing institutional cultures that directly impact improving outcomes for Latina/os in all different segments of higher education. Service-learning courses have been recognized in the research to have a higher impact on student success for Students of Color; this study will examine the experiences of Latina/o students in service-learning courses at a Hispanic Serving Institution or HSI. I introduce a framework titled the Student Engagement Ecosystem (SEE) Framework which examines the application of classroom practices beyond the binary of the course practice and the student. The SEE framework encourages leaders and practitioners to examine not only the student but their individual microsystem, which includes their family, access to resources, well-being, health, and their life and educational experiences, both positive and negative. Likewise, practitioners need to examine their role in the application of the classroom practices, I challenge them to examine the norms in the classroom, amongst the student’s peers, and at the university itself. Practitioners should identify institutional support and resources, as well as barriers and systemic inequity where possible. This framework is based on theoretical frameworks that informed my research, such as Critical Race Theory in Education (CRTE) (Solórzano,1998), Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) (Yosso, 2005), Validation Theory (Rendon, 1994, Rendon Linares & Muñoz, 2011), Transformational Leadership (Bensimon, 2007; Bensimon & Bishop, 2012), Hispanic Servingness (Garcia, 2017, 2018). Taken together this framework invites leaders and educational practitioners to see the whole student and their complex realities as individuals seeking belonging and validation in an educational system that may be foreign to them and their families.

Come progettare il Service-Learning nella dimensione virtuale? Il presente contributo descrive il lavoro che il team della la Scuola di Alta Formazione Educare all'Incontro e alla Solidarietà (EIS) dell'Università LUMSA di Roma ha realizzato in modalità 100% online per accompagnare circa 100 studenti di liceo nelle fasi di progettazione del Service-Learning: motivazione, diagnosi, pianificazione, esecuzione e chiusura. Per ogni fase vengono indicati gli strumenti impiegati.

This monograph examines the primary ways university faculty, students, and administrators have interacted with the residents and elected officials of geographic areas where they are located, and the effect of those interactions on the various participants. The interactions can be framed in three ways, emphasizing community and economic development, student learning, or faculty research objectives, respectively.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to identify and review existing empirical research about service-learning and medical education and then to develop a framework for infusing service-learning in Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine curricula.

Methods: We selected literature on service-learning and medical education.  Articles were screened with a protocol for inclusion or exclusion at two separate stages.  At stage one, articles were screened according to their titles, abstracts, and keywords.  The second stage involved a full-text review.  Finally, a thematic analysis using focused and selective coding was conducted.

Results: Eighteen studies were analyzed spanning the years 1998 to 2012.  The results from our analysis informed the development of a four-stage service-learning framework: 1) planning and preparation, 2) action, 3) reflection and demonstration, and 4) assessment and celebration.

Conclusions: The presented service-learning framework can be used to develop curricula for the infusion of service-learning in medical school.  Service-learning curricula in medical education have the potential to provide myriad benefits to faculty, students, community members, and university-community partnerships.

Keywords: Service-learning, medical education, experiential learning, community service, curriculum development

This paper outlines an approach for teaching Marketing Principles in an MBA course through service-learning to enable adult learners to connect the lectures’ marketing content to a real-world marketing project. During the course, 40 students in groups of four to five individuals were involved in eight different client-sponsored marketing projects executed simultaneously. The rationale, planning and management of this approach utilised current research on service-learning, living cases and client-sponsored projects in marketing education. The experimental curriculum design is presented in a timeline that mirrors the preparation and management of the group projects and the considerations to be taken into account when initiating and facilitating the projects. Reflections from this iteration of the service-learning design suggest the importance of: detailed project planning, the involvement of students in choosing the projects, the introduction of forms and feedback loops, the role of the instructor in facilitating the students and managing expectations, and the role of the company representative in supporting the groups.

The article considers university Service Learning (SL) between Spain and Mexico, in the absence of literary reviews on SL and with the aim of generating motivation and commitment, through the experiences proposed and analyzed. For which, it addresses the roots, the philosophical and pedagogical foundations and the models that articulate and justify it as elements of great interest and relevance. Identify PHC experiences, designed by Universities in Spain and Mexico, that respond to the dimensions that are proposed and tend to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in order to know, analyze, compare and value them. The experiences are applied by university students, with the support of network organizations, as a service to the community, in vulnerable social sectors of childhood, adolescence and youth, indigenous communities, women, etc. The students experience a remarkable learning, by adding theory and practice in real situations, related to art and cultural heritage, physical education, teacher training, environmental and civic education, solidarity participation, gender equality and psychopedagogical development and support. It shows a referential and prospective framework, turning the SL of both shores into cooperative strategies of teaching, services and socio-educational learning, which bring university and society closer together, for academic improvement, personal and group growth and civic and democratic participation, favoring the commitment to social justice and the progressive achievement of the SDGs.

This case study explores community service learning, disciplinary literacy, and social justice. Participants were seven Mexican American preservice secondary teachers in science, math, and language arts who tutored and gardened with children in a South Texas after-school tutorial agency as part of an ESL literacy methods course. Data gathering tools consisted of participant observations, written reflections, learning logs, visual metaphors, and a focus group discussion. Social justice themes were: respondents’ realizations of structural inequalities and their actions to counteract hegemonic inequalities. Disciplinary literacy themes were: participants’ learning more about their disciplines and disciplinary literacy, increased motivation and efficacy to teach their subjects, and the importance of the colonia, or unincorporated neighborhood, as an intersection between social justice and disciplinary literacy.

As Congress prepared (in 2008-9) to consider legislation that expanded federal support for civilian national service programs, I argued that service is good for communities and for those who serve, and that it can help restore Americans' connection to their government and public life. But service has limitations and should not become universal or mandatory. Voluntary programs of reasonable size are elements of a broader approach to civic renewal

CAMP (Collegiate Athlete Mentoring Program) Gator is a leadership-mentoring program in which collegiate athletes and student leaders serve as mentors to at-risk students. The hallmark of the program is leadership training that mentors and mentees complete collaboratively; creating mission and vision statements, partaking in service leadership projects, and even the creation of a leadership skills video. Participants in the
pilot program experienced increased GPA’s, decreased school suspensions, increased confidence, and enhanced public speaking ability.

Expanded online and remote learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic allows campuses to support and collaborate on digital service-learning projects, creating opportunities to expand service-learning and, in doing so, play a pivotal role in enhancing the learning of students, faculty, and staff for years to come.

"Abstract
Burgeoning immigrant populations fuel discussions about preparing preservice teachers to teach students who have limited English proficiency and diverse cultural backgrounds. This article contributes to the conversation by presenting service-learning in immigrant communities as an effective pedagogy to develop an awareness of students’ worlds away from school. This qualitative case study investigates the transformative aspects of a course that places graduate students in service-learning experiences with Spanish-speaking families. The data provide evidence that focused academic study and community experience promote understanding challenges English language learners (SDELs) and their families face, as well as understanding their future roles as teachers of SDELs.

Keywords: Case study, Community-based education, Critical pedagogy, ESL/ELL, Multicultural education, Qualitative
research, Service-learning, Teacher education"

Educators have a pivotal role in promoting education for sustainable development (ESD). It is imperative to focus on sustainable development in order to survive and thrive in the present, and thus ensure that there would be a bright future for humankind. This descriptive study delineates the policy imperatives and integral implementation of ESD enhanced by the service learning program (SLP), and aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at

Service-Learning (S-L) is growing in our Universities and in Spain. However, still much action and research are needed with a gender perspective. This article aims to evaluate an S-L project that consisted of workshops in schools on gender and technology. We evaluated the experience with a mixed-methods approach and a gender perspective. This includes qualitative self-reports of 19 university students of Sociology of Gender, as well as quantitative surveys completed by the 284 school students and 13 of their teachers. Our results indicate a great satisfaction among university students as well as the schools. This S-L experience helped our university students to acquire specific knowledge regarding gender and social issues, as well as several skills, especially communication, organization, empathy, critical thinking and social and gender awareness and responsibility. Therefore, we conclude that such experiences show a great potential for learning, as well as for social and gender transformations.

I cambiamenti nelle politiche dell’istruzione superiore, a livello nazionale e internazionale, richiedono alle università di educare gli studenti non solo in ristrette specializzazioni basate sulla conoscenza ma di realizzare un’educazione integrale della persona, in relazione con il contesto culturale e sociale. Diventa fondamentale cercare di implementare pratiche di insegnamento-apprendimento che facilitino l’emancipazione degli studenti. Lo scopo di questo studio è indagare l’impatto dell’approccio pedagogico del Service-Learning (SL) sullo sviluppo personale degli studenti universitari, in termini di competenze trasversali e comportamenti resilienti. Risultati preliminari dello studio suggeriscono che il SL, sia nella modalità bottom-up che top-down, sia un approccio pedagogico influente per lo sviluppo delle soft skills degli studenti, in particolare per la capacità di creatività e innovazione e di comunicazione digitale. Questi risultati offrono nuovi spunti per una migliore comprensione dei vantaggi del SL come pedagogia innovativa capace di dare il proprio contributo alle Scienze dell’Educazione perché valorizza il ruolo attivo degli studenti come soggetti di un agire responsabile di un sistema di relazioni educative università-contesto in cui a crescere e svilupparsi non sia solo la competenza individuale ma l’intera comunità.