Service Learning: a Teaching Method and a way of bind university and society together

Abstract

In the current work, we report the process of implementation, along three academic years, of a Service Learning project. The experience was carried out in a mandatory subject about educational mathematics, given in the second quadrimester of the first course of the Primary Education Degree. Two particular communities received the service: minors at risk of social exclusion risk, and minors with functional diversity. We describe the full process, from the initial draft, the putting in touch with the various social entities, the intermediation of the university, to the design of the activities in coordination with the university students and the social entities, and the assessment of the learning and service results. We pay special attention to the reflections that derive from the adaptation of the general Service Learning procedure to the particular characteristics of the relationship between the university were the project was implemented and its social context. Related to this, we introduced several innovations in the implementation protocol that could be applicable to other universities with similar contextual characteristics, regardless of the academic subject in which the Serve Learning is conducted.