¿Qué es?
“I define service-learning as a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs, together with structured oportunities for reflection designed to acheive desired learning outcomes. The hyphen in service-learning symbolizes reflection and depicts the symbiotic relationship between service and learning” (Jacoby, 2014, p.1)
Imagen muestra equilibrio entre objetivos (aprendizaje / servicio) y beneficiario de los mismos (usuario / proveedor).
“Service-learning is based on the assumption that learning does not necessarily occur as a result of experience itself, but rather as a result of reflection designed to achieve specific learning outcomes.” (p.3)
Thea Hillman, una de las promotoras iniciales de A+S, menciona que una de sus principales virtudes es que evita el “provider-recipient split”, enfatizando que:
“each participant is server and served, care giver and care acquirer, contributor and contributed to. Learning and teaching in a service-learning arrangement is also a task for each of the partners in the relationship… each of the parties views the other as a contributor and beneficiary” (1996, p.4)
¿Cuáles son sus fundamentos teóricos?
El trabajo de Johns Dewey, particularmente Democracia y Educación, Cómo pensamos, y Experiencia y educación.
También el Modelo de Aprendizaje Experiencial de David Kolb. Este consiste en cuatro elementos: experiencia concreta, reflexión sobre la experiencia, síntesis y desarrollo de abstracciones y experimentación de las abstracciones en nuevos contextos.
Beneficios
“Well-documented student benefits of service-learning include personal growth and development, academic learning, interpersonal outcomes, and outcomes related to the college experience. Among student’s personal outcomes that are enhanced by service-learning are moral development, spiritual growth”