الموارد

The aim of this article is to present the methodology of service learning as an especially significant contribution to citizenship education. Service learning is an activity that combines community service and curricular learning. It is an educational setup in which a circular link is formed between participation in services created to meet a community need and the learning of knowledge and values. The project presents an initiative for education in values and citizenship based on experience, participation and critique. Service learning is at the same time an excellent instrument for making education more inclusive and for helping students develop a set of basic skills that can only be acquired through a comprehensive, contextualized activity. Through service learning, students acquire a real, committed engagement with the search for the common good; this acquisition of commitment is a key formative mechanism in achieving a complete education for citizenship. The article begins by analyzing the different elements that make up citizenship education and the pedagogical means required for their acquisition. The concepts of ‘practice’ and ‘citizenship practice’ are the basis for proposing service learning as an ideal methodology for educating participative citizens who can contribute to the common good. The rest of the article is devoted to analyzing each of the constitutive aspects of service learning. This portion of the article begins by presenting a more-precise definition of ‘service learning’ and continues with an analysis of the components of service learning: social needs, the learning of contents and competences, community service, partnerships between institutions and the required networking. The article concludes by reviewing the different levels at which service learning has an impact and identifying and organizing the various personal acquisitions and institutional achievements that this type of educational activity provides.