RT Journal Article
T1 The evaluation of social and professional life competences of university students through service-learning
A1 Santos Rego, Miguel Ángel
A1 Naval Durán, Concepción
A1 Vázquez Verdera, Victoria
A1 Mella-Núñez, Ígor
K1 Service-learning
K1 Higher education
K1 Evaluation
K1 Competences
K1 Soft skills
K1 Employability
K1 Social capital
AB The view previously held in the university regarding teaching-learning processes has changed significantly over the past few years. Undoubtedly, in the case of Europe, this change of pedagogical model has gone hand in hand with the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Some of the pivotal areas of EHEA are the independent work of the individual student, the social dimension of learning, and the acquiring of skills, which are not reduced to the mere technical and/or subject matter knowledge. Generic competences and the so-called “soft skills” have also become important, given their significant contribution to the students’ academic, personal, social, and professional development. Predictably, within this framework, new methodologies appear, in line with this educational focus on competences; among these new methodologies include service-learning (SL). It basically consists of introducing a community service into the traditional academic and curricular tasks thereby seeking a better relevance and applicability in the learning processes. This article analyzes the way in which SL contributes to the acquisition, by university students, of a certain skill set which is useful for their social and professional life. To this end, we used a quasi-experimental design, which included pretest and posttest assessments based on a total sample of 1,153 students (789 SL students and 364 non-SL students). The used questionnaire evaluates three important components relevant for the purpose of the present article (perception of the university education, social participation and civic-social competences). The conclusion is that students involved in SL not only show a more positive evolution, but also obtain better results after the projects are completed (regarding satisfaction with the training, and social participation). By the same token, not all students included in the experimental group achieve homogeneous results; the differences are according to variables such as gender, the cycle/year they are enrolled in, area of study or whether or not they previously participated in university service activities. Finally, we observe that this methodology is capable of approaching university education in a holistic way by asserting cross-section type learning processes likely to be useful in the transition from the students’ academic to their professional life
PB Frontiers Media
SN 2504-284X
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27379
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27379
LA eng
NO Santos Rego MA, Mella Núñez Í, Naval C and Vázquez Verdera V (2021) The Evaluation of Social and Professional Life Competences of University Students Through Service-Learning. Front. Educ. 6:606304
NO This work is derived from two projects of the Spanish State Program of Research, Development and Innovation oriented toward the Challenges of Society (EDU2013-41687-R and EDU2017-82629-R) and a Research Network of the Spanish State Program for Knowledge Generation and Scientific and Technological Strengthening of the R&D&I System (EDU2017-90651-REDT)
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026