A Guide for the design and implementation of a service-learning (SL)

CHAPTER I CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V

*The communication with the community partner may be carried out by both the teaching team and the students. The important thing is that there is good communication among the three parties so that misunderstandings do not occur.

A SL partnership with projections may integrate new courses to the service work. This makes it possible to work integrally on community problems. It is possible to integrate new courses that work from other disciplines or professional fields, in a coordinated and interdisciplinary way, or to invite them to a new work alternating to that of the first course.

carried out in the course, it is important to provide a space for the presentation of the methodology and the challenges that will be addressed in the service. This will allow the students to avoid being surprised by the service, as well as to understand the meaning and importance of this kind of methodologies for their training.

• Send formal acknowledgements: letters, cards or e-mails of thanks and congratulations. • Give awards or recognition objects: diplomas or symbolic rewards (e.g., chocolates, photographs, etc.). • Generate and invite to recognition events, with the participation of students, faculty and community partners (e.g., a closing day of the course).

Reasons for taking the SL partnership beyond the current course

• It is highly possible that at a first opportunity the community partner's knowledge on the key aspects of the academic world is not very broad, and vice versa. Therefore, a work that extends over a semester allows to increase the mutual knowledge and learning of both parties, allowing to improve the results of the SL partnership. • A forward-looking SL partnership may assess in a formative way the total work of one semester, using that information to improve it in the next semester, define new and/or better objectives and increase the impact of the service.

INITIAL PRESENTATION OF SL IN THE COURSE

Another element to consider from the beginning of the semester is an initial presentation. For students to be aware of the activities that will be

Positive aspects: that the activity resulted very well, and both the partner and we were able to learn. Aspects to be improved: the communication with the partner because we wanted to do other activities at the beginning, and we did not receive an answer from the director. Finally, after visiting them again, she gave us the phone number and everything worked out better.

Student of the course Fundamentals of Integrated Dentistry II, Dentistry

CHAPTER I I I : DUR I NG THE COURSE DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I I I : DUR I NG THE COURSE DEVELOPMENT

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