Title: Perception of university students about the embodiment of service-learning in the curriculum as a social economy pedagogical instrument

Authors: Orlando Petiz Pereira; Carlos Arriaga Costa; Thiago Leão Beresford

Addresses: Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal ' Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal ' Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Abstract: This paper discusses the pedagogical methodology of service-learning and its inclusion in the university academic curriculum. Society beholds in apathy the increase in social pain and the atmosphere of uncertainty, social fragmentation, poverty and absence of feelings of harmony, cooperation, and altruism. The target population of our study were the students from the University of Minho. The study resorts to the quantitative approach and uses a questionnaire. Evidence shows that older and higher level academic students are more sensitive to the integration of service-learning into the academic curriculum. Although strangeness persists in their curricular inclusion in some courses, all students consider service-learning as an instrument of intrapersonal and interpersonal development. The theme and objectives of this work are relevant because it features a curricular approach to the holistic development of the student and the community, through which one learns to serve and serves to learn.

Keywords: service-learning; social economy; humanisation; holistic training; academic curriculum; higher education; pedagogical instrument; students' perception; community values; cooperation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2021.118379

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2021 Vol.12 No.4, pp.329 - 359

Received: 21 Mar 2020
Accepted: 28 May 2020
Published online: 25 Oct 2021 *

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