Teaching Down to Earth —Service-Learning Methodology for Science Education and Sustainability at the University Level: A Practical Approach

Míriam Hernández-Barco, Jesús Sánchez-Martín, José Blanco-Salas and Trinidad Ruiz-Téllez
Additional contact information
Míriam Hernández-Barco: Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales y Matemáticas, Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Jesús Sánchez-Martín: Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales y Matemáticas, Facultad de Educación. Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
José Blanco-Salas: Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Ecología y Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain
Trinidad Ruiz-Téllez: Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Ecología y Ciencias de la Tierra, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-23

Abstract: The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education area require the application of new active methodologies in the classroom that place the student at the center of his or her learning process. In the present work, we analyze the application of a Service-Learning (SL) methodology in the context of a Final Degree Dissertation (FDD) in the degree in Environmental Sciences at the University of Extremadura (Spain). The project deals with an isolated Kichwa community in Ecuador and involves the development of alternative science education materials for the capacitation of in-service science teachers. This paper evaluates how an FDD carried out according to Service-Learning (SL) principles can help in the acquisition of so-called “soft skills” and how these can be focused in the promotion of the sustainable development goal (SDG) knowledge and achievement. To this end, a qualitative study of the experience and a deep evaluation, followed by a final reflection, were carried out. According to the preliminary results, we can conclude that Higher Education should include SDGs in its teaching praxis and could do this successfully using the SL methodology.

Keywords: Service-Learning methodology; environmental sciences; higher education; Sustainable Development Goals; rubric (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/542/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/542/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:542-:d:307521

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().