Service Learning in Higher Education (SLIHE)
The project combines the needs from the local communities and the acquisition of knowledge and skills processes from the higher education. There are two parallel processes present, first a real problem is being solved in the local community and at the same time, students in particular are tasked with solving the problem at hand.
Students’ progress is monitored by their teachers who act as mentors guiding the students through the process of solving problems, in a way that they guide them through the theoretical and practical aspects of individual courses (learning outcomes/ teaching goals/ knowledge and competences). Students thus simultaneously learn theory and gain experience on a practical example. Despite not being financially rewarded for their work, students gain through knowledge, skills and abilities acquisition throughout the process.
Finally, a community partner receives a free solution, advice, study or program design and implementation (depending on the situation and the course) and cooperates with the University. At the same time, they get to know the students, who after completing their studies can become potential employees or volunteers. That's why the methodology is called Community-Based Learning.
Summary of the project:
The project is based on the university's latest reflection on its own roles in contemporary society. The Third mission of the university is considered to be the connection between the higher education and society. Thanks to this, universities comprehensively fulfill their basic mission and prepare a new generation of professionals capable of integrating academic qualities, social responsibility and civic engagement. This form of learning is yet to be fully adopted by the majority of Central and Eastern European countries.
The project is based on the experience and expertise of partners from 6 EU countries and 2 non-EU countries (associated partners) in the field of community learning strategy implementation, presenting new international, innovative and previously unrealized outcomes.
The project is coordinated by Matej Bel University, Banská Bystrica, while project partners come from the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, Germany and Austria.
University of Rijeka is represented by:
· Associate Professor, Ph.D. Bojana Ćulum Ilić - Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka, Department of Pedagogy
· Associate Professor, Ph.D. Lara Jelenc, Faculty of Economics and Business
· Matia Torbarina, assistant, Faculty of Economics and Business
Project activities consist of creating, testing and disseminating innovative outcomes used during project implementation and completion in order to develop and expand a community-based learning strategy in the field of higher education and beyond, fostering the university's social roles and students’ civic engagement. In addition to partner institutions, their professors and students, the project will have an impact on local communities by expanding cooperation between actors and decision makers of different types - civil society, citizens and universities.
Project goals and target groups
The main goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions related to the fulfillment of their third mission and to strengthen the civic engagement of students through the implementation of an innovative learning strategy by engaging in the community in Central and Eastern European countries. The project relies on the need to encourage the international dimension in order to, on the one hand, motivate students to engage and, on the other hand, enable teachers to support the social role of higher education institutions through one of the successful strategies widely spread in the world, community-based learning.
Some of the project’s most important innovative results are:
1) training of professors for teaching through commitment in the community and a guide for educators
As part of the project, 11 faculty members (teachers), delivering eight different courses went through the training for delivering community based learning methods in their courses. Afterwards, their experiences of delivering course in such manner was summarized and published as the guide which will serve to educate all those who will later teach how community-based learning can be implemented in higher education.
Teacher’s feedback was mixed, with majority of them praising the initiative that has broaden their view and provided them with new ideas on how to improve their courses, while the most important suggestions for future projects is to start slowly, with a detailed instructions for both the students and the community partners.
The teachers reported that despite the increased amount of paperwork, which makes it not the easiest way of implementing such a program, they see that the students are much more exposed to the real problems that organizations face and that they themselves are trained to solve. Teachers are also aware of their own improvement in teaching.
Student Feedback: Students are generally open to new ways of teaching with an emphasis on real-world application. The problem faced by the students is expected for this phase of the introduction of the program - not all courses in the semester have introduced this way of teaching, which requires a little more adjustment from the students. Greater engagement, more effort, dedication and time to design the problem is required of them. There is a resistance because not everything takes place according to the curriculum, it is necessary to adapt and be flexible. Additional competencies are developed that are not predicted by the academic plan; organization, coordination, conflict resolution, project management, team management. Students eventually value experience and knowledge, skills and competencies, but only after some time after the end of the semester, not necessarily immediately at the end of the semester.
2) manual for the implementation of the strategy of learning by engaging in the community in higher education,
The manual was also first written in English, and then we translated it into Croatian. It can be of use to all teachers in higher education who want to be informed and educated about how to introduce community-based learning into their teaching. It is planned to be published as material of the University of Rijeka. It is written in an extremely simple way to provide information on how, when, where and how to implement this approach.
3) recommendations for implementing community-based learning in higher education institutions and examples of good practice.
Based on the experience of the members of the project team, recommendations for implementation were compiled for several levels (European level, national level, university level, teacher and student level, and recommendations for partners/associates in the community). In addition, examples of good practice from partner universities on the project were presented, so that teachers who want to start applying such a learning strategy would have an idea of what is done and how it is done in concrete examples. It is planned to be published as material of the University of Rijeka.
Pictures are available at the following links:
http://www.slihe.eu/project-overview/gallery
http://www.slihe.eu/project-overview/gallery/40-rijeka-third-project-meeting
Editions
Handbook for educators: https://www.bib.irb.hr/1180520
Handbook for teachers: https://www.bib.irb.hr/1180516
Recommendations: http://www.slihe.eu/images/stories/files/SLIHE_recommendations_HR_A4_2020-08-31.pdf
