Designing and organising a SL activity requires a series of necessary steps to be followed in order to be effective for students and yield both pedagogical and community benefits. A successful and beneficial SL process should follow a specific format. Creating a detailed plan for each step of the SL experience facilitates the discussion with potentially interested students about the whole organisation on the process while keeping their motivation at a high level.

An effective model to delve into the steps of SL experience is the ‘IPARD’ framework, as proposed by Montana National Youth Leadership Council in a very detailed and useful guide.

With its 5 stages, IPARD represents the student-centered inquiry model in a service-learning project.

  • Investigation
  • Planning & Preparation
  • Action
  • Reflection
  • Demonstration

SL is an experiential pedagogy that enhances, among other, students’ environmental engagement, awareness and empathy for their local community’s environmental problems and challenges. Through real-world SL projects focused on the protection and restoration of the environment, students have the opportunity to gain practical experience in addressing local community issues while also developing a deeper understanding of the root causes and consequences of the identified problem(s).

An example could be students’ collaboration in analyzing the water use (indoor/outdoor) at their university and in parallel working and communicating with community partners to raise awareness about the need to conserve water. Here is described a real-life SL educational activity.

Using SL, students can positively impact their local community while developing a range of important skills and attitudes, such as leadership, teamwork, empathy, cultural competency, and civic responsibility.

teamwork

But what are the reasons that universities should be aware of to foster soft skills’ their students through SL?

  1. Students’ integral education: in a SL activity a student and specifically a learner from a STEM field is not only guided on the development of his/her technical-professional skills but also learns to have a broad social and emotional skill set. This is part of students' holistic education as they participate in society, not only becoming highly qualified professionals but also socially, economically and environmentally responsible and committed citizens.
  2. Students’ employability: SL contributes to the better preparation of students as future graduates and employees as it exposes them to experiential learning opportunities while combining both their hard and soft skills in a real-world environment. This process renders students more skilled for the job market, especially in the sectors of green economy or public policy.
  3. University’s civic engagement: is linked to the universities’ civic mission, whereby academia engages with reality through the commitment of faculty and students. Universities have a moral and ethical obligation to give back to the community the support they receive. From different perspectives, community engagement is at the core of the educational premises of SL, understanding community engagement as all the initiatives and processes through which universities apply teaching and learning to address relevant issues in their social environment.