Abstract:

In their contribution, the authors, both university teachers, will share and reflect on their experiences with implementing a service-learning strategy in higher education. Service learning - an innovative educational strategy - is increasingly applied to fulfil the multiple goals of higher education - not only the development of cognitive, specialized knowledge, skills and competences of university students, but also their 21st century, key skills and competences (such as communication skills, critical and creative thinking, etc.). In today's society, which faces various social and natural challenges, the third mission of educational institutions, including universities, is to support especially the development of students' social skills, including their personal and social responsibility. The authors will describe their experience with the service-learning strategy based on its theoretical outputs and the results of research pointing to the effectiveness of the service learning strategy applied within the teaching of university subjects across study programs from the perspective of the real development of social responsibility and critical thinking skills. The qualitative-quantitative research was conducted in two phases through two projective techniques. Compared to the control group, the positive impact of the service-education strategy on the fulfilment of the above-mentioned goals of higher education was demonstrably demonstrated.
This study is one of the outcomes of the project KEGA 008UMB-4/2022 University Education as a gateway to thinking: integration of reading, academic and critical skills as a precondition to intellectual capital of universities and internationalisation of education.

Keywords:

Social responsibility, 21st century competences, key competence, service-learning, university education, education strategy.