Abstract:

Currently, buildings account for around 40% of the total energy consumed in the European Union, being responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions that affect the planet’s sustainability and the well-being of citizens. In this context, it is essential to provide education for sustainable development to university and pre-university students, so that they become aware of their surroundings and seek solutions to improve energy efficiency in their cities. In this sense, Service-Learning emerges as an active methodology for students to become agents of change for these social needs. Thus, students put into practice concepts learned in the syllabus of the different subjects to serve the community.

The Technical School of Building Engineering of Madrid has been advocating for the incorporation of this methodology in its university classrooms in recent years. Therfore, this work arises as a proposal to address the needs of an Adult Education Centre for the improvement of energy efficiency in its facilities, requiring the technical knowledge of university students from the Master's Degree in Building Management. In this regard, a multidisciplinary and inter-centre work is developed, where students from both centres work together to reduce the energy consumption of the building and upgrade its facilities.

In this sense, a Service-Learning project has been planned, which includes a preliminary training stage for university students through the subject of Heritage Management, Operation and Maintenance and for adult education centre students through Technology subject. The university teaching staff have coordinated tasks by conducting environmental awareness workshops in both educational centres, with the support of the management of both institutions involved. Subsequently, university master's degree students have implemented practical application of the acquired knowledge to develop a maintenance and rehabilitation plan for the building, which has been crucial for the receiving centre to promote improvements to enhance the wellbeing of its members. On the other hand, adult education centre students have promoted the initiative in the neighbourhood and have worked on the elaboration of a decalogue of good practices to serve as a reference for the buildings in the area.

The results show that it is possible to carry out a Service-Learning initiative in university contexts with adequate initial planning of the experience and with the support of the service-receiving entity. It has been possible to improve student performance, reduce absenteeism rates and increase motivation among the Master's degree students, who have seen how the real application of the knowledge acquired at the University helps to improve the welfare of citizens. This work presents the guidelines followed for its implementation, the timetables employed and the evaluation methods used to carry out the presented project. In this way, it is intended that the work serve as a reference framework for future teachers interested in the application of the Service-Learning methodology in the classroom and to promote sustainability in their immediate environment.

Keywords:

Service-Learning, Adult Education Centre, sustainability, active methodologies, multidisciplinary.