Community Service Learning experiences in pre-service teachers' training

Community service learning (CSL) is an educational approach that integrates community service and intentional learning activities, thereby linking professional action and training. Applied to the pre-service training of teachers, CSL sets up a service action that connects pre-service teachers with in-service teachers. This enables pre-service teachers: (a) to strengthen their training curriculum through an experiential path, (b) to develop a sense of civic responsibility towards their community and (c) to encourage the reflective sharing of their experiences. Within its five-year Master's Degree in Primary Teacher Education, the University of Verona started a CSL experience that involves senior students, in-service teachers in different schools and an academic team that assumes the role of supervisor. Pre-service teachers define: (i) in cooperation with in-service teachers the needs of the contexts, (ii) in cooperation with the academic team the educative goals that they must reach and (iii) in cooperation with in-service teachers and the academic team the project aimed to suit the context’s needs and reach the student’s educative goals. At the end, every student realises a detailed record of every phase of the CSL and a dissertation that critically analyses service actions.