A case of Service Learning and Research Engagement in pre-service teachers’ education

Service Learning (SL) represents one experiential methodology largely adopted in Higher Education because it is able to develop both academic and soft skills, in particular civic and reflective ones. SL has gained the attention of teacher educators in the U.S. since the 1990s.. Many scholars have underlined how SL is useful to enhance elements essential for future teachers as (a) the development of teaching skills, (b) reflective skills; (c) a more complex vision of teaching and learning practices; (d) an attention to special need children and children coming from different social and ethnical backgrounds; (e) a human service-oriented vision of teaching; and in building a community of practice. Moreover, SL is particularly suitable in Teacher Education because it connects pre-service with in-service teachers, as requested by the European Commission (2014); from this relationship, it involves the whole community in a process of transformation.