The course aims to turn to actual "praxis" in the context of the social ecological transformation. Students are encouraged to use their creativity, experiences and knowledge in order to develop a service learning project with a set of established and given cooperative partners (stakeholders) from public institutions such as schools, from NGOs and NPOs, and from institutions of social work; in some special cases students might need to develop a project on their own in cooperation with the lecturer. The project shall have an interdisciplinary fundament in theoretical perspective and shall work within a science-society interface in practical terms. The emphasis lies on the process rather than on finished results: the transmission and persistence of a progressive approach to the social ecological transformation shall get achieved and enhanced via dynamic stakeholder dialogues, opening as well as enabling of public discourses on transforming social ecological relations.

The course develops a holistic understanding of the social ecological transformation in its economic, ecological, social, cultural and political sphere in practice. It offers students the opportunity to understand different perspectives of social ecological transformation via an experience based learning approach/service learning method, following the principle of "learning by doing" and supported by individual coaching of each group by the lecturer.

Further learning outcomes:

• Critical understanding and holistic perspective on the concept of social ecological transformation
• Students not only learn from the experience of the service alone, but by reflection on and creating meaning from the experience
• Ability to organise and sustain a project with a partner organisation, and to work with open-ended problems
• Communication, group and feedback skills; involvement in the community and networking with practitioners
• Complexity awareness, problem analysis, critical thinking and cognitive development
• Individual personality development; real life experience contributes to professional/career development

• attendance is mandatory in first and final collective meeting of the course
• during the term, students will have individual appointments with the lecturer and the project stakeholders.
• group-based coaching with lecturer

Service learning, or learning through engagement, is a distinctive form of experiential learning and very promising in terms of social ecological transformation with emphasis on "praxis". Students are confronted with real-world problems and work on them together with partners from practice, not in order to arrive at a finished answer, but in order to understand how such problems are negotiated, and to contribute something to that process. The method integrates a service activity into the academic curriculum and rests on the principle of "learning by doing": students learn and develop by engaging in concrete projects that respond to a genuine societal need, embedded in an academic environment in which they can reflect on what they are doing.

Students work in groups (4-5) with one of the cooperation partners established for this course; among them schools and other public institutions, NGOs and NPOs, and institutions of social work. These partners have defined their project areas in advance together with the lecturer and accompany the groups throughout the semester as co-educators: they introduce students to their field of work, formulate the needs the project responds to, and remain interlocutors as the work develops. In individual cases, one or two groups may design a project of their own, in close coordination with the lecturer and provided a suitable partner and a clearly formulated need can be identified.

The format fosters the autonomous operation of students, and teaching accordingly relies less on frontal input than on individual coaching. Each group is accompanied by the lecturer through phases of preparation, action and reflection; in regular consultations and the particular challenges of its project. The course conitnues with Servioce Learning II in the summer term. End-of-semester presentations bring the groups back into a shared plenary, where experiences are related to one another. Alongside the subject matter, the course trains the ability to work with open-ended problems, conflict resolution skills, networked thinking, teamwork and organisational skills.

• Continuous Group Contribution - Organization, Communication and Coordination of the Service Learning Project with your Stakeholders and your Lecturer (30%)
• Group Project Report Draft (20%)
• Peer-Reviewing Group Drafts (20%)
• Final Group Service Learning Poster (30%)

Please log in with your WU account to use all functionalities of read!t. For off-campus access to our licensed electronic resources, remember to activate your VPN connection connection. In case you encounter any technical problems or have questions regarding read!t, please feel free to contact the library at readinglists@wu.ac.at.

contact via email