Quality of participation in Service- Learning projects

This paper presents a Service-Learning project implemented through the partnership between the University of Bologna and Public Agency for Services to the Person, a community organization. The main aim is to evaluate the quality of participation experience in a Service-Learning project for university students and professionals working in community services, who have been offered for the first time the opportunity to experience Service-Learning. The focus of the paper is on reflection and action, that have been defined as two features that contribute to good participation and that have been identified as core dimensions of Service-Learning. These features are intended to contribute to making the experiences of Service-Learning relevant for youth development and civic engagement. The Service-Learning project was developed as part of the lab in Community Psychology, and it involved 30 master’s students who participated in 6 projects of community services. 30 field diaries written by students individually and 6 semi-structured interviews with the professional tutors were analyzed with the help of T-Lab software.