Service Learning in teacher education for soft skills development

It’s essential today that teachers have a wide range of soft skills (SS), fundamental for personal growth. SS, infact, represent a dyamic combination of cognitive, metacognitive, practical and intellectual skills. They have a transversal nature and allow student to improve their performance in their studies and in the world of work. From this perspective, Service Learning can promote and improve learning process and the development of SS. Recently, thanks to different SL projects, we have attempted to explore how this approach can contribute to enhancing responsible student learning and developing a wide range of skills required for teacher training. We present three projects started into the degree course in Primary Education Sciences (LM85bis): -2020/2022: Service e-learning project “Nobody left behind”, to design and implementeducational and enhancement courses for primary school pupils in Palermo. 869 students thatattend LM85bis course were involved in this project, with the aim of creating educational pathsfor vulnerable students in Palermo. In total we provided 60,000 hours of distance learning, andall the activities favoured cognitive stimulation and the development of motivation for pupils’learning and the development of skills and deep awareness in teachers. -2022/2023: [P.R.] A.S.S.I. “Learning helps, serving teaches”: aimed at promoting educationaland training activities aimed at minors in Ballarò – Albergheria district of Palermo. There wasinitial distance learning (4 meetings, 16 hours in total), thanks to which students learnedoperational models, reflective and relational skills, metacognitive and research skills. -2024/2025: we introduced 2 cfu of SL activities in the first year of the course which counts400 students. The “SL in Sicily” project aims at promoting the design and implementation ofeducational and enhancement courses for pupils of Sicilian primary schools. The projectinvolved initial training and activities for approximately 400 first-year students.