The Future of Education

This work presents and reflects on a pedagogical experience conducted at the School of Education and Social Sciences of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, with undergraduate students in Social Education. This experience carried over the past three years (2015-2018) focuses on the use of teaching-learning methodologies. They are operationalized in active collaboration with local community entities / institutions - schools at all levels of education, support institutions for the elderly, people with disabilities, people in situations of marginalization and social exclusion, health institutions, local development institutions, cultural equipment, among others - which become privileged contexts for student training. Being the social educator a relationship agent that acts with educational intention in different contexts of social intervention, this professional training encourages the use of new teaching-learning methodologies. Thus, in the Community Animation Strategies course unit, students are challenged to work on projects where, within a group, they apply theoretical knowledge and carry out a socio-educational intervention in the chosen local community entity / institution, meeting the needs felt by the entity institution, or by the target audience belonging to it. Students are challenged to be the protagonists in building their knowledge (Morin, 2010).This construction is done, in parallel, in different contexts: at classroom and at entities chosen by students, in a dialogical and collaborative relationship between practical intervention and theoretical reflection. These three years of experience allow us to verify that this methodology of learning in practical context results in benefits - either educational or social innovation promotion - for the higher education institution and local entities that welcome students to carry out their projects (Marques, 2018). However, students are the ones who seem to get the major benefit. Based on the content analysis of the individual reflective reports carried out by each of the students – in a total of 123 students - the idea standing out is that this methodology allows students to practice and test the theoretical contents learned at the classroom bringing at the same time, real contexts challenges to the classroom of (Maffesoli, 2010). In addition, it favors the acquisition of cognitive, non-cognitive and social-emotional skills in a more solid construction of the social educator's professional profile. It’s hoped that the experience described here will help to deepen reflection on teaching-learning methodologies in Higher Education within a framework of involvement with the local community.

Keywords: Higher education; Professional Profile; Social Education; Teaching-learning methodologies;

References
[1] Marques, R. (Coord.). (2018).  Livro verde sobre Responsabilidade social e instituições de ensino superior. ORSIES - Observatório sobre Responsabilidade Social e Instituições de Ensino Superior.
[2] Maffesoli, M. (2010). O conhecimento Comum. Introdução à sociologia compreensiva. Porto Alegre: Sulina.
[3] Morin, E. (2010). Saberes globais e saberes locais: o olhar transdisciplinar. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond.