Civic engagement and project learning

Abstract

Experiential learning gives students the chance to discover the course subject and to develop their skills in the context of practical activities. This can be achieved by social learning but also within projects and planning games. In the following, we start with a focus mainly on projects in cooperation with community government, but we show that action oriented learning can take place in the wider focus of civic engagement and community projects. University and community can learn from each other. Civic projects on one side help the government to gain insight and knowledge or to directly influence the community; and on the other side these projects give students the chance to gain practical experience and social competence by means of real-life projects. Usually, community based research and social learning is restricted to students in the social sciences. We give examples that show, that also students in economics and even in engineering can participate in civic projects with a mutual benefit for community, government and universities